e
minister, and to the last he did not know but that I went with the
utmost reluctance and affliction.

It was in the month of February that I was, with seven other convicts,
as they called us, delivered to a merchant that traded to Virginia, on
board a ship, riding, as they called it, in Deptford Reach. The
officer of the prison delivered us on board, and the master of the
vessel gave a discharge for us.

We were for that night clapped under hatches, and kept so close that I
thought I should have been suffocated for want of air; and the next
morning the ship weighed, and fell down the river to a place they call
Bugby's Hole, which was done, as they told us, by the agreement of the
merchant, that all opportunity of escape should be taken from us.
However, when the ship came thither and cast anchor, we were allowed
more liberty, and particularly were permitted to come up on the deck,
but not up on the quarter-deck, that being kept particularly for the
captain and for passengers.

When by the noise of the men over my head, and the motion of the ship,
I perceived that they were under sail, I was at first greatly
surprised, fearing we should go away directly, and that our friends
would not be admitted to see us any more; but I was easy soon after,
when I found they had come to an anchor again, and soon after that we
had notice given by some of the men where we were, that the next
morning we should have the liberty to come up on deck, and to have our
friends come and see us if we had any.

All that night I lay upon the hard boards of the deck, as the
passengers did, but we had afterwards the liberty of little cabins for
such of us as had any bedding to lay in them, and room to stow any box
or trunk for clothes and linen, if we had it (which might well be put
in), for some of them had neither shirt nor shift or a rag of linen or
woollen, but what was on their backs, or a farthing of money to help
themselves; and yet I did not find but they fared well enough in the
ship, especially the women, who got money from the seamen for washing
their clothes, sufficient to purchase any common things that they
wanted.

When the next morning we had the liberty to come up on the deck, I
asked one of the officers of the ship, whether I might not have the
liberty to send a letter on shore, to let my friends know where the
ship lay, and to get some necessary things sent to me. This was, it
seems, the boatswain, a very civil, courteou