ted on shore to give our
parole that we would not attempt to make our escape. After a short
consultation, we all agreed that, although to get away from the lion's
jaws into which we had fallen was not altogether impossible, it was very
unlikely that we should succeed, and that by not giving our parole we
should be subject to a vast deal of annoyance, it was wiser at once to
give it, and to wait patiently till we were exchanged. Constant
confinement in a prison in the West Indies, or on board a guard-ship in
harbour, it was suggested was very likely to release us; but it would be
into another world, to which we had just then no inclination to go if we
could help it. We were received on shore by a guard of ill-favoured
blacks--"regular blackguards," as O'Driscoll observed--between whom we
were conducted to the residence of his Excellency Governor D'Argu. We
were kept waiting for some time in a balcony which ran round the house,
subject to the inspection and remarks of a number of black and brown
urchins, who made us feel some of the bitters of captivity by jeering
and pointing at us, while we had not even the power to drive them away.
At length an officer came into the balcony and asked us into a large
room, furnished only with mats, a few chairs, and some marble tables, on
which stood some red earthenware jars, full of water, and some decanters
of claret, looking very cool and pleasant. The great man was seated at
a table at one end of the room. He received us, I thought, at first
very grumpily. He did not understand English, but I recognised the
polite officer who had boarded the Dolphin when I was captured, and who
appeared to be there in the capacity of an interpreter. The governor
enquired our respective ranks. I fully expected to be classed among the
midshipmen, and to receive my pay and treatment accordingly; but I
fortunately had in my pocket the appointment given me by Sir Peter
Parker as acting-lieutenant of the Camel. I bethought me of exhibiting
it, and, much to my satisfaction, it was acknowledged, and I was told
that I should be treated in all respects as a lieutenant, especially as
I had been in command of a vessel when captured. I was surprised indeed
to find a considerable sense of justice in all the proceedings of our
captors at this time. Perhaps the bitter feeling they afterwards
entertained for the English, when they had sustained numberless defeats,
had not then sprung up. My friend, the s