Our people were messed together in the hold, and were guarded by a sentinel, and not permitted to be on deck, save two at a time. This was a proper precaution, as they mustered nearly as many as the watch of the brig. We, the aristocracy of the schooner, were allowed to be on deck any time during the day; and our captive monarch, the captain, had free range, at all times, day and night.

It is the custom on board British vessels of war, to have religious services performed on Sundays, when the weather is fair; and, as small vessels have no chaplains attached to them, the captain usually officiates. One such Sunday occurred while we were on board the Heron. The decks were scoured as clean and bright as sand and holy-stones could make them. The men all shaved and shorn, and washed, clad in their immaculate white trowsers, clean shirts and black cravats, were reposing about the decks in groups, for all labor, save such as was absolutely necessary, was suspended. The carpenter and his assistants were busied in ranging the benches across the deckthe windlass was covered with the British flag-the Bible, Book of Common Prayer, and a printed volume of Sermons for the Fleet, were laid on it. The officers were all dressed in full suits of uniform, appropriate to their several ranks, and their good swords were girded on. Presently the shipbell gave forth a long, low, solemn sound, reminding me of the pleasant sound of the church-going bells of my own far off, and to me interdicted land, when the men repaired to the benches. The officers had chairs placed for them abaft the windlass. Everything wore a religious aspect. The muscles of the sailors, usually so mirthful, were composed to gravity. The officers of our schooner were invited to attend, and places were assigned them. The captain came out of his cabin, and took his station at the windlass. After the apparent meditation of a minute or two, he opened the prayer book, and commenced the services in the beautiful and affecting language of the English ritual, the officers and many of the men responding. After the prayers, he read a short sermon, adapted to the wants and condition of seamen, and then dismissed the meeting.

It was a pleasant and solemn sight, on this bright and beautiful day, under the bright sun, and breathing the balmy airs of a tropical latitude, to behold these rough seamen in their neat dresses, attending public worship on shipboard. And its influence must have been good, for however wayward and reckless the deportment of sailors generally is, yet I have found that the religious sense is not obliterated by their wild and wandering lives. They see around them on every side, so many manifestations of the divine impress, that the religious feeling of dependence in a superior and omnipotent power, is kept alive in their hearts. This feeling is, I know, sadly debased by superstition; but with proper culture, it may be made to bear a very important influence, in elevating and improving their religious and moral characters.

When we were removed from our schooner, two of our men, one of whom was the deserter from the Rattlesnake, were left on board of her. This reckless fellow conceived the project of retaking the schooner, and he won over one or two of the prize-crew to his purpose. I have no doubt, from the daring character of the man, that he would have succeeded, had he had the prudence to conceal his intentions. But discretion formed no part of his valor; so he got drunk and boasted of his plans. He was, therefore, removed on board the sloop-of-war, with his two English associates. They were put in irons, but he was allowed to join his companions of the schooner. It is the custom, on board of men-of-war, to have a general washing-day once a week, when the weather will permit. It was washing-day on board the Heron, and the prisoners were indulged with the privilege of participating in it. Now, our desperado had no clothes to wash, for he had none but what he stood in, and those were of the poorest. At the close of the day, when the boatswain piped— "Down clothes and hammocks," our man took his empty bag and went coolly and deliberately up into the foreshrouds, and filled his bag with the garments of some of the English seamen; and this he did so adroitly that he was not detected, nor probably ever suspected. When we were removed from the Heron, he boasted of it, and produced his plunder.

Ox the twelfth day succeeding our capture, the Heron arrived at Barbadoes, having the schooner in company. Here, every thing I saw wore an air of novelty. The beautiful bay, with its bright and tranquil waters; the long line of beach, with its white sands, on which the surf was foaming; the thick grove of tall and stately cocoa-nut trees at one extremity of the bay, and the commanding military works at the other; the numerous fleet of men-ofwar and merchant-vessels, quietly reposing at their anchors, or coming in, or getting under weigh to depart; the numerous boats plying about from craft to craft; the black and shining faces of their rowers; their mirthful and laughter-loving countenances; their jocund and obstreperous noises, and their unique negro melodies; the town of Bridgetown, lying like a crescent along the shores of the bay and stretching inland, with its white painted houses and green jalousies; far in the interior, the highlands, overtowering all, with the fog resting on their summits, while all below them was bright with the transcendant dazzling of a tropical sun, and green with all a tropical verdure-altogether comprised a scene on which I gazed with wonder and delight, which not even the disastrous situation in which I was placed, and the gloomy anticipations of a long imprisonment, could

repress.

We remained on board the Heron till the next day, when we were taken on shore, attended by a guard of marines. When the last boat was loaded, and about ready to shove off, our scamp of the Rattlesnake, having conceived a covetous love for a pair of trowsers belonging to one of the English sailors, who was in irons, lingered behind, and seemed reluctant to enter. "Come, my man," said the lieutenant, who superintended the embarkation, "heave a-head and go into the boat, unless you wish to enter His Majesty's service." "Bless your honor," said the Yankee, "I should be very glad to leave your brig, but I don't like to go without my trowsers." "Your trowsers! where

are they?" chaps that's got 'em on;

"Why, sir, one of them down below in irons has I lent 'em to him on board the schooner, and he won't give 'em to me again."

"Well, my man, come along with me, and I'll see who will have them," said the officer.

So down between decks they proceeded, the lieutenant in a rage, and Rattlesnake with a stolid look of simplicity. The officer accosted the mutineer "You rebellious scoundrel, give this man his trowsers."

"Sir, I have got no trowsers belonging to him."

Our Yankee rolled up the whites of his eyes, and holding up his hands in apparent astonishment, exclaimed"Only think, now! why, he's got 'em on, sir!"

"You mutineering rascal!" cried out the sub-" off with those trowsersquick, or I'll call the boatswain's mate and ship's corporal." The poor English lad found his best chance lay in obedience; that he had better part with his trowsers than gain a flogging; so he slipped them off, and Rattlesnake rolled them under his arm, and thanking the lieutenant, passed into the boat.

We were landed on the careenage, or mole, pronounced here Canash, where we found a guard of soldiers in waiting for us; they were part of a battalion stationed here, called the Royal York Rangers. We were conducted through several populous streets, about a mile, to the criminal jail of the island. A large number of negroes, of every age, from the grey-headed grandsire down to the "pickaninny" of three years of age, of both sexes, and of every variety of shade, from the jet-black to the almost imperceptible African tinge of the "quadroon," in every variety of habiliment, from the straight-laced dandy coat of the pampered domestic slave down to the simplest waistcoat-cloth of the plantation negro, and the younger scions of ebony in no habiliments at all, but in as perfect a state of nudity as they were when dame Nature ushered them into this breathing world, awaited

our landing, to testify to us, in their own way, their welcome of us to their beautiful island; nor did their hospitable reception of us cease, till we were all snugly immured within the dominions of Mr. Briggs, the worthy keeper of the prison.

Their joy and welcome were testified by antic gambols; by shouts and grimaces; by wild and loud merriment; by hurling at us sticks and stones, and by regaling our ears with their wild negro songs, yelled forth with all the simple melody of these simplest of Nature's children. I preserved some specimens of these songs, and have just been perusing them. They have awakened in my now more mature years the recollection of the ludicrous scene of our passage to the prison, and of the feelings which I entertained for our mode of escort in those my boyish days. Perhaps the reader may be amused with one or two specimens:

"Man a war buckra, man a war buckra, He de boy for me;

He catch 'em Yankee, he catch 'em Yankee, De good prize for he."

"Ding-dong bell, ding-dong bell,

De crock ob heben trike eleben,
We catch 'em Yankee for good;
De crock ob heben trike eleben,
Ding-dong bell

De Yankee come for land-crab, for yam,
He lub a Yankee well."

in attendance to inflict upon them such punishment as their owners directed.

The callousness of these wretched beings to their punishment, and their apparent insensibility to their degraded and outraged condition, struck me with wonder and astonishment, coming as I did, from a land where slavery had long ceased to exist, and where it never had existed but in a mitigated form.

I was one day going past this cage, when a stout negro was undergoing the punishment of the lash, inflicted by one of the white brutes in charge of the place. A group of negroes were looking on and making merry at the sufferings of their fellow-slave, sufferings which, perhaps, they had recently undergone, or were doomed to undergo at no very distant period. I could not repress my feelings of indignation, but vented them pretty audibly, and in no very gentle terms.

"What

usiness for you, sar?" said one of them, " spose I had a nigger, and he speak me sassy, I dead him directly;" and all the other negroes applauded the speaker.

We found when we arrived at the jail, about 500 French prisoners confined there, being the crews of two frigates which had been captured a short time previously, by the Venerable, 74.

The jail, if I remember right, was of stone, two stories high, and surrounded on all sides with a high stone wall. The yard was tolerably capacious, and we had the freedom of it, in the day time. I believe that there were some prisoners belonging to the island, confined there waiting trial, but I did not see them. There was one black woman-a slave, under sentence of death, awaiting execution. crime was the murder of another slave.

Her

We were visited the first day by the American agent. He was accompanied by a Jewish clothes dealer of the island, and made very particular inquiries as respected our condition and our wants, and promising to send those who were in a destitute condition, a supply of clothing, which promise he soon after executed. This first interview with our countryman, the representative of our government here, and with whom we were destined, for a time, to associate the idea of our protector, on whom we were to rely for a redress of any grievances we might

suffer, and to whom we were to look in a measure for protection, produced in our minds a favorable sentiment of his kindness and care of us, which I am sorry to say, a subsequent acquaintance obliterated.

The first day or two that we were in jail, we occupied its basement story, a dark, uncomfortable, and unhealthy abode; but I do not think that we were put there in a spirit of unkindness, for during our stay on this island, we were uniformly treated with all the kindness compatible with our situation; and I never witnessed a harsh or disrespectful tone or bearing from any one, having authority over us, except under strong provocation; and then but seldom. It requires no small degree of kindness of spirit, and self-command, for any one in charge of prisoners of war, to be able to avoid harshness of manner. Under such circumstances of restraint, the worst passion of the prisoners were but too often displayed; and there is a reckless, daring charac ter, about American prisoners, a chafing under restraint, which renders it extremely difficult to keep them within the limits of proper subordination. The keeper of this prison told me when we had been there but a few days, that our forty men gave him more trouble than the five hundred Frenchmen. Said he, "A French-. man settles down at once in a prison, into habits of quiet order, industry, mild gaiety, and respectful submission, so that he causes us very little trouble; but your men have such a wild, reckless, daring, enterprizing character, that it would puzzle the d-1 to keep them in good order."

We were confined in the cellar, because it was the only unoccupied part of the prison, except the garret. The prison-ship had been cast ashore the previous hurricane season, and another was being prepared. After a day or two, our situation was found to be so uncomfortable, that the keeper removed us to the garret, where we were a little better off as regarded light and air, but the heat from the sun, which had full play into our room, was almost suffocating. As we had the yard, however, to pass the day in, we made out to exist during the night; but it was a state of parched and feverish existence; and to this was added the annoyance

of various kinds of insects, which put sleep almost out of the question. We consoled ourselves with the thought, that we should soon get used to this kind of life, and that then it would not be so intolerable, as habit takes off the wire-edge of every thing. But it was destined by fate, or by John Baker, Esq., lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and agent for prisoners of war, that some of us should not stay long enough in this jail, to get used to its garrets.

We were visited every day while there, by a great number of negroes, with various fruits, vegetables and other commodities to sell, carried on their heads in trays, and the way in which these merry-hearted and unreflecting creatures would dance and caper about, with their trays on their heads, unsupported by their hands, amused me. and excited my wonder at their dexterity. It has been said, and that truly, that the negroes' head is the only beast of burden in the West India islands; and the weight they will carry with apparent ease is almost incredible, for I have seen a negro trot off with a load, which it required two to place upon his head.

I was for some time puzzled to know, why the demand for cocoanuts was so great among our people and the Frenchmen; for, truly, tray after tray full were all the time being bought, while other, to me, more delicious fruit, were in a great degree neglected. But, at last, the problem was solved. One of our sailors, who had taken a liking to me, came one day with a cocoanut. in his hand, and with much kindness. of manner, inquired of me, if I should not like to suck a monkey. I thought the man was quizzing me. "Well, well, my lad," said he, "if you don't know what's good, I do; and there's more for them that likes it, that's all. my chap;" and parting the husks of the cocoanut, from over the eye of it, he displaced a cork, and putting the nut to his mouth, he drank away with much seeming fondness.

On further inquiry, I found that rum was prohibited to the prisoners, and that the negroes, to supply their craving desires, were in the habit of removing the milk from the cocoanut, by letting it run out at the eye, and supplying its place with rum. The great demand for cocoanuts was no longer a

mystery, and the prison phrase of sucking the monkey was explained to me. I have since seen this mode of smuggling rum, practiced on board of menof-war, in the West Indies. Here was a new solution to the old problem of "What causes the milk in the cocoanut."

The keeper of the prison was a worthy and humane man, and did all that was consistent with his duty and the poor accommodations of the jail, to make our situation comfortable. His kind family, likewise, were assiduous in their endeavours to serve us. The transport agent, who had the general superintendence of prisoners of war, though a pompous little man, was, in the main, kind and humane. We were visited by many of the inhabitants of the island, and none came without kind words or looks, and few without more solid tokens of sympathy and commiseration. Kind words, and kind looks were, to me, more gratifying than presents, because all that was necessary to existence was provided by those whose duty it was to do it; and in my feelings of almost utter desolation, in the midst of a crowd, with most of whom I had no sympathy of common feelings; a kind word, a sympathising look, or a friendly grasp of the hand, affected me almost to tears; while, at the same time, my unmortified pride would have spurned at any thing in the shape of alms.

After remaining in jail a week, five others and myself were admitted to our parole. We were taken out of prison and conducted to the office of the trans

port agent, where we came under the necessary obligations to conform to the restrictions of our parole. We were admitted to this favor, because we had held offices of some rank on board our schooner, and, we understood, at the special request of the governor of the island.

While at the agent's office, I used all the force of the little rhetoric I possessed, to induce him to send me home. I was down on the shipping list of the schooner, as clerk, and when we were captured, I destroyed the quarter bill, which showed me up as an officer of marines, so I represented to him that I was a non-combatant. He replied, that I had a pair of hands and two bright eyes, and he had no doubt that I had done my best to shoot an Englishman. I told him that I was in poor health; and he said, that the climate of Barbadoes was very salubrious, except when the yellow fever was there. I told him that I was young and small; and he said that time did wonders in correcting both these faults. Finding him inexorable, I exclaimed in a pet, that I thought it hard to detain a boy like me. "Boy!" said he, with considerable sternness of manner; "if you are too young to run at large, I had better send you back again for Mr. Briggs to take care of you; he understands the management of boys very well." This recalled me to a better sense of our relative situations, and made me ashamed of my petulance. I accordingly apologized to him, and accepted my parole.