100 PASSAGE HOME. 



sisted as, from the great number of 

 ships, it was impossible to get a sufficient 

 supply of fresh provisions from the shore ; 

 and such a surfeit did I receive of this 

 piscatorial diet, that it was years before 

 I could be induced to touch either of 

 those specimens of the finny tribe. 



At length H.M.S. " Athenienne,"* of 

 sixty- four guns, arrived from England, to 

 take charge of the largest convoy that 

 had ever assembled at St. Helena ; and 

 after a fine passage, without meeting 

 with anything worth recording, we ar- 

 rived in the chops of the channel. 



A pilot-boat coming alongside, I re- 

 solved to take advantage of it, and get 

 on shore as quickly as I could. Accord- 

 ingly I attired myself in the best my 

 wardrobe, which had sadly diminished, 

 would afford, and went on deck. The 

 captain was standing on the poop, with 



* This ship was in the following year lost, and the 

 captain and all the crew perished, she having struck on a 

 rock between Malta and Cape Pessaro, in Sicily. 



