Chapter 5 - Page 2

however, and I was sober enough to see
the consequences, if they were left ashore any longer. Some riflemen came
in, too, and I succeeded in getting my jokers away.

The recklessness of sailors may be seen in our conduct. All we received
for our plunder was some eight or ten gallons of whiskey, when we got back
to the harbour, and this at the risk of being flogged through the fleet!
It seemed to us to be a scrape, and that was a sufficient excuse for
disobeying orders, and for committing a crime. For myself, I was
influenced more by the love of mischief, and a weak desire to have it said
I was foremost in such an exploit, than from any mercenary motive.
Notwithstanding the severity of the orders, and one or two pretty sharp
examples of punishment inflicted by the commodore, the Black Jokers were
not the only plunderers ashore that night. One master's-mate had the
buttons taken off his coat, for stealing a feather bed, besides being
obliged to carry it back again. Of course he was a shipped master's-mate.

I was ashore every day while the squadron remained in the port. Our
schooner never shifted her berth from the last one she occupied in the
battle, and that was pretty well up the bay. I paid a visit to the gun
that had troubled us all so much, and which we could not silence, for it
was under a bank, near the landing-place. It was a long French eighteen,
and did better service, that day, than any other piece of John Bull's. I
think it hulled us several times.

I walked over the ground where the explosion took place. It was a dreadful
sight; the dead being so mutilated that it was scarcely possible to tell
their colour. I saw gun-barrels bent nearly double. I think we saw Sir
Roger Sheafe, the British General, galloping across the field, by himself,
a few minutes before the explosion. At all events, we saw a mounted
officer, and fired at him. He galloped up to the government-house,
dismounted, went in, remained a short time, and then galloped out of town.
All this I saw; and the old woman in the potato-locker told me the general
had been in the house a short time before we landed. Her account agreed
with the appearance of the officer I saw; though I will not pretend to be
certain it was General Sheafe.

I ought to mention the kindness of the commodore to the poor of York. As
most of the inhabitants came back to their habitations the next day, the
poor were suffering for food. Our men were ordered to roll barrels of salt
meat and barrels of bread to their doors, from the government stores that
fell into our hands. We captured an immense amount of these stores, a
portion of which we carried away. We sunk many guns in the lake; and as
for the powder, _that_ had taken care of itself. Among other things we