emanded
their discharge. In their stead he shipped a boy, about fourteen years
of age, whom he had persuaded to run away from an English merchant ship,
in which he was an apprentice, and an old Frenchman, who had served many
years in the carpenter's gang in a French man-of-war, and who understood
hardly a word of the English language.

We sailed from St. Pierre the day after we had taken possession of the
schooner, bound directly for St. Bartholomew.

Chapter VIII. THE WINDWARD ISLANDS

It is well known that one of the principal reasons for the declaration
of war against Great Britain in 1812, were the insults heaped on the
American flag, in every sea, by the navy of Great Britain. The British
government claimed and exercised THE RIGHT to board our ships, impress
their crews when not natives of the United States, examine their
cargoes, and subject our citizens navigating the high seas, to
inconvenience, detention, and conduct often of an annoying and insulting
character. The British government contended that the flag which waved
over the decks of our ships should be no protection to our ships or
seamen. For years our merchant vessels were compelled to submit to such
degrading insults from the navy of Great Britain.

The mode of exercising this "right of search," so far as relates to the
impressment of seamen, I have already had occasion to illustrate, and
the incident which I now relate will explain with tolerable clearness
the mode in which the British exercised this right in relation to
property.

Previously to the war with Great Britain, a profitable trade was carried
on between the United States and the English West India Islands. The
exports from the islands were limited chiefly to molasses and rum;
sugar and coffee being prohibited in American bottoms. According to the
British interpretation of the "right to search," every American vessel
which had taken in a cargo in a British, or any other port, was liable
to be searched, from the truck to the keelson, by any British cruiser
when met with on the high seas. And this inquisitorial process was
submitted to as a matter of course, though not without murmurs loud
and deep, from those who were immediately exposed to the inconveniences
attending this arbitrary exercise of power.

On the afternoon succeeding the day on which the schooner John left
Martinico, as we were quietly sailing along with a light breeze, under
the lee of the mountainous Island of Gaud