by Capt. Wilds and his officers, and spent a long and jovial evening; I was invited to sing them a song, and in the course of the evening entertained them with several. In this no doubt there was management with Capt. Wilds and his officers; they found it very difficult to obtain hands; I was not yet secured and they wished that I might become attached to them.

The next day having got under way, we ran down to York, and it became necessary for Capt. Wilds to lay some plan to increase his crew in this place,for in Portsmouth he had very poor success; the Capt. had gained some information of the state of things at York by the pilot, who piloted us into the harbor; he therefore laid a plan to get up a frolic at a public house, and suitable persons were employed to invite the lads and lasses for a country dance. Rum, coffee, sugar, biscuit, &c. were taken on shore from the privateer, for the purpose, and the frolic went on. Having but one fiddler and the company being large, it became necessary to have dancing in more than one room; I was selected by some of the officers, to sing for some of the dancers; this suited my turn, for I was no proficient in dancing. Every art and insinuation was employed by the officers to obtain recruits; they succeeded in getting two only that evening, one by the name of Sweet, and the other by the name of Babb,

The next day was to me, one of the most memorable days of my life; such gloom and horror fell upon my mind as I never before experienced, such melancholy and despondency as I never before or since have felt, and which it is impossible for me to describe. I resolved to return home, but even in this resolution I could not anticipate the least degree of relief, and the voyage before me looked as gloomy as death; had I been on a single plank, in the midst of the ocean, my condition could not have appeared more hopeless. While in this forlorn condition it came into my mind to go on board the vessel which now lay at the wharf, and pray; accordingly I went on board (the people being mostly on shore) and sought a place of retirement, and after some time spent in contemplation, I attempted to pray. The gloom in some meas

ure subsided. I disclosed my intention to the Capt. he acknowedged my right to return if I chose, but expressed great unwillingness to part with me; he engaged Capt. Arnold and other officers in his interest to persuade me to stay and spend one more evening with them; they were so urgent that they finally overcame me, and I reluctantly gave my consent. The evening was spent as had been the preceding evening, and they obtained one more hand only. I think his name was Preble.

The Capt. was satisfied that this was not the place for him to make up his crew and was determined to push farther eastward and gained my consent to go the cruise. We left York with a design to call at Cape Porpoise in Arundel, now called Kennebunkport. At this place. dwelt the Captain's father, who was an old sea Captain and had acquired a handsome estate and now occupied one of the best farms in that region. Our Capt. was but about twenty-two years of age; he had been absent several years sailing from Salem and other ports, and being now in the place of his nativity, there was no difficulty in getting up a frolic; this plan was resorted to, but to little purpose, for we obtained but one hand; his name was Samuel Wilds, a kinsman of the Capt. a lad about sixteen. I shall have occasion to say something of him hereafter.

The harbor of Cape Porpoise was but very little resorted to except by coasters and fishermen; there was by no means a dense population in this place, a vessel of so rakish an appearance as the Greyhound, with such a flaming flag and streaming pennants, was quite a novelty. The Captain's barge was rowed with four oars only, and I had the honor of being steersman of this little barge, and when we put off from along side, the Capt. was honored with a gun and three cheers, from the crew; this was something unusual, but we were privateers

men.

We left Cape Porpoise, for the port of Falmouth, now called Portland, which had been burnt in the commencement of the revolution, by Capt. Mowatt, who commanded his Majesty's ship Cancer. We made but a short stop at this place and got one hand only, and a poor

thing he was. There was now no further prospect of increasing our crew, we were obliged to try our fortune with what we had and put to sea.

I very much regretted that I had ever seen the Greyhound; my melancholy which commenced at York, had by no means snbsided; at times I felt fearful forebodings, but endeavored to put the best side out, for it was by no means becoming a young sailor to discover a want of fortitude; I endeavored to suppress all gloomy reflections and make the best of a bad bargain.

There was a lad on board, by the name of William Deadman, near my age, but not so heavy; he was quite active and very persevering; he and myself were always called upon to do whatever was to be done aloft and were each of us emulous not to be outdone by the other. William was a worthy lad and there was always perfect harmony between us; we had the praise of the officers and were much caressed by them. We met with nothing worth noticing, until we got off against Halifax; we were there chased by a topsail-schooner, larger than ours; we had a fresh gale and a heavy sea, we carried sail so long, that we were much in danger of carrying away our masts; the vessel chasing us, was a much faster sailer than ours, and of course, came up with us; but before she came up, we were obliged to take in our topsail. In taking in the fore-topsail alone, I very narrowly escaped being thrown off the yard, which was but a small spar, not much larger than a man's leg, and consequently, could afford but little support to what a large spar would. The pitching, and rolling of the vessel, rendered my situation dangerous beyond description. I even now shudder at the thought of my then perilous condition; millions would not induce me to run such a risk again. The schooner in chase of us, proved to be an American privateer, called the Blood Hound. We found that our privateers were numerous on this

coast.

After this we adventured to take a peep into Halifax. As we drew near the harbor, we discovered a ship, apparently in distress, aiming to get in. We began to hope she might be a prize for us; we were not however

without suspicion, and the nearer we approached her the more our suspicion increased, and at length we thought best to draw off. We had no sooner shifted our course, than she got up her topgallant yard, set her topgallant sails, and gave us chase, and we soon discovered that she gained on us; we now began to dread Halifax prison. She chased us several hours and continued to gain on us; the wind was light, and fortunately for us, it became foggy, and by manoeuvring, we eluded her.

We had hoped to intercept some merchantman going in, but now feared to lurk about this harbor, as some privateers had previously done, and had got rich prizes. The British had found out some of our yankee tricks, and were looking out for us. Our Captain thought it best to be off from this ground, and try our luck on the eastern shore and about the mouth of the St. Lawrence. As we proceeded we had a trying time amongst the islands; we could look in no direction without seeing a sail, and we soon found that we should be under the necessity of speaking some of them.

By their manoeuvring we suspected that they were in league with each other, and were at a loss to determine whether they were friends or foes.

There were none which were as large as our vessel, and we supposed that we should have nothing to fear from any one of them; but if they should prove to be enemies, we should have more than two to encounter, but having spoken with one or two of them, we ascertained that they were all Americans.

We all took up our quarters, that night, in a harbor not inhabited; I think it was called Beaver Harbor; and when all collected, I believe there were seven or eight sail, all smaller than the Greyhound, and some of them not more than fifteen or twenty tons.

There were too many instances in which those picaroons plundered the defenceless inhabitants of the British possessions. The next day we parted with all this squadron, except one, who agreed to keep company with us, and we soon parted with her.

We visited a cluster of islands called the Bird Islands and procured perhaps a half a dozen bushels of

but no trees.

eggs, of different sizes, such as those of wild geese, gannets, gulls, ducks, &c. It was interesting to see the management of so many different tribes of the feathered race; their nests were almost as thick as hills of corn, in a field. Those islands I believe did not contain more than an acre or two each, and some less than an acre. Low bushes grew on them, When we landed it excited a general alarm. The birds would rise in masses, and in their different dialects, remonstrate against our intrusions; for indeed, our conduct towards them, was not only rude, but barbarous; nor were we very fortunate in our plunder, for many of the eggs were unfit for use, having been set on too long, nor indeed, were the best of them a very delicious morsel to me; in the season of them, the Newfoundlanders use them as a substitute for bread. I have seen a Newfoundland shallop almost loaded with them.

We visited the Island of St. Peter's, at the mouth of Fortune Bay, in Newfoundland: this had been a French settlement of some consequence, but had recently been entirely destroyed, by the British; another beautiful island, called Micland, had shared the same fate. At St. Peter's we took out our guns, and hauled our vessel on a beautiful beach, and cleaned her bottom in order to facilitate her sailing.

Near this Island, we fell in with a Newfoundland shallop owned and commanded by Charles Grundy; he had been to St. John's after salt, for his own use; he was an independent English fisherman. I do not mean that he was a man of fortune; only that he was independent of the English merchants in whose service, almost all the fishermen were employed. We detained Grandy some time, and examined him very closely, and were informed by him, that an English brig had recently entered the bay, with supplies for the fishing stations, we gave Charley some pork and bread, and dismissed him to his great joy, for he fared much better than his countrymen generally did, when they fell into the hands of American privateersmen.

We flattered ourselves, that we should fall in with this brig, and obtain a fine prize. We sailed up the bay,