Page:Narrative of the life and adventures of Paul Cuffe, a Pequot Indian.djvu/17

Rh to Bedford, where all hands were paid off and discharged. The next voyage that I made was with Captain Joseph Gardner, to Matanzas, in the ship William, for Molasses, Coffee, and Sugar. This was in the year 1820. The seas were thickly infested with pirates at this time, which detained us eighteen days after we were loaded. Captain Porter at this time lay off Matanzas, in the sloop Peacock. He had a number of schooners also under his command, two of which convoyed us with sixty other merchantmen across the Bahama banks. The next fall I went another voyage in the Mary, of Boston, Captain Joseph White, to St. Thomas for Molasses, which we carried to Boston.

During the next eight years I made sixteen voyages to the West India Islands, under different Captains and in different vessels. In none of these voyages did any thing unusual occur, though we had to throw some of our cargoes overboard to save the vessels. After the above voyages I stayed at home a few months, but not being contented on shore, about the 25th of June, 1829, I again went to sea in the ship Trident, of 600 tons. There were sixty of the crew, principally experienced whale-men. We were bound to the Pacific Ocean, for whale. Our course was as usual by way of the Western Islands, where we arrived in about 20 days. We caught three Sperm on the passage. We stopped Flores, one of these islands, where we took in potatoes, onions, pumpkins, hogs, and chickens. Here we stopped but two days. Then we steered away south for the Cape De Verds, which we passed. The next land which we saw was the Isle of May. Thence we steered away for Cape Horn, where we arrived in 90 days thereafter. We then doubled Cape Horn, and sailed northward off the coast, until we came to the island of Juan Fernandez. famous for its being for several years the abode of the celebrated Robinson Crusoe. One could not help thinking of the dreadful life this celebrated navigator lived while here. His lonely hours and tantalizing dreams. His constant fear of beasts and cannibal savages. While here we visited the untenanted cave where that noted adventurer is said to have resided. On this island are a great many goats; also peaches, which grow wild in the woods. There were but few people here. The colony planted by Crusoe not having multiplied very fast. The land here