ry decent
men, some of them not unlike my friend Mr Scuttle. We treated them
with every kindness and attention in our power. On the 24th we arrived
off Cape Henlopen, opposite Cape May, at the entrance of Delaware Bay.
Here we hove-to, and Captain Hudson ordered me to go on shore with a
flag of truce, to land the masters of the merchantmen.

As we neared the shore I observed a body of men drawn up as if prepared
to receive me. They were military, but had it not been for fear of
hurting the feelings of the people who were with me, I could have thrown
myself back in the stern sheets and enjoyed a hearty fit of laughter.
Not two were armed or dressed alike. Some had high-boots, others shoes,
many had on moccasins, and not a few jack-boots; several had their legs
encased in hay-bands; hats of all shapes and sizes graced their heads.
Cocked hats and round hats and caps, and Spanish hats, and helmets even
were not uncommon. Some wore breeches of truly Dutch build, others of
as scanty dimensions as could cover them--some had trousers, and others
scarcely any covering to that portion of their persons. Their coats
were of every colour, shape, and size. Green and blue and brown and
grey; some were of red, though not a little soiled, being evidently of
ancient date, while there were long coats and great coats and short
coats and spencers and cloaks; indeed, every species of covering
invented to hide the nakedness of the human body. While the men
themselves were tall and short and thin and stout and straight and
crooked. No one had been refused admission into the corps. Their arms
were as various in construction as their costumes. There were muskets
and rifles and pikes and matchlocks, and pistols which had been used at
Culloden, and some even, I fancy, in the civil war of the Commonwealth,
while a few even had contented themselves with pitchforks, scythes, and
reaping-hooks. The officers were as independent as to uniformity as the
men, and not less picturesque, though more comfortably dressed. Each
man had exercised his own taste in his endeavour to give himself a
military appearance, though I must say they had most lamentably failed
in the result. I honestly confess, as I was speaking to them, that I
was forcibly reminded of the appearance my old shipmates and I cut when
we first presented ourselves on board the Torbay at the commencement of
my naval career.

My orders were to land the prisoners and to return to th