96 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



" Last year I took the liberty to give you an account of my 

 unfortunate voyage and mentioned to you that I had collected 4 

 large quires full of plants and mosses at Staaten Island and on the 

 N. W. coast of America and a greater quantity of seeds, as also a 

 boxfull of seeds from Nanking, which I had purchased at Canton ; 

 but during my long and disagreeable voyage, obliged to be in 6 

 different ships, taken prisoner 3 times, detained 6 months in the 

 island Mauritius, I lost y'^ valuable collection which had cost me 

 a great deal of trouble to preserve so long. 



" I was obliged to quit my first employ in Nootka Sound in 

 the y"" 1792, on ace* of the ill and mean usage I rec'' from Capt. W. 

 Brown and his officers (which Capt. Brown has been murdered in 

 the y"^ 1794 by the natives of the island Oahoo) and was forced to 

 seek for an asylum among the Spanish officers at Nootka, when 

 Capt. W. Alder, a lieutenant in the navy, seeing me ill used unde- 

 servedly, received me on board 3 B°- as a friend and treated me 

 like a brother. 



" I sailed with him to the Sandwich Islands back to Nootka 

 and Norfolk Sound, and with his consent engaged myself at 

 Nootka in the character of surgeon and supercargo on board of a 

 snow under American colours, commanded by an Englishman. 

 When arrived in China, near Larks Bay, we were taken by the 

 Lion, an English 64 (the same which carried the English Em- 

 bassador to China) and condemned as a prize, having French 

 papers on board, whereof I was ignorant. I lost 200 Spanish 

 dollars. I obtained immediately my liberty and went to Macao, 

 where I was engaged by Mr. Charles Schneider, son to J. H. 

 Schneider, Esq., No. 18 Beer Lane, who had then bought the 

 Warren Hastings East India Country {sic) ship of 600 ton, as 

 surgeon, for 40 Sp. dollars p"" month. Capt. Schneider had the 

 impudence to engage a Erench capt. for his chief mate, who 

 shipped 22 French seamen, several Spaniards, Portugeese, Italians, 

 13 different nations. We were bound for the Cape of Good Hope 

 and Oostende, under Genoese colours. 



" Coming n' the Isle of Bourbon, our chief mate, with French, 

 Spanish and Portugeese crew, revolted and took the ship with the 

 cargo, confined us as prisoners and carried us to the Isle of France 

 or Mauritius, where ship and cargo was condemned, being proved 

 Dutch and English property. 



" After 6 months residence in that island, I obtained liberty to 

 go to New York with an American vessel ; I was obliged to pay 

 300 dollars for my passage. 



" When arrived before the lighthouse off New York, a gale, 

 which blew most violently during 3 weeks, drove us from the 

 American coast, and we were forced to go back to the Island 

 St. Thomas ; leaving that island we were taken by the Inspector 

 sloop of war, carried into Tortola, and condemned there as a prize, 

 our cargo being proved French property. 



"The Hon^*'' George Leonard, President and Judge of the 

 Admiralty, who acts as Governor of the Virgin Islands, took me 

 under his protection ; I lodged with him in the country 6 weeks 



