years, during which time he
had acquired some knowledge of their language, and the reputation of a
good seaman; the ship he belonged to was ordered home to France, where
she was laid up as unfit for service, and he was received on board
one of Monsieur D'Antin's squadron, in quality of quartermaster; which
office he performed in a voyage to the West Indies, where he engaged
with our ship, as before related; but his conscience upbraiding him for
serving the one enemies of his country, he quitted the ship at the same
place where he first listed, and got to Curacoa in a Dutch vessel; there
he bargained with a skipper, bound to Europe, to work for his passage
to Holland, from whence he was in hopes of hearing from his friends in
England; but was cast away, as he mentioned before, on the French coast,
and must have been reduced to the necessity of travelling on foot to
Holland, and begging for his subsistence on the road, or of entering on
board of another French man-of-war, at the hazard of being treated as
a deserter, if Providence had not sent me to his succour. "And now, my
lad," continued he, "I think I shall steer my course directly to London,
where I do not doubt of being replaced, and of having the R taken off
me by the Lords of the Admiralty, to whom I intend to write a petition,
setting forth my case; if I succeed, I shall have wherewithal to give
you some assistance, because, when I left the ship, I had two years'
pay due to me, therefore I desire to know whither you are bound: and
besides, perhaps, I may have interest enough to procure a warrant
appointing you surgeon's mate of the ship to which I shall belong--for
the beadle of the Admiralty is my good friend: and he and one of the
under clerks are sworn brothers, and that under clerk has a good deal
to say with one of the upper clerks, who is very well known to the
under secretary, who, upon his recommendation, I hope, will recommend
my affair to the first secretary; and he again will speak to one of the
lords in my behalf; so that you see I do not want friends to assist me
on occasion. As for the fellow Craampley, thof I know him not, I am sure
he is neither seaman nor officer, by what you have told me, or else he
could never be so much mistaken in his reckoning, as to run the ship on
shore on the coast of Sussex before he believed himself in soundings;
neither, when that accident happened, would he have left the ship until
she had been stove to pieces, especia