2 C 2 INTRODUCTION. 



amusement ; in which it is their opinion, that can- 

 dour and fidelity will counterbalance the want of 

 ornament. 



I shall, therefore, conclude this introductory dis- 

 course with desiring the reader to excuse the inac- 

 curacies of style, which doubtless he will frequently 

 meet with in the following narrative ; and that, when 

 such occur, he will recollect that it is the production 

 of a man, who has not had the advantage of much 

 school education, but who has been constantly at sea 

 from his youth ; and though, with the assistance of a 

 few good friends, he has passed through all the sta- 

 tions belonging to a seaman, from an apprentice boy 

 in the coal trade, to a post captain in the Royal 

 Navy, he has had no opportunity of cultivating let- 

 ters. After this account of myself the public must 

 not expect from me the elegance of a fine writer, or 

 the plausibility of a professed book-maker ; but will, 

 I hope, consider me as a plain man, zealously exerting 

 himself in the service of his country, and determined 

 to give the best account he is able of his proceedings. 



Plymouth Sound, 

 Julyl* 1776. 



