Life and Adventures 1776-1801 Read Online Free PDF Page B

in line past an unfortunate man who had been killed in one of their feuds, and each man that passed him gave the inanimate body a blow, at the same time calling him by a term of abuse, significant of the party he had belonged to. It was unsafe to carry anything after nightfall. I have been attacked and forced to fight my way more than once. The respectable inhabitants are thus kept under a sort of bondage to this riotous race.
    In the summer I was much annoyed by the mos-quitos and yellow nippers, a worse fly; for they bite cruelly. They make such a buzzing and noise at night I could not close an eye without my mosquito dose, that is, rum and spruce.

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    Action between the Surprise and
Jason— Anecdotes—Miscellaneous
Occurrences—Punishment for
Neglect of Orders—Author Paid Off.

    I HAD NOW been eighteen months on shore when I was ordered by Admiral Montague on board the Surprise, twenty-eight-gun frigate, commanded by Captain Reeves. Her cooper had been killed a few days before in a severe action with an American vessel.
    On board the Surprise we had a rougher crew than in the Proteus; ninety of them were Irishmen, the rest from Scotland and England. We kept cruising about, taking numbers of the America privateers. After a short but severe action we took the Jason of Boston, commanded by the famous Captain Manly, who had been commodore in the American service, had been taken prisoner and broke his parole. When Captain Reeves hailed and ordered him to strike, he returned for answer, ‘Fire away! I have as many guns as you.’ He had heavier metal but fewer men than the Surprise. He fought us for a long time.
    I was serving powder as busy as I could, the shot and splinters flying in all directions, when I heard the Irishmen call from one of the guns (they fought like devils, and the captain was fond of them on that account), ‘Halloo, Bungs, where are you?’ 17
    I looked to their gun and saw the two horns of my study † 18 across its mouth. The next moment it was through the Jason’s side. The rogues thus disposed of my study, which I had been using just before theaction commenced and had placed in a secure place, as I thought, out of their reach. ‘Bungs for ever!’ they shouted when they saw the dreadful hole it made in the Jason’s side. Bungs was the name they always gave the cooper.
    When Captain Manly came on board the Surprise to deliver his sword to Captain Reeves, the half of the rim of his hat was shot off. Our captain returned his sword to him again, saying, ‘You have had a narrow escape, Manly.’
    ‘I wish to God it had been my head,’ he replied.
    When we boarded the Jason, we found thirty-one cavalry, who had served under General Burgoyne, acting now as marines on board the Jason.
    A marine of the name of Kennedy, belonging to the Surprise, an intelligent lad and well-behaved, was a great favourite with the surgeon. They used to be constantly together reading and acquiring information. They came from the same place, had been at school together and were dear friends. Kennedy’s relations were in a respectable line of life. I never learned the cause of his filling his present lowly situation. As it fell out, poor Kennedy was placed sentinel over the spirit-room of the Jason. He was, as I have said, an easy kind of lad and had not been long from home.
    He allowed the men to carry away the spirits and they were getting fast drunk when the prize-master perceived it. Kennedy was relieved and sent on board the Surprise, and next morning put in irons on boardthe Europa, the admiral’s ship, where he was tried by a court-martial and sentenced to be hanged on the fore-yardarm.
    His offence, no doubt, was great, for the men would all have been so much the worse of liquor in a short time that the Americans could have recovered the Jason with ease. Yet we were all sorry for him, and would have done anything in our power to redeem him from his present melancholy situation. His friend the surgeon was