hem
the sums he had expended on us; but he replied, that he had taken care
of us because it was right to succour the distressed, and that he
required no reward or repayment. He was a good man, and I hope he
enjoys his reward.

The desire to see my only relations grew stronger every day, and I
thought how happy I should feel if I could but get landed at Plymouth,
to run up and take them by surprise. This, however, could not be. When
we reached London I found that the _Mary Jane_, as soon as she had
discharged her cargo, was to sail again for the westward; and as she
this time was to touch at Plymouth, so the captain said, I asked him to
give me a passage. He replied, that as I had behaved very well while
with him he would, so I remained on board. Here I parted from Charley,
who got a berth on board a vessel bound for Hull, where he wanted to go.
We sailed, and I hoped in a few days to have my long-wished-for desire
gratified. When, however, we got abreast of the Isle of Wight, we met
with a strong south-westerly gale, which compelled us to run for shelter
to the Motherbank. While lying there the captain received orders from
his owners not to touch at Plymouth, but to go on to Falmouth. This was
a great disappointment to me. Still I thought that I could easily get
back from Falmouth to Plymouth, so that it would be wiser to stick by
the ship.

The old brig was not much of a sailer, but still, after running through
the Needles, we had a quick passage till we got a little to the westward
of the Eddystone. The captain, for some reason or other, expecting a
south-westerly breeze, had been giving the land a wide berth, when the
wind, instead of coming out of the south-west, blew suddenly with
terrific violence from the north-east. The old tub of a brig did her
best to beat up towards the land, but without avail. A squall took all
her sails out of her, and away we went driving helplessly before it, as
if we were in a hurry to get across the Atlantic. Our master, Captain
Stunt, though a good seaman, was nothing of a navigator, and we could
scarcely tell even where we were driving to. The vessel also was old,
and had seen a good deal of hard service. Our condition, therefore, was
very unsatisfactory. We had no quadrant on board, and if we had
possessed one there was no one to use it--indeed, it was many days
before the sun appeared, and all we knew was that, by the course we had
drifted and the rate we had gone,