For prisoners, we were treated very well. I was allowed tenpence a day to live upon, which, with occasional presents received from kind, friendly people in the town, we managed very well. For the first few nights our beds were rather too full of light and heavy cavalry; but by adopting the plan of lying down in them a good half-hour before going to sleep, and then throwing off the clothes, and setting to work with a good will, in the course of a week most of the bugs and fleas were got rid of, and we enjoyed tolerable rest. At this period Leghorn was placed in a happy state of suspense, between being in actual possession of the French and under the government of the Queen of Etruria. The former held all the fortifications, as an army of observation, while the latter was acknowledged for a short time longer, because it suited the views of the French emperor, and we were permitted to have a kind of acting consul there, who was a most worthy, excellent man--the Rev. J. Hall--whose kindness I shall never forget. He had a very delightful family. What became of them after the French took the entire possession of the country I never knew. Some American merchants also (particularly a Mr. Purviance) showed me every attention when I was let out of prison. I tried, through the Rev. J. Hall, to get myself and boat’s crew liberated, claiming the protection of the Etrurian Government, they not being actually at war with England, and professing neutrality, but I soon found it was useless, for they dare do nothing to displease the French. However, most luckily for me, a friend of Joseph Bonaparte’s, who was at that time King of Naples, had been captured in a French corvette, _La Bergère_, and he sent out a flag of truce to Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, offering me in exchange for his friend, who was at Malta, which our admiral agreed to. At the expiration of six weeks I was, to my great joy, liberated, and took up my quarters in the town, where I remained more than a fortnight, visited Pisa, and Monte Negro, and amused myself about the town, until an opportunity offered of my getting to Palermo.