n her way around Cape
Horn; but the tobacco which we had taken on board in Boston, being an
article on which an enormous duty was exacted, was the cause of trouble
and delay. Consultations with the authorities in London were necessary,
and weeks elapsed before Captain Bacon could get the ship out of the
clutches of the revenue department. In the mean time the crew remained
by the ship, but took their meals at a boarding house on shore, as
was the custom in Liverpool. They were all furnished with American
protections; but some of them, unwilling to rely on the protecting
power of a paper document, which in their cases told a tale of fiction,
adopted various expedients to avoid the press-gangs which occasionally
thridded the streets, and even entered dwellings when the doors were
unfastened, to capture sailors and COMPEL them to VOLUNTEER to serve
their king and country.

One of these unfortunate men, after having successfully dodged the
pressgangs for a fortnight, and living meanwhile in an unenviable state
of anxiety, was pounced upon by some disguised members of a pressgang as
he left the boarding house one evening. He struggled hard to escape,
but was knocked down and dragged off to the naval rendezvous. He
was examined the next morning before the American consul, but,
notwithstanding his protection, his citizenship could not be
substantiated. He was in reality a Prussian, and of course detained as
a lawful prize. The poor fellow lamented his hard destiny with tears. He
knew the degrading and unhappy character of the slavery to which he was
doomed probably for life, and strongly implored Captain Bacon to leave
no means untried to procure his release; but the captain's efforts were
in vain.

I was rejoiced when intelligence came that the trouble about the tobacco
was at an end, and the remainder of the cargo could be taken on board.
On the following forenoon the ship was hauled stern on to the quay, and
the heavy bales of goods, when brought down, were tumbled on deck by the
crew and rolled along to the main hatchway. I was employed with one of
my shipmates in this work, when some clumsy fellows who were handling
another bale behind me pitched it over in such a careless manner that
it struck my left leg, which it doubled up like a rattan. I felt that my
leg was fractured, indeed, I heard the bone snap, and threw myself on a
gun carriage, making wry faces in consequence of the pain I suffered.

"Are you MUCH hurt, Ha