is kind, from
their happening in fleets of which my own ship formed a part, or from
these incidents including among the sufferers persons to whom I was
attached.

In the year 1815, I accompanied a convoy of homeward-bound Indiamen
from Ceylon, and a right merry part of the voyage it was while we ran
down a couple of thousand miles of the south-east trade-wind; for
these hospitable floating nabobs, the East India captains, seldom let
a day pass without feasting one another; and we, their naval
protectors, came in for no small share of the good things, for which
we could make but a poor return. Along with our fleet, there sailed
from Ceylon a large ship, hired as a transport by Government to bring
home invalid soldiers. There were about 500 souls in her; of these a
hundred were women, and more than a hundred children. I was
accidentally led to take a particular interest in this ill-fated
vessel, from the circumstance of there being four fine boys on board,
sons of a military friend of mine at Point de Galle. I had become so
well acquainted with the parents of these poor little fellows during
my frequent visits to Ceylon, that one day, before sailing, I
playfully offered to take a couple of the boys in my brig, the Victor,
an eighteen-gun sloop of war; but as I could not accommodate the whole
family, the parents, who were obliged to remain abroad, felt unwilling
to separate the children, alas! and my offer was declined.

Off we all sailed, and reached the neighbourhood of the Cape without
encountering anything in the way of an adventure; there, however,
commenced the disasters of the unfortunate Arniston, as this transport
was called. She had no chronometer on board; a most culpable and
preposterous omission in the outfit of a ship destined for such a
voyage. The master told me that he himself was not in circumstances to
purchase so expensive an instrument, the cost of a good chronometer
being at least fifty or sixty guineas, and that the owners considered
the expense needless. He also stated that on his remonstrating still
more, and urging upon these gentlemen that their property would be ten
times more secure if he were furnished with the most approved means of
taking good care of it, he was given to understand, that, if he did
not choose to take the ship to sea without a chronometer, another
captain could easily be found who would make no such new-fangled
scruples. The poor master shrugged his shoulders, and said he w