slightest sign of
hesitation or unwillingness was met with blows. A pressed man who
refused to serve was triced up, and lashed with the cat-o'-nine tails
until his back was cut to ribbons, and the blood spurted at every
blow. Few cared to endure such punishment twice. Yet the sailors taken
from the American ships lost no opportunity for showing their desire
to get out of the service into which they had been kidnapped.
Desertions from ships lying near the coast were of weekly occurrence,
although recaptured deserters were hanged summarily at the yard-arm.
Sailors who found no chance to desert made piteous appeals to the
American consuls in the ports at which they stopped, or wrote letters
to their friends at home, begging that something should be done to
release them from their enforced service. It was not the severity of
man-o'-war discipline that so troubled the poor fellows; many of them
were old man-o'-war's men, and all would have been glad of berths in
the United States navy; but the sight of the red flag of Great Britain
waving above their heads, and the thought that they were serving a
nation with which their country had just fought a bloody war, were
intolerable.

One "pressed man," on a British ship lying in the West Indies, managed
to write the following letter to a newspaper editor in New York, and,
after much planning, succeeded in mailing it.

Port Royal, Jamaica, June 30, 1811.

Mr. Snowden,--I hope you will be so good as to publish these few
lines. I, Edwin Bouldin, was impressed out of the barque
"Columbus" of Elizabeth City, and was carried on board his
Britannic Majesty's brig "Rhodian," in Montego Bay, commanded by
Capt. Mowbary. He told me my protection was of no consequence,
and he would have me whether or not. I was born in Baltimore, and
served my time with Messrs. Smith & Buchanan. I hope my friends
will do something for me to get my clearance; for I do not like
to serve any other country but my own, which I am willing to
serve. I am now captain of the forecastle, and stationed captain
of a gun in the waist. I am treated very ill, because I will not
enter. They request of me to go on board my country's ships to
list men, which I refused to do, and was threatened to be
punished for it.

I remain a true citizen of the United States

EDWIN BOULDI