Journal of Voyages

CHAPTER XV.

Schooner Price. – Third Voyage

Having purchased a suitable cargo for the trade, and got it on board, we were prevailed upon to take as passengers, a man and his wife, with two small children and a black servant, whom we tried hard to get rid of, by charging them an exorbitant price; but the man insisted on going, having been formerly a resident of Old Providence, and one of my old customers in that island. My cabin was not larger than a farmer's hen-roost, having only four berths, and those so narrow that one could hardly turn over in them. At night we covered the floor of the little cabin completely; the man and his wife, two children, the black servant, my two Indians, cabin boy, the mate and myself, all lodged in one nest. We sailed from New-York about the third of March, 1819, bound to Old Providence, St. Andreas, Corn Island, Musquitto Shore, and St. Blas. When we arrived in latitude 32° we were overtaken by a violent gale of wind, which obliged us to heave the vessel too. As the gale abated (the sea running very high) we shipped a sea which swept our deck, taking the cook and caboose, which was well served down to ring-bolts, drove into the deck, but they were drawn out by the violence of the waves. Our boat, oars, and other articles on deck were all swept overboard. By means of some spare running gear the cook was hauled on board. The next day the sea moderated, when we opened the hatches and got out a new caboose. On my departure from Corn Island I had taken an order from an English trader to bring out two patent American cabooses for him, which I then had on board. We rigged our new caboose and proceeded on our voyage, meeting with no further disasters worthy of notice. On our arrival at Old Providence I found a small fleet of vessels there, called patriots, (another name for pirates,) who had taken possession of the island, and had hoisted the Columbian flag. On my entering the harbor they laid an embargo on my vessel for a few days. The expedition was commanded by a man who called himself Aurey, assisted by another, styled Admiral Bogar, and the third went by the title of Commodore Parker. Their squadron consisted of two small gun brigs, and two or three privateer schooners. Their land force amounted to two or three hundred men: they had what they called an English camp, a French camp, and an American camp. They had hanged one American, and severely flogged another for some crime, giving him one hundred lashes under the gallows. They pretended to hold some commission under General Bolivar. I demanded a return of my vessel, which they reluctantly granted me, and I sailed for the Island of St. Andreas, where I found another squadron of vessels from England, consisting of a twenty-gun brig, commanded by Captain Hudson, with three transport ships, having about five hundred officers and soldiers on board, bound to Porto Bello, all under the command of Sir Gregor McGregor. On my arrival I was visited by an old English officer, named Rafter, who was apparently a gentleman, he acted as commander in the absence of Sir Gregor McGregor, who had not arrived at that time; he wanted to purchase a pipe of gin from me for the use of the troops, and give me a bill on London in payment. The next day Sir Gregor arrived from St. Domingo, in company with an old Spanish gentleman, named Lopes, from whom he had borrowed about twelve thousand dollars, and promised to make him governor of the first city he should capture.

The next day Commodore Hudson came on board the Price, and offered me one hundred dollars per day and a handsome present for myself, to join the fleet and go on an expedition with them for a few days. I told him that my vessel was insured, and that it would be a total breach of my orders to comply with his request. In the afternoon they laid an embargo on the Price. The following day was appointed for a great celebration, which was to take place at the house of Mrs. Lever, a respectable widow lady. I visited the place where they landed the troops from the vessels, raised a flag staff and hoisted the New Grenadian flag. Silk cushions were brought into the house and placed on the table where General McGregor, Governor Lopes, and other officers, took the oath of allegiance to the government of New Grenada; most of the officers being under half pay from the English, looked sad when they renounced their allegiance to their own country. Three days after, they sailed for Porto Bello, taking Colonel Woodbine as pilot, and proceeding within a few miles of that place, they landed in a thicket of woods; then taking a foot-path, they entered the city undiscovered by the inhabitants, and took possession of the place without the loss of a man. Most of the inhabitants fled from their houses and left them to the conquerors. Old Lopes was appointed governor, and the officers taking possession of the vacant dwelling houses which the Spaniards had left, sat themselves down like private gentlemen. Soon after the soldiers revolted and refused to do duty, alledging that the general had promised them twenty dollars bounty for the first city they should capture. Before the insurrection could be put down, the general raised eight dollars per man and distributed it among them, and then issued a proclamation to the inhabitants, inviting them to return to their habitations and take the oath of allegiance to the new government, when private property would be respected. Most of the people complied with his request, by taking the oath required of them. In the meantime information was secretly sent over to the Pacific by these Spaniards, where they raised an army of eight hundred men, who marched across the Isthmus, and lay encamped in the woods three or four miles back of the city; while those who had taken the oath of allegiance were keeping up a regular communication with them. The soldiers who had possession of the city having procured an abundance of liquor, all got intoxicated, and the officers retired to their beds without placing any sentries on duty. The Spaniards in the city sent spies to the royalists, informing them that the patriot soldiers were all drunk, and totally off their guard. During the night the royalists marched into the city and took possession of the forts, which were very strong, (one in particular is said to mount three hundred and sixty-five guns,) without meeting with any resistance, or the loss of a single man. They killed about thirty of the patriots and made the remainder prisoners, only twelve escaping. I here give you a sketch of the complete success of the Spaniards, as recited by the General's right hand man. Lieutenant Cookley, aid-de-camp to General McGregor, about three weeks after the loss of the army, said, "That on the night of the re-capture of the city by the royalists, he was quartered in the second story of the government house in Porto Bello, General McGregor occupying one room, and Governor Lopes another, and being himself very unwell, he was obliged to get out of his bed and walk the room. Between three and four o'clock he heard some persons coming up stairs. Feeling alarmed, he seized his sword and pistols and ran to the door of the room, where he met three men well armed; he shot one, and killed another with his sword, the third one retreated with a slight wound; in the meantime he cried out, 'General McGregor, you are betrayed.' The general sprang from his bed, and taking his mattrass, dropped it from the window on the ground; then letting himself down to it, ran for the shore, and jumping into the sea attempted to swim to the commodore's vessel; but being unskilled in swimming, he was picked up by a boat and carried on board, having no clothing on except his shirt. Another division of Spaniards ascended the stairs of the government house, and proceeding to the room of Governor Lopes, killed him in his bed."

Those taken prisoners were marched across the Isthmus to the South Sea, where they were compelled to work in chains on the fortifications. Some months after I learned that these prisoners, in trying to effect their escape, were most of them butchered by the Spaniards.

After my release from the embargo at St. Andreas I sailed for the coast of St. Blas, where I arrived without any further molestation, at the harbor of De Ablo. My vessel was soon surrounded with canoes, filled with old men and young ones. No ambassador returning from a foreign mission to his own country was ever received with a more hearty welcome than my Indians were by their own countrymen. Liquor was soon passed around, and a long conversation commenced, which lasted, with little intermission, until the next morning; and my traders seemed to be absolved from the injunction laid upon them by the old men, not to get drunk during their voyage, as I discovered that Campbell was so drunk before twelve o'clock, that he could not rise from his seat without help. While relating his adventures he gave his hearers a long description of the white rain he had seen in New-York, (meaning snow,) and sundry other wonderful events and curiosities.

The Andes mountains on this coast extend near the sea-shore, and are inhabited by baboons and other large monkeys, who keep up a hideous noise during the night, which was a great annoyance to our slumbers, as the echo passes from mountain to mountain. The next day after our arrival here we experienced a violent thunder storm, the noise of the thunder echoed in a most tremendous manner from different hills, which appeared like a cannonading along the whole coast. I sat amazed at the sound, when an old Indian who was intoxicated, broke silence, by saying, "That thunder is great rascal, he make too much quarrel here."

My traders now applied for another outfit of goods for the coming season, which I readily supplied them with, they taking about the same quantity as on the previous voyage.

The men of St. Blas are of small stature, generally about five feet two or three inches high; wearing their hair long on the back of the head, cued down on their backs with a cotton ribbon of their own manufacture, the hair cut straight across the forehead, high cheek bones, and of a light copper complexion. They dress in check or flannel shirts, with linen trowsers. The young men are not allowed to wear their shirt flaps inside of the waist-bands of their trowsers until they are about forty years old, when they assume the character of old men. The women are small and delicately formed, having very small feet and hands, and are remarkably modest in their behaviour. Their dress consists of a piece of blue cloth, about four feet long, wrapped around their bodies under the arms, and extending to their knees, a string or two of coral beads tied around their legs, below the knee, and another around above the ankle. The women all wear a piece of pure gold wire of large size, in the form of a triangle, stuck through the inside of the nose. The old men wear a number of strands of coral beads around their necks, and hanging down on their bosoms. The sookerman wears two or three pounds of large coral beads hanging closely about the neck, and the old men wear their shirt flaps inside of their waist-bands as a mark of their dignity. From the best information I can obtain, St. Blas is the oldest Republic on the Continent of America, and should be a model government for Mexico and the South American Republics, which are constantly driving their rulers out of the country and changing Republics into Empires.

The soil of St. Blas produces an abundance of bread-stuffs, such as yams, sweet potatoes, cassader, eddies, plantains, &c. Also cocoa-nuts, lemons, oranges, sugar cane and cocoa. They here breed a great number of hogs, poultry, &c. The country abounds with large quantities of wild hogs, mountain cows, armadillas, deer, conies, and innumerable wild fowl. The whole coast swarms with turtle, craw-fish, manatee's, and a great variety of shell-fish. There are some four hundred islands, lying from two to four miles from the main land-shore, which forms an inland sea, making the whole coast a good harbor. Every one of these islands produces limes, or lemons, bird, cayenne, gourd and squash peppers. When a table is set in this country a green pepper and lemon are placed by the side of your plate, which serves for pepper and vinegar to season your meat or vegetables. After clearing up half an acre of ground, ten days labor of one man in each year would produce bread-stuffs sufficient for a family of fifteen persons. Plantains set out on good soil will yield a crop, every nine months, for twenty years. Yams and sweet potatoes require planting and digging yearly.

Having given the reader a short description of St. Blas, which may appear somewhat imperfect, I hope it will be recollected, should there be any imperfections, that I have no history of that country to refer to; most of my information having been obtained from the natives, who speak broken English. On taking leave of St. Blas I proceeded to St. Andreas, at which place I arrived after a passage of two days. Here I met General McGregor, who appeared much dejected, having among other losses left all his clothing behind, which fell into the hands of the enemy. Lieutenant Coakley came on board my vessel and related to me all the particulars of the expedition which I have narrated. Of the land forces, only twelve returned out of five hundred who left here some three weeks before. After remaining here three or four days, we sailed for Cape Gracios a Dios. On my arrival there I commenced trading, as usual. The next morning, it being the Fourth of July, and being in a strange port, I thought I would not make any preparations for celebrating the day. I told the mate, however, that he might release the crew from work and give them some extra rations of grog, &c. Before I had finished giving my orders to the mate, the king came on board with a large canoe, loaded with Indians, and saluting me with a loud voice, said, "Blast your eyes, why don't you fire a salute, hoist your colors and celebrate your country's holyday." I answered him, by saying, "I have nothing good to eat." He replied, "You shall soon have something;" when getting into the canoe with the Indians, they paddled him on shore, and killing a beef, soon returned with two quarters. We then hoisted our colors and fired a salute; and a number of the king's officers coming on board, we partook of a good dinner; and not forgetting plenty of liquor, we made ourselves delightfully merry. At night the king and company retired very peaceably.

The king had frequently solicited me to take him home with me, but never got himself ready to embark, and he now renewed the conversation on the subject. I told him that my family did not reside in the city of New-York, but lived two degrees north of it, at a small village called Catskill, near a mountain of that name. He replied, that would suit much better, as he wanted to see the country and my home. He then said, "There is one condition in the bargain; if I go home with you, you may call me major, or colonel, or some other officer; but if you call me king I will be the death of you, for I am not going home with you to be made a damned puppet-show of."

Having finished my trade here, I sailed down along the coast, touching and trading at the different harbors, as usual, until I arrived at the Lagoon, where I landed the goods from the vessel at the store, and taking in all the exchange goods collected there, sailed for Corn Island, where we took in some more return cargo. While at Corn Island Captain Mitchell gave me an order to bring him a new boat, thirty feet long, to row with six oars, &c.

We now sailed for New-York, where we arrived without meeting with any occurrence worth recording. After discharging our cargo I again visited my family at Catskill, whom I found in good health. I remained with them about eight days, and then returned to New-York. In the course of a few days we had procured another cargo, which taking on board, together with the new boat for Captain Mitchell, we were again ready for sea.

CHAPTER XVI.

Schooner Price. – Fourth Voyage

The Price being now ready for sea, about the first of August we got under weigh and proceeded on our voyage towards Old Providence, St. Andreas, Corn Island and the Main. We made our passage to Old Providence in seventeen days, where we remained about three days bartering off goods in our usual manner. We then sailed for St. Andreas. On the passage we, in a squall, carried away the head of the schooner's main-mast, above the eyes of the shrouds. On our arrival at that port I repaired the mast-head by cutting off five or six feet, and forming a new one. This altered the appearance of the vessel very much, when viewed from a distance. We remained some time at St. Andreas, selling goods, collecting debts, taking in all the cotton and other freight we could procure. Here I took on board a captain and crew belonging to Jamaica, whose schooner had been upset in a squall and lost near this island. I agreed to carry them to the Main, where they expected to get on board of some of their own country vessels. We got under weigh and sailed for Corn Island with a light breeze. When we arrived within seven or eight miles of Great Corn Island the wind died away to a dead calm, and we lay drifting at the mercy of the sea. I was in great haste to get on shore at the island, as I had ordered Captain Teft, who commanded the sloop Traverse, to meet me there in the Price on the tenth of September, which time had expired some days before. Fearing he would be discouraged by waiting, and sail for some other port, which would cause a great delay in our meeting, and there being no signs of a wind that would carry the Price into the harbor that night, I was advised to hoist out the new boat which we carried out for Captain Mitchell; having a double boat's crew with the Englishmen, we could man her with six oars and soon row in. The boat was accordingly hoisted out and manned, and we proceeded toward the shore. It being a star-light evening, and the harbor having some rocks and stones on the bottom, I seated myself on the taffrail of the boat, which raised my head some two feet above the heads of the crew, and enabled me to see any dangerous rocks, and steer clear of them, it being what seamen call a bright bottom. I had on my head a large brimmed white Panama hat, of course a good mark to shoot at. A few days previous to my leaving Corn Island, on my last voyage, it was currently reported there that the United States man-of-war Schooner Fire Brand was cruising in these seas. We approached the harbor about nine o'clock in the evening. As we came near the shore we were hailed by one of the gang who were there, saying, "What boat is that?" My schooner always carried canoes instead of boats, which we found much better to land in the surf, and for that reason I had abandoned the use of the latter in this trade, for the last three years, and all the inhabitants of that island knew it. My boat being long, and much resembling what is called on board of a man-of-war the captain's gig, I answered, "United States Schooner Fire Brand." They said, "pull in then." At that instant fourteen men fired into us, the shot whistling past my head so close that it appeared to deafen me for a moment. As soon as they hailed us, I told the men in the boat to stop rowing, so that the questions and answers could be distinctly heard. As soon as they had fired, a favorite old sailor in the boat, who pulled the after oar, with his back toward the shore, being between me and those who fired at us, spoke to me in a very mild tone, saying, "Captain, I am wounded." I then told the crew to pull away, they all gave way upon their oars except this man, who laid still in the bottom of the boat; this irritated me so much, thinking that my favorite old tar should be the first to skulk from danger, not supposing from the mildness of his expression that he was much wounded, I jumped from the tiller of the boat in great haste, caught him by the collar and gave him a shake, saying, "Pull away, you skulking fellow." You may imagine my astonishment when I found that he was a lifeless corpse. In the meantime I heard the company on shore ramming down their cartridges into their guns, preparing for another fire. All the time keeping a bright look-out alongside of the boat, for fear of running her on the rocks, I discovered that we had got into two or three feet water, and were not more than one hundred and fifty feet from those who were preparing to fire a second time. I ordered my men to stop rowing and follow me, which they immediately did. I jumped overboard into the water, my crew following me. We then made our way to our assailants, when I found my own clerk, and Captain Tefts, of the little sloop Traverse, who were here waiting for my arrival, Captain Mitchell, for whom I brought the boat, and Benjamin Downs, father of a colored apprentice boy I had then on board. In short, they were all old acquaintances of mine. I was highly excited on the occasion. They made a long apology by saying, that the royalists in Porto Bello had fitted out two armed schooners to scour the coast, and that they had captured two English vessels found trading with the Indians: that they mistook the Price for one of them, her appearance being so much altered by the loss of the head of her main-mast, that they supposed I had been captured by one of these vessels and was a prisoner in the boat, and compelled to answer their questions, as they all knew my voice, and that if they suffered a crew to land they would all be butchered, as they had given aid and shelter to the patriots for a long time. I landed the body of my unfortunate man and placed it under the care of some of my friends, procured a pilot, went on board the Price, and brought her into the harbor the next morning. I then buried the poor sailor in as decent a manner as the country would admit of, collecting most of the inhabitants of the island to join the funeral procession. There being no clergymen in the island, I read the burial service at the grave, this being my usual custom at sea on committing dead bodies to the ocean.