( 9 ) 



impaired in consequence of exertion during the voyage, I was 

 denied every comfort, except such indulgences as the officers, who 

 lived on shore, could at times clandestinely allow. Unprovided 

 with letters of recommendation to any pierson in the town, and 

 destitute of the means of making myself known, I had the morti- 

 fication to see the property I had brought with me seized, and my 

 papers taken away to be searched and examined. I was enjoined to 

 make declarations, and to give evidence against myself, to men whose 

 sole wish was to find a pretext for criminating me. After three or 

 four examinations, it was found that I had sailed from Cadiz with a 

 cargo of goods, marked, manifested, and duly registered, as Spanish ; 

 nor could any circumstance be discovered as a ground of accusation 

 against me, but the strong suspicion that I was an Englishman, and 

 on that account could not be too harshly treated. I had no lenity to 

 expect from the governor, nor indeed from any of his advisers, who 

 were, forthe most part, men of the lowest order, refugees from Old Spain 

 in consequence of criminal prosecutions. The rest of his associa tes 

 were the captains and officers of two Spanish privateers, all French- 

 men, whose natural prejudices, no doubt, contributed to foment his 

 antipathy against me. My sole reliance was on the consignee of the 

 cargo, who at length arrived from Buenos Ay res ; but instead of 

 clearing up the affair, he joined my persecutors, knowing that if he 

 gave security he should have the cargo delivered to him. This 

 favourable opportunity he failed not to embrace ; he sold the pro- 

 perty, and withheld the proceeds under the pretext, that he could not 

 pay them over to me while I remained a prisoner. This conduct 

 to one who had depended on him for support, and who relied on his 

 continually delusive promises of assistance, proves him to be one of 

 tliose mean and spiritless beings whose station in society is mid-way 

 between the simpleton and the knave. 



My confinement would probably have been long, but for the good 

 services of a Limenian who attended me during my illness in Cadiz, 

 and who came over in the vessel with me. He was the only person I 



c 



