Page:Life and unparalleled voyages and adventures of Ambrose Gwinnett (1).pdf/15

 I cannot lay them at your door, that I have been without my sufferings. God knows my heart, I am exceedingly sorry for the injustice that has been done you; but the ways of Providence are unsearchable.” He then proceeded to inform me by what accident all my troubles had been brought about.

"When you left me in bed," said he, "having at first awakened with an impression I could not account for, I found myself growing exceedingly sick and feeble. I did not know what was the matter; I groaned and sighed, and thought myself going to die, when, accidentally putting my hand to my left arm, in which I had been bled the morning before, I found my shirt wet, and, in short, that the bandage had slipped, and the orifice being again opened, that a great flux of blood had ensued. This immediately accounted for the condition in which I found myself. I thought, however, that I would not disturb the family, who, I knew, had all gone to bed very late; I therefore mustered all my strength, and got up with my night-gown loose about me, for the purpose of going to a neighbouring haircutter, in order to have the blood stopped, and the bandage replaced. He lived directly opposite our house; but, when I was crossing the way to knock at his door, a band of men, armed with cutlasses and hangers, came down the town, and, seizing me, hurried me toward the beach. I begged and prayed, but they soon silenced my cries. At first, I took them for a pressgang, though I afterwards found they were a gang of ruffians belonging to a privateer, aboard of which they immediately took me; however, before I got there, the loss of blood caused me to faint away. The surgeon of the ship, I suppose, tied my arm; for, when my senses returned, I found myself in a hammock, with somebody feeling my pulse; the vessel was then under weigh.

I asked where I was. They said I was safe enough. I immediately called for my night-gown; it was