Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile — John Shaqi
Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of ExileMelville, Herman
General
Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile
Melville, Herman
Potter, Israel, 1744-1826? -- Fiction
several pieces of which were extracted by the surgeon, ere long, thanks
to the high health and pure blood of the farmer, Israel rejoined his
regiment when they were throwing up intrenchments on Prospect Hill.
Bunker Hill was now in possession of the foe, who in turn had fortified
it.
On the third of July, Washington arrived from the South to take the
command. Israel witnessed his joyful reception by the huzzaing
companies.
The British now quartered in Boston suffered greatly from the scarcity
of provisions. Washington took every precaution to prevent their
receiving a supply. Inland, all aid could easily be cut off. To guard
against their receiving any by water, from tories and other disaffected
persons, the General equipped three armed vessels to intercept all
traitorous cruisers. Among them was the brigantine Washington, of ten
guns, commanded by Captain Martiedale. Seamen were hard to be had. The
soldiers were called upon to volunteer for these vessels. Israel was
one who so did; thinking that as an experienced sailor he should not be
backward in a juncture like this, little as he fancied the new service
assigned.
Three days out of Boston harbor, the brigantine was captured by the
enemy’s ship Foy, of twenty guns. Taken prisoner with the rest of the
crew, Israel was afterwards put on board the frigate Tartar, with
immediate sailing orders for England. Seventy-two were captives in this
vessel. Headed by Israel, these men—half way across the sea—formed a
scheme to take the ship, but were betrayed by a renegade Englishman. As
ringleader, Israel was put in irons, and so remained till the frigate
anchored at Portsmouth. There he was brought on deck; and would have
met perhaps some terrible fate, had it not come out, during the
examination, that the Englishman had been a deserter from the army of
his native country ere proving a traitor to his adopted one. Relieved
of his irons, Israel was placed in the marine hospital on shore, where
half of the prisoners took the small-pox, which swept off a third of
their number. Why talk of Jaffa?
From the hospital the survivors were conveyed to Spithead, and thrust
on board a hulk. And here in the black bowels of the ship, sunk low in
the sunless sea, our poor Israel lay for a month, like Jonah in the
belly of the whale.
But one bright morning, Israel is hailed from the deck. A bargeman of
the commander’s boat is sick. Known for a sailor, Israel for the nonce
is appointed to pull the absent man’s oar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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