never communicated to the Editor
his authority for these "Recollections." Probably it was of the same
kind as that possessed by Lucian, Lord Lyttleton, and Walter Savage
Lander; but whether so or not, we must at least be well satisfied that
the parts of the conversation sustained by the principal interlocutor
are true to the genius and character of Burns, and that, however
searching the thoughts or beautiful the sentiments, they do not
transcend what might have been expected from the Bard himself.--ED.

My prospects in life had begun to brighten. I served in the capacity of
mate in a large West India trader, the master of which, an elderly man
of considerable wealth, was on the eve of quitting the sea; and the
owners had already determined that I should succeed him in the charge.
But fate had ordered it otherwise. Our seas were infested at this
period by American privateers--prime sailors, and strongly armed; and,
when homeward bound from Jamaica with a valuable cargo, we were attacked
and captured when within a day's sailing of Ireland, by one of the most
formidable of the class. Vain as resistance might have been deemed--for
the force of the American was altogether overpowering--and though our
master, poor old man! and three of the crew, had fallen by the first
broadside, we had yet stood stiffly by our guns, and were only
overmastered when, after falling foul of the enemy, we were boarded by
a party of thrice our strength and number. The Americans, irritated by
our resistance, proved on this occasion no generous enemies; we were
stripped and heavily ironed, and, two days after, were set ashore on the
wild coast of Connaught, without a single change of dress, or a sixpence
to bear us by the way.

I was sitting, on the following night, beside the turf fire of a
hospitable Irish peasant, when a seafaring man, whom I had sailed
with about two years before, entered the cabin. The meeting was equally
unexpected on either side. My acquaintance was the master of a smuggling
lugger then on the coast; and on acquainting him with the details of my
disaster, and the state of destitution to which it had reduced me, he
kindly proposed that I should accompany him on his voyage to the west
coast of Scotland, for which he was then on the eve of sailing. "You
will run some little risk," he said, "as the companion of a man who has
now been thrice outlawed for firing on his Majesty's flag; but I know
your proud heart will prefer