Page:Life and unparalleled voyages and adventures of Ambrose Gwinnett (1).pdf/16

 brought me; but of a considerate sum of money that was in the poeket of it I could get no account. I complained to the captain of the violence that had been done me, and the robbery his men had committed; but, being a brutish fellow, he laughed at my grief, and told me, if I had lost anything I should soon have prize-money enough to make amends. In a word, not being able to help myself, I was obliged to submit; and, for three months, they forced me to work before the mast. In the end, however, we met the same fate that you did. We were taken by the Spaniards, and, by adventures parallel with your own, you now see me here on my return to my native country, whither, if you will accompany me, I shall think myself extremely happy.

There was nothing now to prevent my returning to England; and a ship being to set sail in eight or ten days, Mr Collins and I determined to embark in it. As soon as we returned home, I went to my master and told, him my resolution; he did not dissuade me from it, chiefly, I suppose, because it gave him an opportunity of getting the little office I held for a nephew of his, who was lately come to live with him, to whom the same day I delivered the trust. And here the providence of God was no less remarkable to me than in other particulars of my life; for, the same night, eight or ten pirates, who were in the prison, watched the occasion, while the young man was locking up the wards, to seize him, taking the keys from him after having left him for dead; and, before the alarm was sufficiently given, five of them made their escape, having, as was supposed, got off the coast by means of the piratical boats, which were kept constantly hovering about.

It was on the 18th of November 1712, that, having made all my little preparations, I sent my trunk aboard the Nostra Senora, a merchant-ship, bound for Cadiz; Michael Deronza, master. The vessel was to set sail that evening, and lie in the roads,