a frigate bound to the West Indies, I thanked the man who was plotting
my ruin. The commander of the frigate was one of the meanest wretches
that ever disgraced a command--an impoverished rake who gained the means
of continuing his excesses by flattering the vanity and aiding the
schemes of his richer companions in vice, and duping the more
inexperienced. He had received his directions evidently, and every
studied insult, everything that petty spite and malice could inflict was
tried to provoke me, but the contempt I felt for the reptile restrained
me full as much as the iron bands of discipline. We arrived at Jamaica
and cruised about the Bay of Mexico for some time, when the daughter of
a rich planter, in South Carolina, (then one of his Majesty's colonies,
now one of the brightest stars in the flag of the Great Republic,) took
a passage with her governess in our ship to New Orleans, whither we were
ordered on service. The Captain tried to make himself agreeable to her,
but she treated his advances with coldness so marked as to enrage him.
She saw through, with ease, the flimsy veil he attempted to throw over
his vices. It was my happy fortune to save her from a watery grave. In
landing, she incautiously stepped from the ladder before the boat was
sufficiently near to receive her, and fell, into the sea. I dashed over
the taffrail, the tide was running strong, but I caught her in my arms,
and bore her up, until the boat came to our relief. Her father, who
awaited her arrival, was unbounded in his expressions of gratitude, and
invited me often to his hotel, he also gave me a cordial invitation to
his plantation in Carolina. The Captain made many unseemly jokes upon
the affair, but I bore them all,--for now I felt I loved and I hoped,
who does not hope at twenty-three? I hoped I was beloved in return.
Annoyed by my patience, galled and mortified by his rejection, he lost
his usual prudence, and one day boasted before a knot of loose
companions in my presence, of favors he had received from her,--from her
who was purity itself, and had scarcely deigned to exchange the common
courtesies of life with him. I struck him to the deck for his detested
lie, and gave myself up as prisoner. I was tried by a Court Martial and
declared incapable of serving his Majesty again. I had expected death,
and his powerful friends did their utmost to procure a sentence, but the
Admiral was a just though a rigid man, and well knew the character o