ABSTRACT
Author practices the men at the guns on board the Mary—Competition amongst the blacks so employed—Combustible jars invented by the author, how made—Author falls in with two suspicious vessels of war in the middle passage—Observing their superior force endeavours to avoid them—Is chased and hailed by both successively—Believes them to be French cruizers from Cayenne, and refuses to lie to—Is attacked by one of them, a heavy brig, and returns her fire—The other, a ship, also attacks him—Sanguinary engagement in the night with both vessels—Gallant conduct of the Mary’s crew—The ship drops astern—Comes up again—Both again close upon the Mary—Several men killed and wounded—The Mary fights them till daylight next morning, when the author being wounded, and the ship dreadfully cut up, the officers strike—Find, to their astonishment, that they have been all the while fighting two English men-of-war—Consequences of the author’s distracted state of mind—Is kindly treated by two lieutenants—Conduct of the blacks—Damage sustained by the ship—Exculpation of the author from all blame in fighting his countrymen—Jem Berry, the sailor—Certificate of the author’s gallant defence of his ship—Executions at Jamaica—Capture of a Liverpool ship by a French brig.
