nitude obstructed our passage. The brig carried heavy canvas, and
the skipper loaded her with all she could bear, but at that she was a
slow sailor, dipping so deeply in a seaway as to ship considerable
water even in quiet weather. From our exercise on deck we generally
returned below drenched to the skin, but glad to even pay that price
for two hours of fresh air, and an opportunity to gaze about at sea
and sky. There was little else to witness, for in all the long voyage
we encountered but one vessel in that desolate ocean, a French armed
corvette, fairly bristling with guns, which ran in close enough to
hail us, but seemed satisfied to permit us to pass unvisited. I clung
to the rail and watched its white sails disappear until they resembled
the wings of gulls, feeling more than ever conscious of our
helplessness. There were few among the prisoners I had any desire to
companion with--only two, as I recall now--a law clerk from Sussex, a
rather bright young fellow, but full of strange notions, and an older
man, who had seen service in Flanders. We messed together, and pledged
mutual friendship in the new land, a pledge not destined to be
fulfilled, as I never again saw nor heard of the former after we went
ashore, and the last glimpse I had of the older man was as he was
being loaded into a cart bound for some interior plantation. God grant
they both lived, and became again free men.

How those sodden hours and days dragged! How long were those black
nights, in which I lay sleepless, listening to indescribable noises,
and breathing the rank, poisonous air. The short time passed on deck
was my only solace, and yet even there I found little to interest,
except a continuous new hope. We were herded well forward, a rope
dividing us from the main deck, which space the passengers aft used as
a promenade. Here, between the foremast and the cabin, someone was
strolling idly about most of the time, or lounging along the rail out
of the sun. In time I came to recognize them all by sight, and
learned, in one way or another, something of their characteristics,
and purpose in taking this voyage. They were not an unusual lot, the
majority planters from the Colonies homeward bound, with occasionally
a new emigrant about to try for fortune beyond seas, together with one
or two naval officers. There were only three women aboard, a fat
dowager, the young lady I had noticed at embarkation, and her colored
maid. Many of the days were ple