The Little Unsavoury Morsels We Daily Eat,
Created Incessant Quarrels, Every One Contending For The Frying-Pan; And
Our Only Convenience For A Fire, Was A Tub Half Filled With Earth, Which
Made Cooking So Tedious, That We Had The Continual Noise Of Frying From
Morning To Night.
I proposed that we should stand for the Bay of
Conception, as being the nearest to us; and we
Were hard put to it every
day, while the sea-breeze continued; for, not having above sixteen
inches free board, and our bark tumbling prodigiously, the water ran
over us perpetually; and having only a grating deck, and no tarpaulin to
cover it but the top-sail of our bark, our pomps were barely sufficient
to keep us free.
At four in the morning of the 10th, we fell in with a large ship, and I
could see by moon-light that she was Europe-built. Our case being
desperate, we stood towards her, and being rigged after the fashion of
the South Seas, they did not regard us till day-light. Not being then
quite up with her, they suspected us by the brownness of our canvas,
wore ship, hauled close upon the wind, fired a gun, and crowded sail
away from us, leaving us at a great rate. It fell calm two hours after,
when we had recourse to our oars, and neared her with tolerable speed.
In the mean time, we overhauled our arms, which we found in bad
condition, a third of them wanting flints, and we had only three
cutlasses, so that we were by no means prepared for boarding, which yet
was the only means we had of taking the ship.
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