weather, to another vessel to procure them some spirituous liquor, one of the officers had furnished him with his hat as a token for something. The man had done his errand and was returning, when the sea running so high that it upset his underpinning, which floated from him and left him to shift for himself in the water. The storm was so severe that the people were below deck in all the vessels near, except ours. The Captain of our company happened at that instant to be on deck (peeping into some concern that was none of his own, as he generally was) and saw him upset. We had no better boat belonging to our vessel than the one the man in the water had just been thrown from. Our Captain seized a musket that happened to be near by, and discharged it several times before he could rouse any of the people in the nearest vessels. At length he was heard and observed by some on board a French armed vessel, who sent a boat and took the man up and put him on board the vessel he went from. I saw him in the water and he exhibited rather a ludicrous figure; with an officer's large cocked hat upon his head, paddling away with one hand, and holding his canteen in the other. He was nearly exhausted before the boat reached him. Our officers pretended to blame the others greatly, for sending the poor fellow upon such an errand in a storm. But it is to be remembered that they had a plenty of liquor on board their vessel, and therefore had no occasion to send any one on such business.
After the storm had ceased, we proceeded up the river to a place called Burwell's ferry, where the fleet all anchored; it was sunset when we anchored and I was sent across the river with two men in a borrowed boat, to fill a cask with water; it was quite dark before I got ready to return, and I had to cross almost the whole river, (which is pretty wide here,) and through the whole fleet before I reached our vessel. I could not find her in the dark among so many, and when I hailed her the soldiers in almost every vessel in the river would answer me. What could I do? why, just what I did do; keep rowing one way and another till nine or ten o'clock at night, weary, and wishing every man in the fleet, except ourselves, had a toad in his throat; at length by mere good luck I found our vessel, which soon put an end to
