Page:Narrative of the life and adventures of Paul Cuffe, a Pequot Indian.djvu/15

Rh of which we eat nothing but whortleberries, which we picked by the way side. On the third day a Friend Quaker kindly provided us with a good breakfast and gave us money to pay our bridge fare. This man's name was John Rogers; and of him it may be truly said, "he did unto others as he would have them do unto him." How few of the pious of this covetous age can be found to exhibit as much real disinterested benevolence as this man did. After this we did not suffer for want of food. We arrived at Philadelphia, and from thence we went either to sea or to our several homes. After getting my pay, I went again to see my parents at Westport. Here I stayed until spring, when I again shipped aboard the ship Traveller. Jonathan Kendricks, master. The crew numbered seventeen souls, principally Cape Cod men. We sailed for the Straits of Belisle, where we went after codfish. We sailed as far north as Esquimaux bay, where we took in one hundred and sixty thousand fish in the short space of forty-five days. We then sailed for Boston. When off Nantucket we experienced a severe gale, which continued all one night, during which time the ship struck on the shoals; but after two hours we got off and put into Chatham, on Cape Cod. We lost our main-mast during this gale, and all the boats but one; besides this, we lost one man by the name of Hagars, who fell from the fore-top and was drowned. We dried our fish at Chatham and refitted before sailing for Boston, at which place we arrived some time in December. He we disposed of our fish and returned to New Bedford and stayed until spring. The next trip which I made to sea, was in the brig America, of 200 tons, William Dagget, master. We sailed from Boston with a crew often men, and twenty-five passengers, on a cruise to New Orleans, which we made in twenty days.

While opposite Cape Florida, we fell in with a pirate schooner, which gave chase to us by coming down upon our larboard quarter, and giving us a gun which passed through our bulwark. Our Captain at this juncture advised a surrender of our vessel, but the mate declared he would not give up if the men would stand by him. The passengers told him they would fight as long as there was a man left. They then stripped off their coats, and we cleared for action. We then fired a broad side, which cut away the pirate's main-mast and killed several of