When any remarkable circumſtances take place in a man’s life, he feels commonly a diſpoſition to communicate them to the world: If they have been deliverances from great and ſignal dangers, he will make this communication from a principle of gratitude to the =Being= who hath protected and preſerved him: He will wiſh to engage others to be thankful on his behalf; and a knowledge of the kindneſs of Heaven to him may lead others to truſt in GOD, when they are brought into like diſtreſs and danger. By theſe motives the Subject of the following pages hopes he is influenced in publiſhing them to the world; which is all the apology that may be expected from the =Publick=’s diſtreſſed Friend, _BARN. DOWNES_, Jun. =Barnstable=, September 10, 1786. ==> _The Author gratefully acknowledges himſelf indebted to a_ Reverend =Gentleman= _in_ Boſton _for his kindneſs in correcting the following ſheets_. A NARRATIVE, &c. I was born in _Barnſtable_, in _New-England_, October 2, 1757, of credible Parents, whom I ſerved as an obedient Son, I hope, until the commencement of the late war called me from my home, and led me to exchange the occupation of a Huſbandman, to which I was bred for the more dangerous employment of a Soldier. In this capacity I served my Country 3 campaigns, and know not that my behaviour was censured by my officers. After having returned for a time to the Farming-Buſineſs, I concluded to try my fortune at ſea: I entered accordingly on board the ſchooner _Bunker-Hill_, Captain _Iſaac Cobb_, Commander, on a privateering voyage: But we had not been out more than 6 days before we were taken by the brig _Hope_, one _Brown_, Commander, and carried into _Halifax_. We were committed to jail and kept very ſhort: Then I was taken with the ſmall-pox, thro’ which GOD ſafely carried me when deſtitute of the neceſſaries of life, and under great preſſure of mind. But after my being recovered ſo far as to be returned to the jail from the hoſpital, in conſequence of my having nothing but a ſmall allowance of ſalt proviſions, which were next to poiſon for a ſick perſon, I was taken with a violent fever, which returned me again to the hoſpital, and brought me to the gates of the grave. No perſon who hath not experienced it can imagine how gloomy and diſtreſſing it is to be under ſuch circumſtances: To be far diſtant from our deareſt Friends; to be among perſons who are not only without any concern for us, or intereſt in our fate, but who are our profeſſed enemies, and not governed even by the common principles of humanity, is a caſe truly melancholy. In this ſituation I was attacked with a bleeding of the noſe, (to which I had before been ſubject) which brought me to the very borders of eternity!