Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 8).djvu/27



I was born in Westford, County of Middlesex, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on the sixth day of July, 1783. I lived with my father, Tilly Buttrick, until I was ten years old; when he removed to Princeton, in the County of Worcester, where was the summer seat and residence of his Honor Lieutenant Governor Moses Gill. I was put to Mr. Gill, where I lived in his service five years, after which I went and lived with my father, who now lived in Groton, near where I was born, two years. At the expiration of that time, being in my seventeenth year, I was placed by my father in a mercantile house, in Boston. My master, D. Hastings Esq., was a respectable merchant, and one of the best of men. With him I resided until I was twenty one years of age. Being desirous of seeing more of the world than my present situation allowed, I resolved to go to sea. Accordingly I shipped on board the fine ship Alnomak, of Boston, bound for the Isle of France. Our crew consisted of seventeen in number, mounting eight guns. On the tenth of September, 1804, we weighed anchor, and left the harbor of Boston, with a fair wind, which continued until the twelfth, in the afternoon; at which time we were clear of the land; the wind then gradually decreased, until we were becalmed, which was about six o'clock the same evening. We remained in this situation about one hour, and night coming on, it was noticed that the sea was greatly agitated; which is very uncommon in a calm.

[6] The night was extremely dark, and the surfs that broke about us appeared like huge banks of snow. At