United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
This was the last night I was thus engaged, for on the 13th of August,
to my very great satisfaction, my eyes fell on the Orpheus standing up
the harbour and taking up her berth among the fleet. I did not,
however, get my discharge from the Chatham till the following day, when,
accompanied by old Grampus, Tom Rockets, and my two other men, I lost no
time in pulling on board, after an absence of ten weeks. I was warmly
greeted by my messmates, and we each had our adventures to recount. She
had taken seven prizes, most of which she brought in with her. Poor
Lee, the surgeon's second mate, was, they told me, at the point of
death. His constitution was unfit to cope with the hard life to which
he was exposed in the navy. He died soon afterwards, and on the morning
of the 16th we carried him on shore on Staten Island, where he rests in
an unknown grave in the land of the stranger.
The same day we sailed and steered a course for Cape May, with, the
intention of proceeding up the Delaware river to Philadelphia. My
account of the way in which I had frightened off the privateer highly
delighted my shipmates, and Captain Hudson was pleased to approve of my
conduct. We had on board forty masters of merchantmen which had been
captured by the different ships-of-war. They were mostly very decent
men, some of them not unlike my friend Mr Scuttle. We treated them
with every kindness and attention in our power. On the 24th we arrived
off Cape Henlopen, opposite Cape May, at the entrance of Delaware Bay.
Here we hove-to, and Captain Hudson ordered me to go on shore with a
flag of truce, to land the masters of the merchantmen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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