Before we were allowed to tread her decks, however, we had to spend two or three days on board the _Royal Sovereign_, of one hundred and ten guns, because the _Woodrop Simms_ was not quite ready to receive us. Here I was exposed to the gaze of eight hundred men; but none of them knew me. Indeed, this was my most hazardous situation; for the _Sovereign_ and _Macedonian_ had sailed in company before the capture of the latter. Whenever any of her men came near our quarters, I endeavored to look cross-eyed, or closed one eye so as to appear partially blind; and in various other ways altered my appearance, so that even an old shipmate would have been puzzled to recognise me at first.
At last, the grateful news reached us that the Cartel was ready. We went on board with great gaiety, where we met our shipmates who had left the Cape before us. They had been confined in the celebrated Dartmoor prison, with a number of other prisoners, where they had met with rather rough treatment and rougher fare. They were present at what they called the Massacre. Several of the prisoners were detected in an effort to escape. To strike terror into the poor victims, Captain Shortland ordered his men to fire in upon them. Quite a number were killed, and more wounded, by this cold-blooded act; the rest sought the shelter of the prison walls. Several Americans suffered in this wanton assault. Our meeting at this juncture was a source of mutual gratulation.
Our ship was now surrounded with boats containing provisions of all descriptions. To our surprise, the Dartmoor men bought freely of everything. Where they obtained their money, we could not imagine. We learned afterwards that their stock consisted of counterfeit coins, manufactured by the prisoners! It was well for them that our ship put to sea before John Bull’s peace officers received information of the fraud. What a school for every species of vice is opened by war! The corruptions and vices occasioned by the operation of this system, are beyond the power of the imagination to conceive.
My feelings were peculiar as I beheld my native land receding from my vision. I was happy, and yet sad. Happy, because I was now safe; sad, because I was again leaving the soil which held my mother and my friends. On the whole, my joyous feelings prevailed.