Note A. Page 1. 
Prior to the pilot’s leaving us, I caused him to deliver into my 
possession all letters which might have been given him by the 
crew, apprehensive that, from some accidental cause, they might 
have become possessed of a knowledge of our destination ; they 
all however contained only conjectures, except one, the writer of 
which asserted, as he stated from good authority, that we were 
bound on the coast of Africa: as some of their conjectures were 
not far from being correct, I thought it best to destroy the whole 
of them, and forbid the pilot’s taking any more without my con¬ 
sent. To the officers who were desirous of writing to their friends, 
I enjoined particularly not to mention the movements of the ship 
in any way. 
