Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-04-09


 When we had made sail and got our break fast, told Wilkinson and Cromwell Pitt being at the tiller) that now was good op- portunity for inspecting the contents of the hold; and (not to be tedious in this part of my relation, however I may have sinned in this respect elsewhere we carried lanterns below, and spent the better part of the fore noon in taking stock. From copy of the memorandum made on that occasion Still ill my possession), I discovered that the. Yan- kee captain had left us the following: Thirty five casks of rum twenty eight hogsheads of claret, sixty puncheons of brandy, forty casks of sherry, eighteen cases of beer in bottles, together with number of ''pieces" of gin, as it is called In addition to this were the stores ill the lazarette, besides quantity of several kinds of wine in jars, etc, elsewhere enumerated besides all the ships furniture, her guns, powder, small arms, etc., as well as the ship herself. 1 took the men into the run and showed them the chests, opening the little one which stood stocked with small arms, and lifting the lids of two or three of the others They were perfectly satisfied fully believed the chests to be filled with small arms and nothing else and so we came away and returned to the cabin, where, to please them, I put down the value of the cargo at a venture, setting figures against each article, and making out a total of 92 64O This, of course, included the ship.
 "How muchll dat be a man, massaY' asked Cromwell.
 ''Six hundred and sixty pounds" I an- swered.
 The poor fellow was so transported that, after staring at me in silence with the cor 1,ers of his mouth stretched to his ears, he tossed up his hands, burst into a roar of laughter, and made several skips about the deck.
 ''Of course," said I, addressing Wilkinson, "1ny figures may be ahead short of the truth. But if you disposed to take the chance, I'll tell you what I'll do; III stand by my figures, accepting the risk of the value of the lading being less than what say it is. and undertake to give each man of you 91 ,OOO for your share"
 "Well, sir" said he 'I don't know that ought to object But a few pounds is mat ter of great consequence to me, and I reckon if these here goods and the vessel should turn out to be worth more than ye offer, the loss ud go agin the grit-ay, if 'twere $2O man. !"
 I laughed, and told him to let the matter rest; there was plenty of time before us; should be willing to stand by my offer even if I lost by it, so heartily obliged was I to them for coming to my assistance And in
 
 understand who know my position, had to finesse. It went against my conscience to make out that the chests were full of small arms; but I should have been mad to tell them the truth, and perhaps by the truth make devils of men who were, and promised to remain, steady, temperate, honest fellows. I was not governed by the desire to keep all the treasure to myself; no, VOW to God should have been glad to give them moiety of it had not apprehended the very gravest consequences if I were candid with them. But this, surely, must be so plain that it is idle to go on insisting on it.
 The fine weather, the golden issue that was factory behavior of the schooner put us in.o high good humor with one another; and when it came to my collecting all the clothes in the after cabins, and to distributing them among the three men, I thought Billy Pitt and Cromwell would have gone mad with delight. To the best of my recollection, the apparel that had been left us by the Ameri- can captain (who as you know, had cleared the forecastle of the clothes there) consisted of several coats of cut velvet, trimmed with gold and silver lace, some frocks of white drab with large plate buttons, brocade waist coats of blue satin and green silk, crimson
  some cloaks, three corner hats, black and white stockings, a number of ruttled shirts, and other articles of which I recollect tho character, though my ignorance of the cos tunes of that period prevents me from nam ing them.
 Any one acquainted with the negro's de- light in colored clothes, will hardly need to be told of the extravagant joy raised in the black breasts of Cromwell and Pitt by my distribution of this fine attire. The lace, to be sure, was tarnished, and some of the colors faded, but all the same the apparel furnished a brave show; and such was the avldlty with which the poor creatures snatched at the garments as l offered them first to one and then another, that I believe they would have been perfectly satisfied with the clothes alone as payment for their services. T made this distribution on the quarter deck, or little poop, rather, that. all might. be present. Wilkinson was at the tiller, and appeared highly delighted with the bundle allotted him, saying that he might reckon upon a hearty welcome from his wife when she came to know what was iii his chest The negroes were wild to clOthe themselves at once; l advised them to wait for the warm weather, but they were too impatient to put on their fine feathers to heed my advice. They ran below, and were gone half an hour, dur ing which time I have no doubt they tried on all they had; and when at last they returned their appearance was so exq,lisitely absurd that laughed till l came near to suffocating. Each negro had tied a silver laced hat on to his woolly head; one wore a pair of crimson, the other a pair of black velvet brooches; over their cucumber shanks they had drawn white silk stockings, regardless of the cold; their feet were in casel ill buckled shoes, and their costumes were completed by scarlet and blue waist coats, which fell to their knees, and crimson and blue coats with immense skirts. What struck me most astonishing was their gravity. Their self complacency was pro- digious; they eyed each other with dignifed approbatlon, and strutted with the air of provincial mayors and aldermen newly ar rived from the presence of royalty.
 S1A B .1lIl!