ABSTRACT
As my youngest sister was extremely pretty, I was soon after this affair appointed acting purser of a frigate going to Barbadoes. We very soon failed, and had a prosperous passage. When we were in the vicinity of the West-India islands, we met at different times more than fifty sail of ships, none of which we approached, 64our captain, who looked at them very attentively, assuring us always that they were ships of the line. It must be observed, that we were at this time at war with the French. Our sailors murmured at being dif- appointed in their hopes of prize-money, and our sea-officers, who were used to arithmetic in working their day’s work, calculated that the French had only twelve sail of the line in the West-Indies. The captain, in short, was blamed by every body but myself; I endeavoured to vindicate him, and proved to the officers, that even if he mistook, it was natural enough, as he always looked through one of Dollond’s best six-feet glasses, which magnified exceedingly.
