resolved not to lose a moment in starting for
Portsmouth as soon as I stepped on shore. I thought that I might borrow
some money from my friend the doctor, or some of the passengers, who
would, I believed, willingly have lent it me, or if not, I made up my
mind to walk the whole distance, and beg for a crust of bread and a
drink of water should there be no other means of obtaining food. My
spirits rose as the lofty cliffs of Dover hove in sight, and rounding
the North Foreland, we at length, the wind shifting, stood majestically
up the Thames. When off the Medway, the wind fell, and the tide being
against us, we had to come to an anchor. We had not been there long
when a man-of-war's boat came alongside. I observed that all her crew
were armed, and that she had a lieutenant and midshipman in her, both
roughish-looking characters. They at once stepped on board with an
independent, swaggering air. The lieutenant desired the captain to
muster all hands. My heart sank as I heard the order. I was on the
point of stowing myself away, for as I did not belong to the ship, I
hoped to escape. Before I had time to do so, however, the midshipman, a
big whiskered fellow, more like a boatswain's mate than an officer, with
two men, came below and ordered me up with the rest. The captain was
very indignant at the behaviour of the lieutenant and the midshipman,
declaring that his crew were protected, and had engaged to sail in
another of the Company's ships after they had had a short leave on
shore.

"Well and good for those who are protected, but those who are not must
accompany me," answered the lieutenant. "We want hands to man our
men-of-war who protect you merchantmen, and hands we must get by hook or
by crook." Having called over the names, he selected twenty of the best
men who had no protection. I was in hopes I should escape, when the
midshipman pointed me out.

The lieutenant inquired if I belonged to the ship. I had to acknowledge
the truth, when, refusing to hear anything I had to say, though I
pleaded hard to be allowed to go free, he ordered me with the rest into
the boat alongside. Having got all the men he could obtain, the
lieutenant steered for Sheerness, and took us alongside a large ship
lying off the dockyard, where she had evidently been fitting out. She
looked to me, as we approached her, very much like an Indiaman, and such
I found she had been. She was, in truth, the _Glatton_, of one thousan