end Thompson, with whom I became
acquainted at the Navy Office, as before mentioned. If I knew him at
first sight, it was not easy for him to recognise me, disfigured with
blood and dirt, and altered by the misery I had undergone. Unknown as
I was to him, he surveyed me with looks of compassion, and handled my
sores with great tenderness. When he had applied what he thought proper,
and was about to leave me, I asked him if my misfortunes had disguised
me so much that he could not recollect my face? Upon this address
he observed me with great earnestness for some time, and at length
protested he could not recollect one feature of my countenance. To keep
him no longer in suspense, I told him my name, which when he heard, he
embraced me with affection, and professed his sorrow at seeing me in
such a disagreeable situation. I made him acquainted with my story, and,
when he heard how inhumanly I had been used in the tender, he left me
abruptly, assuring me I should see him again soon. I had scarce time
to wonder at his sudden departure, when the master-at-arms came to the
place of my confinement, and bade me follow him to the quarter-deck,
where I was examined by the first lieutenant, who commanded the ship in
the absence of the captain, touching the treatment I had received in the
tender from my friend the midshipman, who was present to confront me.

I recounted the particulars of his behaviour to me, not only in the
tender, but since my being on board the ship, part of which being proved
by the evidence of Jack Rattlin and others, who had no great devotion
for my oppressor, I was discharged from confinement, to make way for
him, who was delivered to the master-at-arms to take his turn in the
bilboes. And this was not the only satisfaction I enjoyed, for I was,
at the request of the surgeon, exempted from all other duty than that of
assisting his mates, in making and administering medicines to the sick.
This good office I owed to the friendship of Mr. Thompson, who had
represented me in such a favourable light to the surgeon, that he
demanded me of the lieutenant to supply the place of his third mate,
who was lately dead. When I had obtained this favour, my friend Thompson
carried me down to the cockpit, which is the place allotted for the
habitation of the surgeon's mates; and when he had shown me their
berth (as he called it), I was filled with astonishment and horror, We
descended by divers ladders to a space as dark as a