ly, with but little disposition to try my
fortune again in the coasting-trade, one day, being in the horse-market,
I purchased a horse and wagon; and, taking in my wife and some of the
younger children, I went to pay a visit to the neighborhood in which I
was born. Here I traded for half of a bay-craft, of about sixty tons
burden, in which I engaged in the oyster-trade, and other small
bay-traffic. Having met at Baltimore the owner of the other half, I
bought him out also. The whole craft stood me in about seven hundred
dollars. I then purchased three hundred bushels of potatoes, with which
I sailed for Fredericksburg, in Virginia; but this proved a losing trip,
the potatoes not selling for what they cost me. At Fredericksburg I took
in flour on freight for Norfolk; but my ill-luck still pursued me. In
unloading the vessel, the cargo forward being first taken out, she
settled by the stern and sprang a leak, damaging fifteen barrels of
flour, which were thrown upon my hands. I then sailed for the eastern
shore of Virginia, and at a place called Cherrystone traded off my
damaged flour for a cargo of pears, with which I sailed for New York. I
proceeded safely as far as Barnegat, when I encountered a north-east
storm, which drove me back into the Delaware, obliging me to seek refuge
in the same Maurice river from which I had commenced my sea-faring life
in the wood business. But by this time the pears were spoiled, and I was
obliged to throw them overboard. At Cherrystone I had met the owner of a
pilot-boat, who had seemed disposed to trade with me for my vessel; and
I now returned to that place, and completed the trade; after which I
loaded the pilot-boat with oysters and terrapins, and sailed for
Philadelphia. This boat was an excellent sailer, but too sharp, and not
of burden enough for my business; and I soon exchanged her for half a
little sloop, in which I carried a load of water-melons to Baltimore.

By this time I was pretty well sick of the water; and, having hired out
the sloop, I set up a shop, at Philadelphia, for the purchase and sale
of junk, old iron, &c. &c. But, after continuing in this business for
about two years,--my health being bad, and the doctor having advised me
to try the water again,--I bought half of another sloop, and engaged in
trading up and down Chesapeake Bay. Returning home, towards the close of
the season, with the proceeds of the summer's business, I encountered,
in the upper part of Chesa