The Sufferings and Escape of Capt. Chas. H. Brown From an Awful Imprisonment by Chilian ConvictsBrown, Charles H., captain of the bark Florida
History
The Sufferings and Escape of Capt. Chas. H. Brown From an Awful Imprisonment by Chilian Convicts
Brown, Charles H., captain of the bark Florida
Brown, Charles H., captain of the bark Florida; Florida (Ship); Punta Arenas (Chile) -- History
The next three hours we spent in anxious listening to what was going
on without; Mr. Dunn and myself now and then exchanging a word in a
whisper. Every attempt that we made to look from our little window was
prevented by our guard, who stood closely gathered about both door and
window, every now and then looking in upon us. Without, all was very
still and orderly; no noisy rioting to be heard, nothing, save every
now and then the tread of soldiers, or the usual noises attending the
regular military duty of a barrack yard. We expected every moment to
hear the noise of firing, or some shout of exultation, if the officers
of the Virago were entrapped as we had been; but all was quiet.
Towards the middle of the afternoon, the English mate and myself were
taken out, and conducted to our old prison. All was quiet in the
yard, and as I glanced around, I saw no new faces, no change in the
arrangement of the soldiers, no building guarded but those which I had
been accustomed to recognize as prisons for my crew, the crew of the E.
Cornish, and the room where captain Avalos, and the prisoners with him,
were confined.
Arrived at our old home, the guard became more communicative, and
told me that our prison had been changed to keep us out of sight of
the English officers, who had come on shore, visited the barracks,
and the Florida, and had left the harbor without having their
suspicions excited. This chance of escape was lost to us then. I felt
very indignant at what seemed to me the unparalleled stupidity of the
officers of the Virago, and yet it is very possible that had their
suspicions been excited, we might all have fallen victims to the
revengeful spirit of the rebels, before any thing could have been done
for our rescue.
During that evening and the next day, I managed to extract from my
guard and from one or two of my fellow voyagers, the Chilian prisoners,
who had now become almost regular visitors to my room, an account of
all that had occurred during the visit of the Virago to the colony.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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