, 
 
LIFE 
 
 AND 
 
 REMARKABLE ADVENTURES 
 
 OF 
 
 & 
 
 (A NATIVE OP CRANSTON, RHODE-ISLAND.) 
 
 WHO WAS A SOLDIER IN THE 
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 
 
 And took a distinguished part in the Battle of Bunker 
 Hill (in Which he received three wounds,) after 
 which he was taken Prisoner by the British, convey- 
 ed to England, where for 30 years he obtained a 
 livelihood for himself and family, by crying " Old 
 Chairs to Mend" through the Streets of London.* 
 In May last, by the assistance of the American Con 
 sul, he succeeded (in the 79th year of his age) ia 
 obtaining a passage to his native country, after an 
 absence of 48 years. 
 
 PROVIDEXCE: 
 
 Printed by HENRY TRUMBULL 1824. 
 (Price 28 Cents.) 
 
DISTRICT OF RH^DE ISLAND TO WIT: 
 BE IT REMEMBtRfcD Tnat on the thirtieth day of 
 January one Thouband eight hundred and twenty four 
 and in the forty eighth year of the Independence of 
 the United States of America, HENRY TRUM- 
 BULL, of said District, deposited in tins office the 
 title of a bock, ihe right whereof he claims as author, 
 in the following woids, to wit : Life and Remarka- 
 ble Adventures, of Israel R Potter, a native ol Crans- 
 ton Rhode Island who was a soldier in the American 
 Revolution, and took a distinguished part in the battle 
 of Bunker Hill (in which he received three wounds) 
 after which he was taken Prisoner by the British, and 
 conveyed to England where for thirty years he attain- 
 cd a livelihood for himself and family by crying '* old 
 Chairs to mend" through the Streets of London In 
 May last by the assUtance of the American Consul 
 he succeeded in (the 79th year of his age) in obtain- 
 ing a passage to his uaiive Country after an absence of 
 48 years." 
 
 In conformity to an Act of Congress entillec! " An 
 Act for the encouragement of learning, by secuii g 
 the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors 
 and proprietors of such copies, during the time there 
 in mentioned" and also to an act entitled ** An Act 
 for the encouragement of learning by securing the co- 
 pies of maps charts, and book, to the authors and pro- 
 prietors ot such copies during the time therein men. 
 tioned, and extending the benefit thereof to the Art of 
 designing, engraving, and etching, historical, and other 
 prints." 
 
 Witness, BENJAMIN CCWELL, 
 
 Clerk of the Rhode Island District. 
 
TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 IN the foregoing pages we have attempted a 
 simple narrative of the lite and extraordinary ad- 
 ventures of one of the few survivors who fought 
 and bled for American Independence. There is not 
 probably another now living who took an equally ac- 
 tive part in the Revolutionary war, whose life has 
 been marked with more extraordinary events, and 
 who has drank deeper of the cup of adversity, than 
 Ihe aged veteran with whose History we now beg 
 liberty to present the American public. Doomed 
 by the fate of War to be early seperated from kindred 
 and friends, and to be conveyed by a foreign Le u 
 prisoner of war from his native land, to a iar distant 
 country, where after having for 48 yeais expeiien- 
 ced almost every hardship and deprivation of which 
 adverse fortune is productive, providence appears at 
 length to have so far interfered in his behalf, as to 
 provide means whereby he has been enabled at an 
 advanced age once move to visit and inhale the pure 
 air of his native land. At the age of Seventy-Nine, 
 an age in which it cannot be expected tha.t the lamp 
 of human life can long remain unextinguished, he 
 has arrived among us, in a state of penury and want, 
 to seek in common with his countrymen the enjoy- 
 ment cf a few ti" the blessings produced by Amcr- 
 
lean valour, in her memorable conflict with the 
 mother country, and in which he took a distinguish- 
 cd part* 
 
 As it yet remains doubtful whether (in consquence 
 of his long absence) he will be so fortunate as to be 
 included in that number to whom Government has 
 granted pensions for their Revolutionary services, it 
 is to obtain if possible a humble pittance as a remu- 
 neration, in part, for the unprecedented privations 
 and sufferings of which he has been the unfortunate 
 subject, that he is now induced to present the pub- 
 lic with the following concise and simple narration 
 tf the most extraordinary incidents of his life. 
 
 < 
 
LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 OF 
 
 ISRAEL R. POTTER, 
 
 I WAS born of reputable parents in the town of 
 Cranston, State of Rhode Island, August 1st, 1744, 
 1 continued with my parents there in the full en- 
 joyment of parental affection and indulgence, un- 
 til I arrived at the age of 18, when, having formed 
 an acquaintance with the daughter of a Mr. Richard 
 Gardner, a near neighbour, for whom (in the opin- 
 ion of my friends) entertaining too great a degree 
 of partiality, I was repremanded and threatened by 
 them with more severe punishment, if my visits 
 were not discontinued. Disappointed in my inten- 
 tions of forming an union (when of suitable age) 
 with one whom I really loved, 1 deemed the con- 
 duct of my parents in this respect unreasonable and 
 
6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 oppressive, and formed the determination to leave 
 then), for the .purpose of seeking another home and 
 other friends. '*'<- 
 
 It was on Sunday^ while the family were at meet- 
 .ingvthajt i,patfeed'up as many Articles of my cloadi- 
 ingrai could be contained in a ' pocket handkerchief, 
 which, with a small quantity of provision, I convey- 
 ed to and secreted in a piece of woods in the rear 
 of my father's house ; I then returned and continu- 
 ed in the house until about 9 in the evening, when 
 with the pretence of retiring to bed, I passed into 
 a back room and frem thence out of a back door and 
 hastened to the spot where I had deposited my 
 cloathes, &c. it was a warm summer's night, and 
 that I might be enabled to travel with the more fa- 
 cility the succeeding day, I lay down at the foot of a 
 tree and reposed myself until about 4 in the morning 
 when 1 arose and commenced my journey, travelling 
 westward, with an intention of reaching if possible 
 the new countries, which 1 had heard highly spoken 
 of as affording excellent prospects for industrious 
 and enterprizing young men to evade the pursuit 
 of my friends, by whom I knew 1 should be early 
 missed and diligently sought for, I confined my trav- 
 el to ihe woods and shunned the public roads, until 
 I had reached the distance cf about 12 miles from 
 my father's house. 
 
 At noon the succeeding day 1 reached Hartford, 
 in Connecticut, and applied to a farmer in that town 
 for work| and for whom I agreed to labour for one 
 
OF ISRAEL R. POTTER. / 
 
 wonth for *he sum of six dollars Having comple- 
 ted my month's work to the satisfaction of my em 
 plover 1 received my money and started from Hart- 
 ford for Otter Creek; but, when I reached Spring- 
 field, I met with a man hound to the Cahos country, 
 and who offered me four do lars to accompany him, 
 of which offer I accepted and the next morning we 
 left Springfield and in a canoe ascended Connecticut 
 river, and in about two weeks after much hard labor 
 in paddling and pol ; ng the boat against , the currenti 
 we reached Lebanon, (N. H.) the place of our des- 
 tination. Ir was with som e difficulty and not until I 
 had procured a writ, oy the assistance of a respecta- 
 ble innkeeper in Lebanon, by the name of Hill, that 
 I obtained from my last employer the four dollars 
 which he had agreed to pay me for my services. 
 
 From Lebanon I crossed the river to New-Hart- 
 ford (then N. Y.) where I bargained with a Mr, 
 Brink of that town for 200 acres of new land, lying 
 in New Hampshire, and for which L was to labour 
 for him four months. As this may appear to some 
 a small consideration f.,r so g-eat a number of acres 
 of land, it may be well here to acquaint the reader 
 with the situation of the country in that quarter, at 
 that early period of its settlement which was an 
 almost impenetrable wilderness, containing but few* 
 civilized inhabitants, far distantly situated from each 
 other and from any considerable settlement j and 
 whose temporary habitations with a few exceptions 
 were constructed of logs in their natural state the 
 
8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 woods abounded with wild beasts of almost 
 description peculiar to this country, nor were the 
 few inhabitants at that time free from serious appre- 
 hension of being at some unguarded moment sud- 
 denly attacked and destroyed, or conveyed .nto cap- 
 tivity by the savages, who from the commencement 
 of the F ench war, had improved every favourable 
 opportunity to cut oft' the defenceless inhabitants of 
 the frontier towns. 
 
 Alter the expiration of my four months labour the 
 person who had promised me a deed of 200 acres 
 of land thrrefor, having refused to fulfill his engage* 
 nnents.I was obliged to engage with a party of h.s Ma* 
 jesty's Surveyors at fifteen shillings per month as an 
 assistant chain bearer, to survey the wild unse'tkd 
 lands bordering on the Connecticut river, to its 
 source. It was in the winter season, and the snow 
 so deep that it was impossible to travel without 
 snow shoes at the close of each day we enkind- 
 led a fire, cooked our victuals and erected with the 
 branches of hemlock a temporary hut, which serv- 
 ed us tor a shelter for the night. The Surveyors 
 having completed their business returned to Leba- 
 non, after an absence of about two months. Receiv- 
 ing my wages I purchased a fowling-piece and ma- 
 munition therewith, and for the four succeeding 
 months devoted my time in hunting Deer, Beavers, 
 &c, in which 1 was very successful, as in the four 
 mon hs I obtained as many skins of these animals 
 as produced me forty dollars * with my money I pu-r- 
 
OF ISRAEL R. POTTER* 9 
 
 chased of a Mr John Marsh, 100 acres of new 
 land lying on Water Qutchy River, (so called) a- 
 bout five miles from Hartford, (N Y.) on this land 
 | went immediately to work, erected a small log 
 hut thereon* and in two summers without any assis- 
 tance, cleared up thirty acres fit for sowing in the 
 winter seasons I employed my time in hunting and 
 entrtping such animals whose hides and furs were 
 esteemed of the most value. I remained in pos- 
 session of my land two years, and then disposed oif 
 it to the same person of whom I purchased it, at 
 the advanced price of 200 dollars, and then convey- 
 ed my skins and furs which I had collected the tvK>* 
 preceding winters, to NO. 4, (now Charlestowa,) 
 where I exchanged them tor Indian blankets, wan*- 
 peag, and such other articles as I could convenient* 
 ly convey on a hand sied, and with which I started 
 for Canada, to barter with the Indians for furs. 
 This proved a very profitable trip, as I very soon 
 disposed of every article at aft advance of more- 
 than two hundred per cent, and received payment iu 
 furs at a reduced price, and lur which I received i,i 
 NO. 4, SCO dollars, cash. With this rncney, togeth- 
 er mth what I was befoie in possession of, I now 
 set out for home, once more to visit my parents at- 
 ter an absence of two years and nine months, ir* 
 which time my friends had not been enabled to re- 
 ceive any correct information of me. On my arriv* 
 al, so greatly effected were my parents at the pre- 
 sence of a sen \vhur.; they had considered daad, ihui. 
 
 1* 
 
'10 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 It was sometime before either could become suffi- 
 ciently composed to listen to or to request me to 
 furnish them with an account of my travels. 
 
 Soon after my return, as some atonement for the 
 anxiety which I had caused my parents, 1 presented 
 them with most of the money that I had earned in 
 my absence, and formed the determination that I 
 would remain with them contented at home, in con- 
 sequence of a conclusion from the welcome recep- 
 tion that I met with, that they had repented of their 
 opposition* and had become reconciled to my in- 
 tended union but, in this, I soon found that I was 
 mistaken ; for. although overjoyed to see me alive } 
 whom they had supposed really dead, no sooner did 
 they find that my long absence had rather increased 
 than diminished my attachment for their neighbor's 
 daughter, than their resentment and opposition ap- 
 peared to increase in proportion in consequence of 
 which I formed the determination again to quit them, 
 aud try my fortune at sea, as I had now arrived at 
 an age in which I had an unquestionable right to 
 think and act for myself. 
 
 After remaining at home one month, I applied for 
 and procured a birth at Providence, on board the 
 Sloop , Capt. Fuller, bound to Grenada hav- 
 ing completed her loading (which consisted of stone 
 lime, hoops, staves, 8tc.) we set sail with a favora- 
 ble wind, and nothing worthy of note occurred until 
 the 15th day from that on which we left Providence, 
 when the sloop was discovered to be on fire, bj a. 
 
OF ISRAEL vR. POTTER. li 
 
 smoke issuing from her hold the hatches were inn. 
 mediately raised, but as it was discovered that the 
 fire was caused by water communicating with the 
 lime, it was deemed useless to make any attempts 
 to extinguish it orders were immediately there- 
 upon given by the captain to hoist out the long 
 boat, which was found in such a leaky condition as 
 to require constant bailing to keep her afloat : we 
 had only time to put on board a small quantity of 
 bread, a firkin of butter and a ten gallon keg of wa- 
 ter, when we embarked, eight in number to trust 
 ourselves to the mercy of the waves, in a leaky 
 boat and many leagues from land. As our provi- 
 sion was but small in quantity, and it being uncer- 
 tain how long we might remain in our perilous sit- 
 uation, it was proposed by the capiain soon after 
 leaving the sloop, that we should put ourselves on 
 an allowance of one buiscuit and halt a pint of water 
 per day, for each man, which was readily agreed 
 to by all on boaid in ten minutes after leaving the 
 sloop she was in a complete blaze, and presented an 
 awful spectacle. With a piece of the fi> ing-jib, 
 which had been lortunately thrown into the boat, we 
 made shift to erect a sail, and proceeded in a south 
 west ditection in hopes to rct.cn the Spanish maine, 
 if not so fortunate as to fall in with some vessel in 
 our course which, by the interposition of kind prov- 
 idence in our favour, actually took place the second 
 day after leaving the sloop- we were discovered 
 und picked up by a Dutch ship bound from Eusta- 
 
12 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 tia to Holland, and from the captain and crew met 
 with a humane reception, and were supplied with 
 every necessary that the ship afforded we continu- 
 ed on board one week when we fell in with an A- 
 jnerican sloop bound from Piscataqua to Antigua, 
 which received us all on board and conveyed us in 
 safety to the port of her destination. At Antigua I 
 got a birth on board an American brig bound to Porto 
 Rico, and from thence to Eusta'ia. At Eustatia I 
 received my discharge and entered on board a Ship 
 belonging to Nantucket, and bound on a whaling 
 voyage, which proved an uncommonly short and 
 successful one we returned to Nantucket full of 
 oil after an absence of the ship irom that port of 
 only 16 months. After my discharge I continued 
 about one month on the island, and then took pas- 
 sage for Providence, and from thence went to Cran- 
 ston, once more to visit my friends, with whom I 
 continued three weeks, and then returned to Nan- 
 tucket. From Nantucket I made another whaling 
 voyage to the Scuih Seas and after an absence of 
 three years, (in which time I experienced almost 
 all the hardbhips and deprivations peculiar to Whale- 
 men in long voyages) I succeeded by the blessings 
 of providence in reaching once more my native 
 home, perfectly sick of the sea, and willing to re- 
 turn to the bush and exchange a mariner's life for 
 one less hazardous and fatiguing, 
 
 I remained with my friends at Cranston a few 
 weeks, and then hired myself to a Mr. James W<> 
 
*Y ISRAEL R. HOTTER- 13 
 
 terman, of Coventry, for 12 months, to work at 
 farming. This was in the year i774> and I contin- 
 ued with him about six months, when the difficul- 
 ties which had for some time prevailed beiween the 
 Americans and Britons, had now arrived at that 
 crisis, as to render it certain that hostilities would 
 soon commence in good earnest between the two na- 
 tions ; in consequence of which, the Americans at 
 this period began 'to prepare themselves for the e- 
 vent companies were formed in several of the 
 towns in New England, who received the appella- 
 tion of " minute men," and who were to hold them- 
 selves in readiness to obey the first summons of 
 their officers, to march at a moment's notice j a 
 company of this kind was formed in Coventry, into 
 which I enlisted, and to the command of which 
 Edmund Johnson, of said Coventry, was appoint- 
 ed. 
 
 It was on a Sabbath morning that news was re- 
 ceived of the destruction of the provincial stores at 
 Cone rd, and of the massacre of our countrymen 
 at Lexington, by a detached party of the British 
 troops from Boston : and 1 immediately thereupon re- 
 ceived a summons from the captain, 'to be prepared 
 to march with the company early the morning ensu- 
 ing and ? although I felt not less willing to obey 
 the call of my country at a minute's notice, and 4 to 
 -face htr foes, than did the gallant Putnam, yet, the 
 nature of the summons did not render it necessary 
 &r me, like him, to quit my plough in the field \ as 
 3 
 
44 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 having the day previous commenced the ploughing ' 
 of a field often or twelve acres, that I might not leave 
 my work half done, I improved the sabbath to com- 
 plete it. 
 
 3y the break of day Monday morning I swung 
 fny knapsack, shouldered my musket, and with the 
 company commenced my march with a quick step 
 for Charlestown, where we arrived about sunset, and 
 remained encamped in the vicinity until about noon 
 of the 16th June; when, having been previously 
 joined by the remainder of the regiment from Rhode 
 Island, to which our company was attached, we 
 received orders to proceed and join a detachment 
 of about 1000 American troops, which had that 
 morning taken possession of Bunker-Hill} and which 
 we had orders inn mediately to fortify, in the best 
 manner that circumstances would admit of. We 
 laboured all night without cessation and with very 
 Kttle refreshment, and by the dawn of day succeed- 
 ed in throwing up a redoubt of eight or nine rods 
 square. As soon as our works were discovered by 
 the British in the morning, they commenced a heavy 
 fire upon us^ which was supported by a fort on 
 Copp's hill ; we however (under the command of 
 the intrepid Putnam) continued to labour like be- 
 vers until our breast-work was completed* 
 
 About noon, a number of the enemy's boats and 
 barges, filled with troops, landed at Charlestown, 
 and commenced a deliberate march to attack us 
 we were now harangued by Gen. Putnariy who re- 
 
07 ISRAEL R. POTTER, ? 
 
 minded us, that exhausted as we were, by our in- 
 cessant labour through the preceding night, the most 
 important part of our duty was yet to be performed* 
 and that much would be expected from so great a 
 number of excellent marksmen he charged us to 
 be cool, and to reserve our fire until the enemy ap- 
 proached so near as to enable us to see the white of 
 their eyes when within about ten rods of our works 
 we gave them the contents of our muskets, and 
 which were aimed with so good effect, as soon to 
 cause them to turn their backs and to retreat with a 
 much quicker step than with what they approach- 
 ed us. We were now again harangued by old 
 General Put," as he was termed, and requested by 
 him to aim at the officers, should the enemy renew 
 the attack which they did in a few moments, with 
 a reinforcement their approach was with a slow 
 step, which gave us an excellent opportunity to 
 obey the commands of our General in bringing 
 down their officers, 1 feel but little disposed to 
 boast of my own performances on this occasion, 
 and will only say, that alter devoting- so many 
 months in hunting the wild animals of the wilder- 
 ness, while an inhabitant of New. Hampshire, the 
 reader will not suppose me a bad or unexperien- 
 ced marksman, and that such were the fare shots 
 which the epuletted red coats presented in the two 
 attacks, that every shot which they received from 
 xne, 1 am confident on another occasion would have., 
 produced me a deer skin. 
 
16 LlIE ANB ADVENTURES 
 
 So warm was the reception that the enemy met 
 with in their second attack) that they again found it 
 necessary to retreat, but soon after receiving a fresh 
 reinforcement, a third assault was made, in which, 
 in consequence of our ammunition Jailing, they too 
 Well succeeded a close and bloody engagement 
 now ensued to fight our way through a very con- 
 siderable body of the enemy, with clubbed muskets 
 {for there were not one in twenty of us provided with 
 .bayonets) were now the only means left us to es- 
 cape ; - the conflict, which was a sharp and severe 
 one, is still fresh in my memory) and cannot be for- 
 gotten by me while the scars of the wounds which 1 
 then received, remain to remind me of it ! fortu. 
 Iiately for me, at this critical moment, 1 was armed 
 with a cutlass, which although without an edge, and 
 much rust-eaten. 1 found of infinite more service to 
 me than my musket in one instance I am certain it 
 was the means of saving my lite a blow with a cut- 
 lass was aimed at my head by a British officer, which 
 I parried and received only a slight cut with the 
 point on my right arm near the elbow, which 1 was 
 then unconscious of, but this slight wound cost my 
 antagonist at the moment a much more serious one, 
 which effectually disarmed him, for with one well 
 directed stroke I deprived him of the power of very 
 soon again measuring swords with a " yankee rebel I'* 
 We finally however should have been mostly cut cff> 
 and compelled to yield to a superiour and belter e- 
 quipped force, had net a body of three or four hurr 
 
OF ISRAEL R POTTED IT 
 
 dred Connecticut men formed a temporary breast 
 work, with rails 8cc and by which means held the 
 enemy at bay until our main body had time to as- 
 cend the heights, and retreat across the neck ; in 
 this retreat I was less fortunate than many of my 
 comrads I received two musket ball wounds, one 
 in my hip and the other near the ancle of my left leg 
 I succeeded however without any assistance in 
 reaching Prospect Hill, where the main body of the 
 Americans had made a stand and commenced fortify- 
 ing >fro:n thence I was soon after conveyed to the 
 Hospital in Cambridge, where my wounds were 
 dressed and the bullet extracted from my hip by one 
 of the Surgeons ; the house was nearly filled wkh 
 the poor fellows who like myself had received wounds 
 in the late engagement, and presented a melAnchoily 
 spectacle. 
 
 Bunker-Hill fight proved a sore thing for the Brit- 
 ish, and will I doubt not bi long remembered by 
 them; while in London I heard it frequently spoken 
 of by many who had taken an active part therein ? 
 some of whom were pensioners* asid bore indelible 
 proofs of American bravery by them the Yankees 
 by whom they were opposed, were not unfrequently . 
 represented as a set ot infuriated beings, whom noth- 
 ing could daunt or intimidate : and who, after their 
 ammunhion failed, disputed the ground, inch by inch, 
 for a full hour with clubbed muskets, rusty swords, 
 pitchforks and billets of wood, against the British 
 bayonets. 
 
 2* 
 
19 LIFE AND ADVENTUxl&S 
 
 I suffered much pain from the wound which I re- 
 ceived in my ?ncle, the bone was fcadly fractured and 
 several pieces were extracted by the surgeon, and it 
 was six weeks before I was sufficiently recovered to 
 be able to join my regiment quartered on Prospect- 
 Hifll) where they had thrown up entrenchments with- 
 in the distance of little more than a mile of the ene- 
 my's camp, which was full in view, they having en 
 trenched themselves on Bunker-hill after the engage. 
 ment. 
 
 On the 3d July, to the great satisfaction of the A- 
 mericans, General WASHINGTON arrived from the 
 south to take command I was then confined in the 
 Hospital, but as far as my observations could extend* 
 he met with a joyful reception, and his arrival was 
 welcomed by every one throughout the camp the 
 troops had been long waiting with impatience for his 
 arrival as being nearly deslitute of ammunition and 
 tbe British receiving reinforcements daily, their pros- 
 pects began to wear a gloomy aspect. 
 
 The British quartered in Boston began soon to suf- 
 fer much from the scarcity of provisions, and Gener- 
 al Washington took every precaution to prevent their 
 gaining a supply from the country ail supplies 
 could be easily cutoff, and to prevent their receiving 
 any from Tories, and other disaffected persons by 
 water, the General found it necessary to equip two 
 or thiee armed vessels to intercept themamong 
 these was the brigantine Washington of [0 guns, 
 commanded by capt. Martindale, -as seamen a; this. 
 
OF ISRAEL R. POTTKB. i 
 
 time could not easily be obtained, as most of them 
 had enlisted in the land service, permission was giv- 
 en to any of the soldiers who should be pleased lo ac- 
 cept of the offer, to man these vessels consequently 
 myself with several others of the same regiment went 
 on board of the Washington, then lying at Plymouth, 
 and in complete order for a cruize. 
 
 We set sail about the 8th December, but had, been 
 out but three days when we were captured by the 
 enemy's ship Foy. of 20 guns, who took us all out and 
 put a prize crew on board the Washington the Foy 
 .proceeded with us immediately to Boston bay where 
 v?e was put on board the British frigate Tartar and 
 orders given to convey us to England.- VV hen two 
 or three days out I projected a scheme (with the as- 
 sistance of my fellow prisoners, 72 in number) to take 
 the ship, in which we should undoubtedly have suc- 
 ceeded, as we bad a number of resolute fellows on 
 board, had it not been for the treachery of a renegado 
 Englishman, who betrayed us as i was pointed out 
 by this fellow as the principal in the plot, I was or- 
 dered in irons by the Officers of the Tartar, and in 
 which situaiion 1 remained until the arrival of the 
 ship at Portsmouth (Eng ) when I was brought on 
 deck and closely examined, but protesting my inno- 
 cence, and what was very fortunate for me in the 
 course of the examination, the person by whom 1 had 
 been betrayed, having been proved a British deserter, 
 his story was discredited .and I was relieved of my i* 
 rons* 
 
39 LIFE AND ADVENTUSES 
 
 The prisoners were now all thoroughly cleansed" 
 and conveyed to the marine hospital on shore, where 
 many of us took the small-pox the na.ural way, by 
 some whom we found in the hospital effected wiih 
 that disease, and which proved fatal to nearly one 
 half our number. From ihe hospital those of us who 
 survived were conveyed to Spitheid, and put on 
 board a Guard Ship, and where I had been confined 
 with my fellow prisoners about one month, when I 
 was ordered into the boat, to assist the bargemen (in 
 consequence of the absence of one of their gang) in 
 rowing the lieutenant on shore. As soon as we 
 reached the shore and the officer landed, it was pro- 
 posed by some of the boat's crew to resort tor a few 
 moments to an ale -house, in the vicinity, to treat 
 themselves to a few pots of beer ; which being agreed 
 to by all, I thought this a favourable opportunity and 
 the only one that might present > to escape from my 
 Floating Prison, and felt determined not to let it past 
 unimproved ; accordingly, as the boat's crew were a* 
 bout to enter the house, 1 expressed a necessity of my 
 seperating from them a few moments, to which ihey 
 (not suspecting any design,) readily assented. As 
 soon as 1 saw them all snugly in and the door clos- 
 ed. I gave speed to my legs, and ran, as 1 then con- 
 eluded, about four miles whhout once halting 1 
 steered rny course toward London, as when there 
 by mingling with the crowds 1 thought it probable 
 that 1 should be least suspected. 
 
 Wften I had reached the distance of about teh 
 
OF ISRAEL R, POTTER. 31 
 
 miles from where I quit the bargemen and begin- 
 ning to think myself in little danger of apprehen- 
 sion, should any of them be sent by the lieutenant in 
 pursuit of me, as ! was leisurely passing a public 
 house, 1 was noticed and hailed by a naval officer at 
 the door with " ahoi, what ship ?"- l no ship." was 
 my reply, on which he ordered me to stop, but or 
 which I took no-other notice than to observe to him 
 that if he would attend to his own busiuess I would 
 proceed quietly about mifie---this rather increasing 
 than diminishing his suspicions that I was a deser- 
 ter, garbed as I was, he gave chase finding my- 
 self closely persued and unwilling again to be made 
 a prisoner of, if it was possible to escape, 1 had 
 once more to trust to my legs, and should have a- 
 gain succeeded had not ihe officer, on finding him- 
 self likely vo be distanced, set up a cry of "stop 
 thief!" ihis brought numbers out of their houses 
 and work- shops, who. joining in the pursuit, suc- 
 ceeded after a chace of nearly a mile in overhaul- 
 ing me 
 
 Finding myself once more in their power and a 
 perfect stranger to the country, I deemed it vain to 
 attempt to deceive them with a lie, and therefore 
 made a voluntary confession to the officer that I was 
 prisoner of war, and related to him in what man- 
 ner I had that morning made my escape. By the 
 officer I was conveyed back to the Inn, and left in 
 custody of two soldiers the former (previous to re- 
 tiring) observing to the landlord that believing me 
 
12 L1IE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 to be a true blooded yankee, requested him to sup* 
 ply me at his expence with as much liquor as I 
 should call for. 
 
 The house was thronged early in the evening by- 
 many of the " good and faithful subjects of King 
 George," who had assembled to take a peep at the 
 " yankee rebel," (as they termed me) who had so 
 recently taken an active part in the rebellious war, 
 then raging in his Majesty's American provinces- 
 while others came apparently to gratify a curiosity 
 in viewing, for the first time, an u American Yan- 
 kee !" whom they had been taught to believe a kind 
 of non descripts beings of much less refinement 
 than the ancient Britains, and possessing Iktle more 
 humanity than the Buccaniers. 
 
 As for myself I thought it best not to be reserved, 
 but to reply readily to all their inquiries ; for while 
 my mind Was wholly employed in devising a plan to 
 escape from the custody of my keepers, so far from 
 manifesting a disposition to resent any of the insuUs 
 offered me, or my country, to prevent any suspicions 
 of my designs, I feigned myseit not a little pleased 
 with their observations, and in no way dissatisfied 
 vith my situation. As the officer had left orders 
 with the landlord to supply me with as much liquor 
 as I should be pleased to call for, I felt determined 
 to make my keepers merry at his expence, if possi- 
 ble, as the best means that I could adopt to effect 
 my escape. 
 
 The loyal group having attempted in vain to irri- 
 
t>f ISRAEL R. POTTER, ^3 
 
 late me, by their mean and ungenerous reflections) 
 by one (who observed that he had frequently heard 
 it mentioned that the yankees were extraordinary 
 dancers,) it was proposed that I should -entertain 
 the company with a jig ! to which 1 expressed a 
 willingness to assent with much feigned satisfaction, 
 if a fiddler could be procured fortunately for them, 
 there was one residing in the neighborhood, who 
 was soon introduced, when 1 was obliged (although 
 much against my owt inclination) to lake the floor 
 with the full determination) however that if John 
 Bull was to be thus diverted at the expence of an 
 unfortunate prisoner of war, uncle Jo,, athan should 
 come in for his part of the sport before morning) 
 by show-ing them a few Tankee steps which they then 
 Httle dreamed of. 
 
 By my performances they were soon satisfied 
 tliat in this kind of exercise, I should suffer but 
 Httle in competition with the most nimble footed 
 Britain among them : nor would they release me 
 cntil I had danced myself into a state of perfect 
 perspiration ; which, however, so far from being any 
 disadvantage to me, I considered all in favour of 
 my projected plan to escape tor while I was pleas- 
 ed lo see the flowing bowl passing merrily about; 
 and not unfrequently brought in contact with the 
 lips of my two keepers, the state of perspiration 
 that I was in, prevented its producing on me any 
 intoxicating effects. 
 
 The evening having become now for spent and 
 
24 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 the company mostly retiring my keepers (who, 
 to use a sailor's phrase 1 was happy to discover 
 " half st as over") having much to my dissatisfaction 
 fun ished me with a pair ot handcuffs spread a blank- 
 et by the side of their bed on which i was to re- 
 pose for the night, I feigned myself very grate- 
 ful to them for having huiiiaueiy fin nibbed me with 
 so comfortable a bed, and on which 1 stretched my- 
 self with much apparent unconcern* and remained 
 quiet about one hour, when I *vas sure that the 
 family had ail retired to bed The important mo- 
 ment had now arrived in which 1 was resolved to 
 carry my premeditated plan into execution, or die 
 in the attempt for certain I was that it I let this 
 opportunity pass unimproved, I might have cause 
 to regret it when it was too late -that I should 
 most assuredly be conveyed early in the morning 
 back to the floating prison from which I had so re- 
 cently escaped, and where 1 might possibly re- 
 main confined until America should obtain her in- 
 dependence, or the differences between Great-Britain 
 and her American provinces were adjusted. Yet 
 should I in my attempt to escape meet with more 
 opposition (u;m rt-y keepers, than what 1 had cal- 
 culated from their apparent state of inebriaty, the 
 contest I well knew would be very unequal they 
 were two full grown stout men, with whom (if 
 they were assisted by no others) J should have to 
 contend, handcuffed! but, after mature delibera* 
 tion, I resolved that however hazaidous the attempt; 
 it should be made, and that immediately. 
 
ISRAEL R. POTTER. 25 
 
 After remaining quiet, as Ibetore observed, until 
 I thought it probable ihat all had retired to bed in 
 the house, I intimated to my keepers that I was un- 
 der the necessity of requesting permission to retire 
 for a few moments to the back yard ; when both in- 
 stantly arose and reeling towatd me seiz.d each an 
 arm, and proceeded to conduct me through a long 
 and narrow entry to the backdoor, which was no 
 sooner unbolted and opr ned by one of them, than I 
 tripped up the heels of boih and laid them sprawling, 
 and in a moment was at the garden wall seeking a 
 passage whereby I might gain the public road a: 
 new and unexpected obstacle now presented, for I 
 found the whole garden enclosed with a smooth brick- 
 tn wall, of the heighth of twelve feet at least, and 
 was prevented by the darkness of the night from, 
 discovering an avenue leading therefrom in this 
 predicament, niy only alternative was cither to scale 
 this wall handcuffed as> I was, and without a moment's 
 hesitation s or to suffer myself to be made a captive of 
 again by my keepers, who had already recovered 
 their feet and were bellowing like bullocks for assis- 
 lance had it not been a very dark night, Tmust cer* 
 tainly have been discovered and re-taken by them ; 
 fortunately before they had succeeded in rallying the 
 family, in groping about I met with a fruit tre sit- 
 untc-.d within ten or twelve feet of the wall, which I 
 ascended as expeditiously as possible, and by an ex- 
 traordinary leap from the branches reached the top 
 of the wall> and was in an instant on the opposit side. 
 
26 LIFB AN ADVENTURES 
 
 The coast being now clear, I ran to the distance of 
 two or three miles, with as much speed as my situa- 
 tion would admit of ; my next object now was to rid 
 myself of my handcuffs, which fortunately proving 
 none of the stoutest, 1 succeeded in doing after much 
 painful labour. 
 
 It was npw as I judged about 13 o'clock* and 1 had 
 succeeded in reaching a considerable distance from 
 the Inn from which 1 had made my escape, without 
 hearing or seeing any thing of my keepers, whom I 
 had left staggering about in the garden in search of 
 their " Yankee captive !" it was indeed to their in- 
 toxicated state, and the extreme darkness of the -night! 
 that I imputed my success in evading their pursuit. 
 I saw no one until about the break of day, when I 
 met an old man, tottering beneath the weight of his 
 pick-ax, hoe and shovel, clad in tattered garments) 
 and otherwise the picture of poverty and distress ; he 
 had just left his humble dwelling, and was proceed- 
 ing thus early to his daily labour j and as 1 was now 
 satisfied that it would be very difficult for me to 
 travel in the day time garbed as 1 was, in a sailor's 
 habit, without txciting the suspicions of his Royal 
 Majesty's pimps, who (1 had been iiiformed) were 
 constantly on the look-out for deserters, I applyed to 
 the old man, miserable as he appeared, for-a change 
 ofcloathing, offering those which I then wore for a 
 suit of inferior quality and less value this I was in- 
 duced to do at that moment, as 1 thought that the 
 proposal could be made with per feet safety, for what- 
 
07 ISRAEL R, POTTER. 2/ 
 
 over might hare been his suspicions as to my mo- 
 tives in wishing to exchange my dress I doubted not, 
 that with an object of so much apparent distress, self* 
 interest would prevent hit communicating them. 
 The old man however appeared a little surprised at 
 my offer, and after a short examination of my pea- 
 jacket) trowsers, &c expressed a doubt whether i 
 would be willing to exchange them for his " Church 
 suit," which he represented as something worse for 
 wear, and not worth half so much as those I then, 
 were taking courage however from my assurances 
 that a change of dresi was my only object, he depot 
 sited his tools by the side of a hedge, and inviteu* 
 me to accompany him to his house, which we soon 
 reached and entered, when a scene of poverty and 
 wretchedness presented, which exceeded every thing 
 f the kind that 1 had ever before witnessed the 
 internal appearance of the miserable hovel, I am 
 confident would suffer in a comparison with any of 
 the meanest stableg of our American farmers there 
 was but one room* in one corner of which was a bed 
 of straw covered with a coarse sheet, and on which 
 reposed his wife and five small children. I had 
 heard much of the impoverished and distressed sit 
 uatien of the poor in England, but the present pre- 
 sented an instance of which 1 had formed no concep- 
 tion liule indeed did I then think that it would be 
 my lot, before I should meet with an opportunity to 
 return to my native country, to be placed in an infi- 
 nitely worse situation ! but, alas, such was my bar! 
 fortune t 
 
28 LIFE AN ADVENTURES 
 
 The first garment presented by the poor old man, 
 of his best, or " church suit," as he termed it, was a 
 coat of very coarse cloth, and cootaining a number of 
 patches of almost every colour but that of the cloth 
 f which it wa originally made the next was a 
 waistcoat and a pair of small cloathes, which appear- 
 ed each to have received a bountiful supply of patch- 
 es to correspond with the coat the coat 1 put on 
 without much difficulty, but the two other garments 
 proved much too small for me, and when I had suc- 
 ceeded with considerable difficulty in putting them 
 on, they set so taught as to cause me some apprehen- 
 sion that they might even stop the circulation of 
 blood I my next exchange was my buff-cap for an 
 old rusty large brimmed hat. 
 
 The old man appeared very much pleased with 
 his bargain, and represented to his wife that he could 
 now accomp&erp her to chutch nuch more decently 
 clad he immediately tried on the pea-jacket and 
 trowsers, and seemed to give himself very little con- 
 cern about their size, although 1 am confident that 
 one leg of the trowsers was sufficiently large to admit 
 his whole body but, however ludicrous his appear- 
 ance, in his new suit, I am confident that it could not 
 have been more so than mine, garbed as I was, like 
 an oilman of seventy 1 From my old friend I learn- 
 ed the course that I must steer to reach London, the 
 towns and villages that I should have to pass through, 
 and the distance thereto, which was between 70 and 
 80 miles, He likewise repiesemed to me that the 
 
03T- ISRAEL Fw POTTER i $- 
 
 country was filled with soldiers, who were, on the 
 constant look-out for deserters from the navy and ar- 
 ray, for the apprehension of which they received a 
 stipulated reward. 
 
 After enjoining it on the old man not to give any* 
 information of me, should he meet on the road an-y 
 one who should enquire for such a person, I took -my 
 leave of him, and again set out with a determination 
 lo reach London, thus disguised, if possible ; I tra- 
 velled about 30 miles that day, and -at night enVeretb 
 a barn in hopes to find some straw or hay on which 
 to repose for the night, for I had not money sufficient 
 to pay for a night's lodging ai a public house, hscl f 
 thought it prudent to app.ty for one in nvy expecta- 
 tion to find either hay or straw in the barn I-was sad- 
 ly disappointed, for I soon found that it contained not 
 a lock of either, and sfier groping about in the dark 
 in search of something ihat might serve fop a s-ubsti.- 
 tute, I .found nothing better than an undressed sheep. 
 skin wi'.h no other bed on which to repose-my woa 
 ried limbs ! spent a sleepless night; cold, hungry and- 
 weary, and impatient for Use arrival of the mortiing'a- 
 dawn, that 1 might be enabled to pursue mv journey* 
 
 By break of day I -again set out and soon found my- 
 self within the suburbs of a considerable village, in 
 passing which I was fearful there would be some risk 
 of detection, but to guard myself as much as possible 
 against suspicion, I furnished myself with a crutch, 
 and feigning myself a cupple, hobled through the- 
 town without meeting with any interruption In two 
 
3,9 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 hours after, I arrived in the vicinity of another still 
 more considerable village, but fortunately for me, at 
 the moment* I was overtaken by an empty baggage 
 waggon, bound to London again feigning myself 
 very lame, 1 begged of the driver to grant a poor 
 ripple the indulgence to ride a few miles, to which 
 he assenting, I concealed myself by lying prostrate on 
 the bottom of the waggon, until we had passed quite 
 through the village ; when, finding the waggoner dis- 
 posed to drive much slower than what I wished to 
 travel, after thanking him for the kind disposition 
 which he had manifested to oblige me, I quite the 
 waggon, threw away my crutch and travelled with a 
 speed, calculated to surprise the driver with so sud- 
 den a recovery of the use of my legs the reader will 
 perceive that I had now become almost an adept at 
 deception, which I would not however have so fre- 
 quently practiced, had not self preservation demand- 
 ed it. 
 
 As I thought there would be in my journey to 
 London, infinitely more danger of detection in pas- 
 sing through large towns or villages, than in con- 
 fining myself to the country, I avoided them as 
 much as possible ; and as I found myself once more 
 on the borders of one, apparently of much larger 
 size than any that I had yet passed, I thought it 
 most expedient to take a circuitous route to avoid 
 it; in attempting which, I met with an almost in- 
 surmountable obstacle, that I little dreamed of 
 when nearly abreast of the iown ; 1 found my route 
 
OF ISRAEL R. POTTER. 31 
 
 obstructed by a ditch, of upwards of I* feet in 
 breadth, and of what depth I could not determine^ 
 as there was now no other alternative left me, but 
 to leap this ditch, or to retrace my steps and pass 
 through the town, after a moment's reflection I de- 
 termined to attempt the former, although it would 
 be attempting a fete of activity, that I supposed my- 
 self incapable of performing ; yet, however incred- 
 ible it may appear, I assure my readers that I did 
 effect it, and reached the opposite side with dry 
 feet! 
 
 1 had now arrived within about 16 miles of Lon- 
 don, when night approaching, I again sought lodg- 
 ings in a barn ; which containing a small quantity 
 of hay, I succeeded in obtaining a tolerable com* 
 fortable night's rest. By the dawn of day I arose 
 somewhat refreshed, and reasumed my journey 
 with the pleasing prospect of reaching London be- 
 fore night but, while encouraged and cheered by 
 these pleasing anticipations, an unexpected occur- 
 rence blasted my fair prospects I had succeeded 
 in reaching in safety a distance so great from the 
 place where I had been last held a prisoner, and 
 within so short a distance of London, the place of 
 my destination, that J began to think myself so far 
 out of danger, as to cause me to relax in a meas- 
 ure, in the precautionary means which I had made 
 use of to avoid detection ; as I was passing through 
 the town ot Staincs, (within a few miles of London) 
 about 1 1 o'clock in the forenoon, I was met by 
 
$' 5LIF2 AND ADVENTURES 
 
 three or four British soHic rs, whose notice I at- 
 tracted, and who unfortunately for me, discovered 
 by the collar (which i had not taken the precaution 
 to conceal) that I wore a shirt which exactly cor- 
 responded with those uniformly worn by his Majes- 
 ty's seamen not being able to give a satisfactory 
 account of myself, I was made a prisoner of, on 
 suspicion of being a deserter from hi* Majesty's 
 service, and was immediately committed to the 
 the Round House ; a prison so called, appropriated 
 to the confinement of runaways, and those convic- 
 ted of small offences 1 was committed in the even- 
 ing: and to secure me the more effectually, I was 
 handcuffed, and left supperless by my unfeeling jail- 
 or, to pass the night in wretchedness. 
 
 I had now been three days without food (with 
 the exception of a single two- penny loaf) and felt 
 myself unable much longer to resist the cravings 
 of nature my spirits, which until now had armed . 
 me with fortitude began to forsake meindeed I. 
 was at this moment on the eve of despair ! when, 
 easing to mind that gri f would only aggravate 
 my calamity, 1 endeavoured to arm my soul with 
 patience ; and habiiuate myself as well as I could, 
 to woe. -Accordingly 1 roused my spirits ; and ban- 
 isimi^ for a few moments, these gloomy ideas, I 
 began to reflect semusiy. on the methods how to.- 
 extricat* mys; ;f irom this labyrinth of horror* 
 
 My first object was to rid myseif of my hand- 
 Guffs, whicn ^succeeded in doing after two hours 
 
OF ISRAEL R. POTTER. 33 
 
 Hard labour, by sawing them across the grating of 
 the window ; having my hands now at liberty) tho 
 next thing to be do^e was to force the door of my 
 apartment, which was secured on the outside by a 
 hasp and padlock ; 1 devised many schemes but for 
 the want of tools to work with, was unable to carry 
 them into execution---! however at length succeed* 
 cd, with the assistance of no other instrument than 
 the bolt of my handcuffs ; with which, thirsting my 
 arm through a small window or aperture in the 
 door, I forced the padlock* and as there was novr 
 no other barrier to preveot my escape, after an 
 imprisonment of about five hours, I was once more 
 at large. 
 
 It was now as I judged about midnight, and al- 
 though enfeebled and tormented with excessive 
 hunger and fatigue, I set out with the determina* 
 tion of reaching London if possible, early the en- 
 suing morning. By break of day I reached and pas- 
 sed through Brintford, a town of considerable note 
 and within six miles of the Capital but so great 
 was my hunger at this moment, that I was under 
 serious apprehension of falling a victim to absolute 
 starvation, if not so fortunate soon to obtain some- 
 thing to appease it. I recollected of haying read in 
 my youth, accounts of the dreadful effects of hung* 
 er which had led men to the commission of the 
 most horrible excesses, but did not then think that 
 fate would ever thereafter doom me to an almost 
 similar situation. 
 
34 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 When I made my escape from the Prison ship six 
 English penny s was all the money that I possessed 
 with two I had purchased a two penny loaf the day af. 
 ter I had escaped from my keepers at the inn, and the 
 other four still remained in my possession, not having 
 Diet with a favourable opportunity since the purchase 
 of the first loaf to purchase food of any kind. When 
 1 had arrived at the distance of one and an half miles 
 from Biiniford, I met with a labourer employed in 
 building H pale fence, to whom my deplorable situa- 
 tion induced me to rpply for work ; 01 for i^f->t na- 
 tion of any one in th& neighborhood, that might be in 
 want of a band to work av farming or gardening. He 
 informed me that he did not v/kh himself to hire, but 
 that Sir John Millet, whose seat he represented but 
 a short distant?, was in the habit of employing many 
 hand*, at thai season of the year (which was in the 
 spring of 1776) and he doubled not but lhal I might 
 there meet with employment. 
 
 With my spiruf a iulle revived., at even a distant 
 pjrospect of obtaining something to alleviate my suf- 
 ferings, I started- in quest or the seat of Su John, & 
 greeable to the directions which 1 had received; in 
 attempting to. reach which, I. mistook my way, and 
 proceeded up a gia.vellcd and beautifully omumemed 
 walk, which unconsciously led me dheciiy to the 
 garden of the Brincess Amelia I* had approached 
 within view of the Royal Mansion when a glimse of ft 
 number of "red coats" who thronged t ho yard, sat. 
 me of my mistake, and caused me to make aa-, 
 
V ISRAEL H. POTTER, tj 
 
 instantaneous and precipitate retreat, being determin- 
 ed, not to afford any more of their mess an opportu- 
 nity of boasting of the capture of a '* Yankee Rebel," 
 indeed, a wolf or bear, of the American wilder- 
 ness, could not be more terrified or panic-struck at 
 the sight of a firebrand, than I then was at that of a 
 British red coat I 
 
 Having succeeded in making good my retreat 
 from the garden of her highness, without being dis 
 covered I took another path which led me to where 
 a number of labourers were employed in shovelling 
 gravel, and to whom I repeated my enquiry if they 
 could inform me of any in want of help, &c * why 
 in troth friend (answered one in a dialect peculiar tc 
 the labouring class of people of that part of the 
 coumiy) me master, Sir John, hires a goodly many, 
 and as we've a deal of work n,p*y, may-be he'll hire 
 you; 'spose he btop a little with us 'until work is 
 done, he may then gaqg along, and we'll question 
 Sir John, whither him be wanting another like us or 
 noi" 
 
 Although I was sensible that an application of this 
 kind, might lead to a discovery of my situation, 
 whereby 1 might be again deprived or my liberty, 
 and immured in a loathsome prison ; yet, as there 
 was now no other alternative left me but to se^k in 
 this way, something to satisfy the cravings of hung- 
 er, or to yield a victim to starvation, with all Us 
 attending horrors: of the the two evils 1 preferred 
 the least, and concluded as the honest labourer had 
 
36 LIFE AVD ADVENTURES 
 
 proposed, to await until they hnd completed their 
 work, and then to accompany them home to ascer- 
 tain the will of Sir John. 
 
 As I had heaid much of the tyrannical and domi- 
 neering disposition of the rich and purse-proud of 
 England, and who were generally the loids of the 
 manor, and the paiticular favourites* of the crown ; 
 it was not without feeling a very considerable de- 
 gree of diffidence, that 1 introduced my sell into the 
 presence of one whom 1 strongly suspected to he 
 of thai class but, what was peculiarly fortunate 
 for me, a shoit acquaintance was sufficient to satis* 
 fy me that as regarded this gentleman, my appre- 
 hensions were without cause. 1 found him walking 
 in his front yard in company with several gentleman, . 
 and en being made acquainted with my business, his 
 first enquiry was whether I had a hoe, or money 
 to purchace one t and on being answered in the 
 negative, he requested me to call early the ensu- 
 ing morning} and he would endeavour to furnish 
 me with one. 
 
 It is impossible for me to express the satisfaction 
 that I felt at this prospect of a deliverance from 
 my wretched situation. 1 was now by so long fast- 
 ing reduced to such a state of weakness, that my 
 legs were hardly able to support me, and it was 
 with extreme difficulty that I succeeded in reach- 
 ing a baker's shop in the neighborhood, where with 
 my four remaining pennys, which I had reserved 
 for a last resource> 1 purchased two two-penny 
 leaves. 
 
Of ISRAEL R. POTTER* 3f 
 
 After four days of intolerable hunger, the reader 
 may judge how great must have been my joy, to 
 find myself in possession of even a morsel to ap- 
 pease it well might I have exclaimed at this mo. 
 ment with the unfortunate Trenck " O nature I 
 what delight hast thou combined with the gratifica^ 
 tion of thy wants ! remember this ye who rack in. 
 vention to excite appetite, and which yet you can- 
 not procure ; remember how simple are the means 
 that will give a crust of mouldy bread a flavour more 
 exquisite than ail the spiees : of the east, or all the 
 profusion of land or sea ; remember this, grow 
 hungry, and indulge your sensuality." 
 
 Although five times the quantity of the '" staff of 
 life" would have been insufficient to have satisfied 
 my appetite, yet, as I thought it improbable that I 
 should be indulged \vith a mouthful of any thing to 
 eat in the morning, I concluded to eat then but one 
 loaf, and 10 reserve the other for another meal ; 
 but having eaten one, so far from satisfying, it seem* 
 cd rather to increase my appetite for the other the 
 temptation was irresistabie the cravings of hunger 
 predominated, and would not be satisfied until I had 
 devoured the remaining one. 
 
 The day was now far spent and I was compelled 
 to resort wiih reluctance to a carriage house, to 
 spend another night in misery j 1 found nothing 
 therein on which to repose my wearied limbs but 
 U,e bare floor, which was sufficient to deprive me 
 of sleep, however much exhausted nature required 
 
 4 
 
38 LIFE AND AB VENTURES 
 
 it ; my spirits were however buoyed up by the pleas- 
 ing consolation that the succeeding day would bring 
 relief ; as soon as day light appeared. I hastened 
 to await the commands of one, whom, since my first 
 introduction! I could not but flatter myself would 
 prove my benefactor, and afford me that relief which 
 iny pitiful situation so much required it was an 
 Jiour much earlier than that at which even the domes- 
 tics were in the habit of arising, and I had been a 
 considerable time walking back and fourth in the 
 barn yard, before any made their appearance. It 
 was now about 4 o'clock, and by the person of whom 
 I made the enquiry, I was informed that 8 o'clock 
 was the usual hour \n which the labourers commen- 
 ced their day's work permission was granted me 
 by this perso (who had the care of the stable) to 
 repose myself on some straw beneath the manger, 
 until they should be in readiness to depart to com- 
 mence their day's work in the four hours I had a 
 more comfortable nap than any that I had enjoyed 
 the four preceding nights. At 8 o'clock precisely 
 all hands were called, and preparations made for a 
 commencement of the labours of the day I was 
 furnished with a large iron fork and a hoe, and or* 
 dered by my employer to accompany them, and al- 
 though my strength at this moment was hardly suf- 
 ficient to enable me to bear even so light a bur- 
 then, yet was unwilling to expose my weakness, so 
 long as it could be avoidedbut, the time had now 
 arrived in which it was impossible for me any long* 
 
OF ISRAEL R POTTER. $>' 
 
 r to conceal it, and had to confess the cause to my 
 fellow. labourers, so far as to declare to them, that 
 such had been my state of poverty, that (with tha 
 exception of the four small loaves of bread) I had 
 not tasted food for four days ! I was not I must 
 confess displeased nor a little disappointed to witness 
 the evident emotions of pity and commiseration, 
 which this woeful declaration appeared to excite in 
 their minds : as I had supposed them too much ac- 
 customed to witness scenes of misery and distress, 
 to have their feelings much effected by a brief reci- 
 tal of my suffering and deprivations but in justice 
 to them I must aay, that although a very illiterate, 
 1 found them (with a few exceptions) a human* 
 and benevolent people. 
 
 About 11 o'clock we were visited by our employ* 
 er, Sir John : who, noticing me particularly, and 
 perceiving the little progress I made in my labour, 
 observed, that although 1 had the appearance of be- 
 ing a stout hearty man ; yet 1 either feigned myself 
 or really was a very weak one ! on which it was 
 immediately observed by one of my friendly fellow 
 labourers, that it was not surprising that I lacked 
 strength, as I had eaten nothing of consequence for 
 four days J Mr. Millet, who appeared at first lit- 
 tle disposed to credit the fact, on being assured 
 by me that it was really so, put a shilling into my 
 hand, and bid me go immediately and purchase to 
 that amount in bread and meat a request which 
 the reader may suppose 1 did not hesitate to comply 
 with. 
 
4 LI?E AND ADV3NTUBES 
 
 Having made a tolerable meal, and feeling some- 
 what refreshed thereby, I was on my return when I 
 was met by my fellow labourers on their return home 
 four o'clock being the hour in which they usually 
 quit work. As soon as we arrived, some victuals 
 was ordered for me by Sir John, when the maid pre- 
 senting a much smaller quantity, than what her be- 
 nevolent master supposed sufficient to satisfy the ap- 
 petite of one who had been four days fasting, she was 
 ordered to return and bring out the platter and the 
 whole of its contents and of which I was requested 
 to eat my fill, but of which T eat sparingly to prevent 
 the dangerous consequences which might have re- 
 sulted from my voracity in the debilitated state to 
 Which my stomach was reduced. 
 
 My light repast being over, one of the men were 
 ordered by my hospitable friend to provide for me a 
 tfomfortabie bed in the barn, where 1 spent the night 
 on a couch of clean straw, more sweetly than ever I 
 had done in the days of my better fortune. 1 arose 
 early much refreshed, and was preparing after break- 
 fast to accompany the labourers to their work, which 
 was no sooner discovered by Sir John, than smiling, 
 he bid me return to my couch and there remain un- 
 til 1 was in a better state to resume my labours ; in- ; 
 deed the generous compassion and benevolence of 
 this gentleman was unbounded* After having on 
 that day partook of an excellent dinner, which had 
 been provided expressly for me, and the domestics 
 having been ordered to retire, 1 was not a little sur- 
 
OF ISRAEL R. POTTEft. 41 
 
 prised to hear myself thus addressed by him" my 
 honest friend, 1 perceive that you are a sea-faring 
 man, and your history probably is a secret which you 
 may not wish to divulge; but, whatever circumstan- 
 ces may have attended you, you may make them- 
 known to me with the greatest safety, for I pledge 
 my honour I will never betray you," 
 
 Having experienced so many proofs of the friend- 
 ly disposition of Mr Millet, I could not hesitate a 
 moment to comply witb his request, and without at- 
 tempting to conceal a single fact made him acquain- 
 ted with every circumstance that had attended me 
 since my first enlistment as a soldier after expres- 
 sing his regret that there should be any of his coun- 
 trymen found so void of the principles of humanity, 
 as to treat thus an unfortunate prisoner of war, he as- 
 sured me that so long as I remained in his employ 
 he would guarantee my safety adding, that notwith- 
 standing (in consequence ot the unhappy differences 
 which then prevailed between Great Britain and her 
 American colonies) the inhabitants of the latter were 
 denominated Rebels, yet they were not without their 
 friends in England, who wished well to their cause, 
 and would cheerfully aid them whenever an oppor- 
 tunity should present he represented the soldiers 
 (whom it had been reported to me, were constantly 
 on the look out for deserters) as a set of mean and 
 contemptible wretches, little better than a lawless 
 banditti, who, to obtain the fee awarded by govern- 
 ment, for the apprehension of a deserter, would be- 
 u* their best friends, 
 
42 tlFE ANB ADVENTURES 
 
 Having been generously supplyed with a new suit 
 ofcloathes and other necessaries by Mr. M. I con- 
 tracted with him for six months, to superintend his 
 strawbury garden, in the course of which so far from 
 being molested, 1 was not suspected by even his own 
 domestics of being an American at the expiration 
 of the six months, by the recommendation of my hos- 
 pitable friend, I got a birth in the garden of the Prin- 
 ces, Amelia, where although among my fellow la- 
 bourers the American Rebellion was not unfrequent- 
 Jy the topic of their conversation, and the " d d 
 Yankee Rebels" (as they termed them) frequently 
 the subjects of their vilest abuse, 1 was little suspec- 
 ted of being one of that class whom they were pleas- 
 ed thus to denominate -1 must confess that it was 
 not without some difficulty; that I was enabled to sur 
 press the indignant feelings occasioned by hearing 
 my countrymen spoken so disrespectfully of, but as 
 a single word in their favour might have betrayed me, 
 1 could obtain no other satisfaction than by secretly 
 indulging the hope that I might before the conclusion 
 of the war, have an opportunity to repay them, in 
 their own coin> with interest. 
 
 1 remained in the employ of the Princess shout 
 three months, and then in consequence of a misun- 
 derstanding with the overseer, I hired my self to a far- 
 mer in a small village adjoining Brintford, where I 
 had not been three weeks employed before rumour 
 was afloat that I was a Yankee Prisoner of war ! trom 
 whence the report arose, or by what occcasioned> i 
 
OF ISRAEL R. POTTER. 4 
 
 never could learn it no sooner reached the ears of 
 the soldiers, than ihey were on the alert, seeking an 
 opportunity to seize my person fortunately I was 
 apprised of their intentions before they had time to 
 carry them into effect; I was however hard pushed) 
 and sought for by them with that diligence and per- 
 severance that certainly deserved a better cause I 
 had many hair breadth escapes, and most assuredly 
 should have been taken, had it not been for the friend- 
 ship of those whom I suspect felf not less friendly to 
 the cause of my country, but dare not publicly avow 
 it I was at one time traced by the soldiers in pursuit 
 of me to the house of one of this description, in whose 
 garret I was concealed, and was at that moment in 
 bed ; they entered and enquired for me, and on be- 
 ing told that 1 was not in the house, they insisted on 
 searching, and were in the act of ascending the cham- 
 ber stairs for that purpose, when seizing ray cloathes, 
 1 passed up through the scuttle, and reached the root' 
 of the house, and from thence half naked passed to 
 those of the adjoining ones to the number of ten or 
 twelve, and succeeded in making my escape without 
 being discovered. 
 
 Being continually harrassed by night and day by 
 the soldiers, and driven 1'rona place to place, without 
 an opportunity to pertorm a day's work, I was ad- 
 vised by one whose sincjrfty 1 could not doubt, to 
 apply for a birth as a wbourer in a garden of his 
 Royal Majesty, situated in the village o' Quew, a 
 few miles from -filiation) j where, under the pro* 
 
44 LIFE AND AIM'ENTURSS 
 
 tection of his Majesty, it was represented to me 
 that I should be perfectly safe, as the soldiers dare 
 not approach the royal premises, to molest any one. 
 therein employedhe was indeed so friendly as to 
 introduce me personally to the overseer v as an ac- 
 quaintance who possessed a perfect knowledge of 
 gardening, but from whom he carefully concealed 
 the fact of my being an American born, and of the 
 suspicion entertained by some of my being a pris- 
 oner of war, who had escaped the vigilance of ray- 
 keepers. 
 
 The overseer concluded to receive me on trial ; 
 it was here that I had not only frequent oppor- 
 tunities to see his Royal Majesty in person, in his 
 frequent resorts to this, one of his country retreats, 
 but once had the honour of being addressed by him. 
 The fact was, that I hud not been one week em* 
 ployed in the garden, before the suspicion of my, 
 being either a prisoner of war, or a Spy, in the 
 employ of the American Rebels, was communica- 
 ted, not only to the overseer and other persons em- 
 ployed in the garden, but even to the King him- 
 self ! As I was one day busily engaged with three 
 ethers in gravelling a walk, I was unexpectedly ac. 
 costed by his Majesty : who, with much apparent 
 good nature, enquired of me of what country I 
 was '* an American born, may it please your ma- 
 jesty/' was my reply (taking off my hat, which he 
 requested me instantly to replace on my head,)- 
 '( ah 1 (continued he with a smile) an American, a- 
 
OF ISRAEL R, FOTTSR. 45 
 
 stubborn, a very stubborn people indeed i and what 
 brought you to tbis country, and how long have you 
 been here?" M the fate of war, your Majesty- I 
 was brought to this country a prisoner about eleven 
 months since," and thinking this a favourable op* 
 portunity to acquaint him with a few of my griev- 
 ances, I briefly Mated to him how much I had been 
 harassed by the soldiers " while here employed 
 they will not trouble you," was the only reply he 
 made, and passed on. The familiar manner in 
 which I had been interrogated by his majesty, had 
 I must confess a tendency in some degree to pre- 
 possess me in his favour I at least suspected 
 iiim to possess a disposition less tyrannical, and ca- 
 pable of better views than what had been imputed 
 to him ; and as I had frequently heard it repre- 
 sented in America, that uninfluenced by such of his 
 ministers, as unwisely disregarded the reiterated 
 complaints of the American people, he would have 
 been foremost to have redressed their grievance^ 
 of which they so justly complained. 
 
 I continued in the service of his Majesty's gardner 
 at Qeuw, about.four months, when ihe'season having 
 Thrived in which the work of tne garden required less 
 labourers I with three others was discharged ; and 
 the day after engaged myself for a few months, to a 
 farmer in the town and neighborhood where 1 had 
 been last employed but, not one week had expired 
 before the old story of my being an American priso- 
 ner of war &c, was revived and industriously circle 
 
46 LIFE AMD ADVENTUR2* 
 
 Jated, and the soldiers (eager to obtain the proffered 
 bounty) like a pack of blood-hounds were again on 
 the track seeking an opportunity to surprise me 
 the house wherein I had taken up my abode, was se- 
 veral times thoroughly searched by them, but 1 was 
 always so fortunate as to discover their approach in 
 season to make good my escape by the assistance of 
 a friend- to so much inconvenience however did 
 this continual apprehension and fear subject me, that 
 1 was finally half resolved to surrender myself a pri- 
 soner to some of his Majesty's officers; and submit to 
 my fate, whatever it might be, when by an unexpec- 
 ted occurrence . and ihe seasonable interposition of 
 providence in my favour, I. was induced to change my 
 resolution. 
 
 I had been strongly of the opinion by what I had 
 myself experienced, that America was not without 
 her friends in England, and those who were her well 
 wishers in the important cause in which she was at 
 that moment engaged ; an opinion which i think no 
 one will disagree with me in saying, was somewhat 
 confirmed, by a circumstance of that importance^ as 
 entitles it to a conspicuous place in my narrative* 
 At a moment when driven almost to a state of des- 
 pondency by continual alarms and fears of falling in- 
 tojthe hands of a set of desperadoes, who for a very 
 small reward would willingly have undertaken the 
 commission of almost any crime; I received a mes- 
 sage from a gentleman of respectability of Brintford 
 (J, Woodcock EsqO requesting me to repair imnie- 
 
tF ISRAEL R. POTTER. 47 
 
 diately to his house the invitation 1 was disposed to 
 pay but little attention to t as I viewed it nothing more 
 than a plan of my pursuers to decoy and entrap me 
 but, on learning from my confidential friend that 
 the gentleman by whom the message had been sent, 
 was one whose loyalty had been doubted, I was in- 
 duced to comply with the request* 
 
 I reached the house of 'Squire Woodcock about 8 
 e'clock in the evening, and after receiving from him 
 at the door assurances that I might enter without fear 
 or apprehension of any design on his pan against me, 
 I suffered myself to be introduced into a private 
 chamber, where were seated two other gentlemen, 
 who appeared to be persons of no mean rank, and 
 proved to be no other than Home Touke and James 
 Bridges Esquires -as all three of these gentlemen 
 tiave long since paid the debt of nature, and are pla- 
 ced beyond the reach of such as might be disposed 
 to persecute or reproach them for their disloyally, I 
 can now with perfect safety disclose their names- 
 names which ought to be dear to every tiue Ameri- 
 can. 
 
 After having (by their particular request) furnHi. 
 -ed these gentlemen with a brief account of the most 
 important incidents of my life, I underwent a very 
 strict examination, as they seemed determined to sat- 
 isfy themselves, before they made any important ad- 
 vances or disclosures, that I was a person in whom 
 they could repose implicit confidencet Finding me 
 Firmly attached to the interests of my country, so 
 
48 LIFE AN ADVENTURES 
 
 much so as to be willing to sacrifice even my life if 
 necessary in her behalf,they began to address me with 
 less reserve ; and after bestowing the highest encom- 
 iums on my countrymen, for the bravery which they 
 had displayed in their recent engagements with the 
 British troops, as well as for their patriotism in pub* 
 licly manifesting their abhorrence and detestation of 
 the ministerial party in England, who to alienate their 
 affections and to enslave them, had endeavoured to 
 subvert the British constitution ; they enquired of me 
 if (to promote the interests of my country) I should 
 have any objection to take a trip to Paris, on an 
 important mission, if my passage ar.d other expert 
 ces were paid, and a generous compensation ai- 
 lowed me for my trouble ; and which in all prob- 
 ability would lead to the means whertby I might 
 be enabled to return to rny country 10 which I 
 replied that I should have none. After having en- 
 joined upon me to keep every thing which they 
 had communicated, a piofound secret, they pre- 
 sented me with a guinea, and a letter for a gen- 
 tleman in White Waltam (a country town about SO 
 miles from B;intibrcl) which they requested me to 
 reach as soon as possible, and there remain until 
 they should send lor me, and by no means to fail 
 to arrive at the precise hour that they should ap- 
 point. 
 
 After partaking of a little refreshment I set out 
 at 12 o'clock at night, and reached White Wat- 
 tarn at half past 11 the succeeding day, and imiwe* 
 
OT ISRAEL R. POTTER; 49 
 
 dlately waited on and presented the letter to the 
 gentleman to whom it was directed, and who gave 
 me a very cordial reception, and whom I soon 
 found was as real airiend 10 America** cause as the 
 three gentlemen in whose company I had last been- 
 It was from him that 1 received the first info' maiion 
 of the evacuation of Boston by the Biitish troops, and 
 of the declaration of IKDEPEMOENCL, by the Ameri- 
 can Congress he indeed appeared to possess a 
 knowledge of almost every important transaction ire 
 America, since the memorable battle of Banker-Hill^ 
 and it was to him thai 1 was indebted for many par- 
 ticulars, not a little interesting to myself, and which 
 I might otherwise have remained ignorant of, as I 
 have always found it a principle of the Britains, to 
 conceal every thing calculated to diminish or tarnish 
 their fame, as a " great and powerful nation 1" 
 
 1 remained in the family of this gentleman about 
 a fortnight, when I received a letter from "Squire 
 Woodcock, requesting me to be at his house with* 
 out fail precisely at 2 o'clock the morning ensuing- 
 in compliance of which I packed up and started im- 
 mediately for Brintford, and reached the house of 
 'Squire Woodcock at the appointed hourI found 
 there in company with the latter, the two gentlemen 
 whose names, I have before mentioned, and by whom 
 the object of my mission to Paris was now made 
 known to me which was to convey in the most se- 
 cret manner possible a letter to Dr. FRANKLIN ; eve- 
 ry thing was in readiness, and a chaise ready harness- 
 5 
 
53 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 ed which was to convey me to Charing Cross, wait- 
 ing at the door I was presented with a pair of boots., 
 made expressly for me, and for the safe conveyance 
 of the letter of which 1 was to be the bearer, one of 
 them contained a false heel, in which the Utter was 
 deposited, and was to be thus conveyed to the Doc- 
 tor. After again repeating my former declarations, 
 4hat whatever might be my fate, they should never 
 be exposed, I departed, and was conveyed in quick 
 time to Charing Cross, where ] took the post coach 
 for Dover, and from thence was immediately convey- 
 ed in a packet to Calais, and in fifteen minutes after 
 landiag, started for Paris ; which 1 reached in safety, 
 and delivered to Dr. Franklin the letter of which I 
 was the bearer. 
 
 What were the contents of this letter! was never 
 informed and never knew, but had but little doubt 
 but that it contained important information relative to 
 the views of the British cabinet, as regarded the af 
 fairs of America ; and although I well knew that a 
 discovery (while within the British dominions) would 
 have proved equally fatal to me as to the gentlemen 
 by whom I was employed, yet, 1 most solemnly de- 
 clare, that to be. serviceable to my country at that im- 
 portant period, was much more of an object with me, 
 than the reward which 1 had been promised, howev- 
 er considerable it might be. My interview with Dr 
 Franklin was a pleasing one for nearly an hour he 
 cu^ersed with me in the ir.ost agreeable and instruc- 
 tive xnanr.er, and Jistf ned to the tale of my sufferings 
 
OJf ISRAEL R. POTTER. i 
 
 with much apparent interest, and seemed disposed to 
 encourage me with the assurance that if the Ameri- 
 cans should succeed in their grand object, and firm* 
 ly establish their Independence, they would not fail 
 to remunerate their soldiers for their services but, 
 alas ! as regards myself, these assurances have not 
 as yet been verified ! I am confident, however, that 
 had it been a possible thing for that great and good 
 znan (whose humanity and generosity have been the 
 theme of infinitely abler pens than mine) to have liv- 
 ed to this day, I should not have petitioned my coun- 
 try in vain for a momentary enjoyment of that provi- 
 sion, which has been extended to so great a portion 
 of my fellow soldiers ; and whose hardships and de- 
 privations, in the cause of their country, could not I 
 am sure have been half so grear as mine ! 
 
 After remaining two days in Paris, letters were de- 
 livered to me by the Doctor, to convey to the gentle- 
 men by whom I had been employed, and which for 
 their better security as well as my own, I deposited 
 as the other, in the heel of my boot, and with which 
 to the great satisfaction of my friends 1 reached Brint- 
 ford, in safety, and without exciting the suspicion of 
 any one as to the important, (although somewhat dan- 
 gerous) mission that I had been engaged in. JB re- 
 mained secreied in the house of 'Squire Woodcock 
 a few clays, and then by his and the two other gentle- 
 mei.'s request, made a second trip to Paris, and in 
 reaching which and in delivering my letters, was e* 
 qually as fortunate as in my first. If I should sue- 
 
52 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 eed in returning in safety to Brintford this trip, i 
 Was (agreeable to the generous proposal of Doctor 
 Franklin) to return immediately to France, from 
 Whence he was to procure me a passage to America ? 
 but, although in my return I met with no difficul- 
 ty} yet, as if fate had selected me as a victim to en- 
 dure the miseries and privations which alterward at- 
 tended me, but three hours before 1 reached Dover 
 to engage a passage for the third and last time to Ca. 
 Jaist all intercourse between the two countries was 
 prohibited ! 
 
 My flattering expectations of being enabled soon 
 to return to my native country, and once more to 
 meet and enjoy the society of my friends, (after an 
 absence of more than twelve months) being thus by 
 an unforeseen circumstance completely destroyed, I 
 returned immediately to the gentlemen by whom I 
 had been last employed to advise with them what it 
 Would be best for me to do, in my then unpleasant 
 situation for indeed, as all prospects were now at an 
 end, of meeting with an opportunity very soon to re- 
 turn to America, I could not bear the idet of remain- 
 ing any longer in a neighborhood where I was so 
 strongly suspected of being a fugitive from justice 
 and under continual apprehension ot being retaken, 
 and immured Hke a felon in a dungeon, 
 
 By these gentlemen 1 was advised to repair imme- 
 diately to London, where employed as a labourer, if I 
 did not imprudently betray myself they thought there 
 was little probability of my being suspected ot being 
 
OF ISRAEL a, POTTER. 53 
 
 an American. This advice 1 readily accepted as the 
 plan was such a one as exactly accorded with my o- 
 pinion, for from the very moment that I first escaped 
 from the clutches of my captors, I thought that i i 
 the city of London I should not be so liable to be sus- 
 pected and harrassed by the soldiers, as I should to 
 remain in the country. These gentlemen supplied 
 me with money sufficient to defray ray expence* and 
 would have willingly furnished me with a recom- 
 mendation had they not been tearful that if 1 should 
 be so unfortunate as to be recognised by any one ac- 
 quainted with the circumstance of my capture and es 
 cape, those recommendations (as there loyalty was 
 already doubted) might operate much against them } 
 in as much as they might furnish a clue to the dis- 
 covery of some transactions which they then felt un- 
 willing to have exposed. I ought here to state that 
 before 1 set out for London, I was entrusted by these 
 gentlemen with Five Guineas, which I was request- 
 ed to convey and distribute among 1 a number of A- 
 mericans, then confined as prisoners of war, in one of 
 the city prisons 
 
 I reached London late in the evening and the next 
 day engaged board at Five Shillings per week, .-t a 
 public house in Lombard Street, where under. a ficti- 
 cious name I passed for a farmei from Lincolnshire 
 my next object was to find my way to the prison where 
 were confined as prisoners of war a number of my 
 countrymen, and among whom I was directed to dis- 
 tribute the 5 guineas with which 1 had been entrust- > 
 5* ' 
 
54 L1IE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 cd for that purpose by their fi lends at Brintfcrd. 
 found the prison without much difficulty, but it was 
 with very considerable difficulty that 1 gained admit- 
 tance, and not until I had presented the turnkey with 
 a considerable lee would he consent to indulge me, 
 The reader will suppose that I must have been very 
 much surprised, when, as soon as the door of the pri- 
 soner's apartment was opened, and 1 had passed the 
 threshold* to hear one of them exclaim with much 
 apparent astonishment, u Potter 1 is that you J how in 
 the name of heaven came you here !'* an exclama- 
 tion like this by one of a number to whom 1 suppos- 
 ed myself a perfect stranger, caused me much un- 
 easiness for a few moments, as I expected nothing 
 less than to recognize in this man, some one of my 
 old shipmates, who had undoubtedly a knowledge oi 
 the fact of my being a prisoner of war, and having 
 been confined as such on boaid the guard ship at spit- 
 head but| in this I soon found to my satisfaction 
 that I was mistaken, for after viewing for a moment 
 the person by whom I had been thus addressed, I 
 discovered him to be no other than my old friend 
 seargent Singles, with whom 1 had been intimately 
 acquainted in America as the exclamation was in 
 presence of the turnkey, least I should have the key 
 turned upon me, and be considered as lawful a pri- 
 soner as any of the rest, 1 hinted to my iriend that 
 lie certainly mistook me (a Lincolnshire farmer) for 
 another person, and by a wink which he received from 
 me at the same moment gave him to understand that 
 
OF ISRAEL R, POTTER. 55 
 
 a renewal of our acquaintance or an exchange of ci- 
 vilities would be more agreeable to me at any other 
 time. I now as 1 hail been requested divided the mo- 
 ney as equally as possible among tnem, and to pre- 
 vent the suspicions of the keeper, I represented to 
 them in a feigned dialect peculiar to the labouring 
 people of the Shire-towns, that," me master was ow- 
 ing a little trifle or so to a rebel trader of one of his 
 Majesty's American provinces, and was quested by 
 him to pay the ballance and so, to his brother yankee 
 rebels here imprisoned ." 
 
 1 found the poor fellows (fifteen in number) con- 
 fined in a dark filthy apartment of about 18 feet 
 square; and which I could not perceive contained 
 any thing but a rough piank bench of about IO feet 
 in length, and a heap of straw with one or two tatter, 
 ed, filthy looking blankets spread thereon, which was 
 probably the only bedding allowed them although 
 their situation was such as could not fail to excite my 
 pity, yet I could do no more than lament that it was 
 not in my power to relieve them hew long they re- 
 mained thus confined or when exchanged, I could ne- 
 ver learn, as I never to my knowledge saw one of 
 them afterwards. 
 
 For four or five days, after I reached London, I did 
 very little more than walk about the city, viewing 
 such cuiiosities as met my eye ; when, reflecting 
 that remaining thus idle, I should not only be very 
 soon out of funds, but should run the risk of being 
 suspected and apprehended as one belonging to one 
 
5 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 of the numerous gangs of pick pockets Sec. which in- 
 fest the streets of the city; I applied to an Iivelli- 
 gence Office for a coachman's birth, which I was so 
 fortunate, as to procure, at '5 shillings per week-- 
 my employer (J. Hyslop, Esq) although rigid in 
 his exactions; was punctual in his payments, and by 
 my strict prudence and abstinence from the numer- 
 ous diversions of the city, I #as enabled in the six 
 months which I served him, to lay up more cash 
 than what I had earned the twelve months prece- 
 ding. The next business in which I engaged was 
 that of brick making, and which together with that 
 of gardening, I pursued in the summer seasons al 
 most exclusively for five years ; in all which time 
 I was not once suspected of being an American, 
 yet, I must confess that my feelings were not un- 
 frequently most powerfully wrought upon, by hear- 
 ing my countrymen dubbed with cowardice, and by 
 those too who had been thrice flogged or frighten* 
 ed by them when attempting to ascend the heights 
 of Bunker Hill ! and to De obliged to brook these 
 insults with impunity, as to have resented them 
 would have caused me to have been suspected di- 
 rectly of being attached to the American cause, 
 which might have been attended with serious con* 
 sequences. 
 
 I should now pass over the five years that I was 
 employed as above mentioned, as cnecquered by 
 few incidents worth ielating ; was it not for one or 
 two circumstances of some little importance that. 
 
OF ISRAEL R, PATTER. &7 
 
 citherattcnded me, or came within my own person- 
 al knowledge. The reader has undoubtedly heard 
 that the city of London and its suburbs, is always 
 more or less infested with gangs of nefarious wretch- 
 es, who come under the denomination of Robbers, 
 Pickpockets, Shoplifters, Swindlers, Beggars, &c. 
 who are constantly prowling the streets in disguise, 
 seeking opportuniiies to surprise and depredate on 
 the weak and unguarded of these the former class 
 form no inconsiderable portion, who contrive to e- 
 lude and set at defiance the utmost vigilance of 
 government they are a class who in the day time 
 disperse each to his avocation, as the better to blind 
 the scrutinizing eye of justice, they make it a prin- 
 ciple to follow some laborious profession, and at 
 night assemble to proceed on their nocturnal rounds, 
 in quest of those whose well stored pockets promise 
 them a reward, equal to the risk which they run in 
 obtaining it. As I was one evening passing through 
 Hyde Park, with five guineas and a few pennys in 
 my pockets, 1 was stopped by six of these lawless 
 footpads ; who, presenting pistols to my breast, de- 
 manded my money .fortunately for me I had pre- 
 \iously deposited the guineas in a private pocket of 
 my pantaloons, for their better security ; thirsting 
 their hands into my other pockets and finding me in 
 possession of but a few English pennys, they took 
 them and decamped. I hastened to Bow Street and 
 lodged information of the robbery with the officers, 
 and who U my no little surprise informed me that 
 

 
 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 mine was the fifth instance, of information of simi- 
 lar robberies by the same gang, which had been 
 lodged with them that evening ! runners had been 
 sent in every direction in pursuit of inerty but with 
 what success I could never learn. 
 
 Despairing of meeting with a favourable oppor- 
 tunity to return to America, until the conclusion of 
 peace, and the prospects of a continuation of the 
 war being as great then (by what I could learn) as 
 at any period from its commencement, I became 
 liiore reconciled to my situation, and contracted an 
 intimacy with a young irouaan whose parents were 
 poor but respectable, and who I soon after married, 
 J took a small ready furnished chamber, in Red 
 Cross street, where with the fruit* of my hard 
 earnings, I was enabled to live tolerable comforta- 
 ble for three or fomr yearswhen, by sickness and 
 other unavoidable circumstances, 1 was doomed to 
 endure miseries uncommon to human nature. 
 
 In the winter of 1781, ne\vs was received in Lon- 
 don of the surrender of the army of Lord Corn* 
 wallis, to the French and American forces ! the 
 receipt of news of an event so unexpected operated 
 on the Biitish ministers and members of Parlia- 
 ment, like a tremendous clap of thunder deep sor- 
 row was evidently depicted in the countenances of 
 those who had been the most strenuous advocates 
 for the war i, ever was there a time in which I 
 longed more to exult, and to declare myself a true 
 blooded yankee and what was still more pleasing 
 
OS 1 ISRAEL R. POTTER. 59 
 
 to me, was to find myself even surpassed in expres- 
 sions of joy and satisfaction, by my wife, in conse* 
 quence of the receipt of news, which, while it went 
 to establish the military fame of my country men^ 
 was so calculated to humble the pride of her own ! 
 greater proofs of her regard for me and my country 
 I could not require, 
 
 The ministerlpparty in Parliament who had been 
 the instigators of the war* and who believed that 
 even a view of the bright glistening muskets and 
 bay ones of John Bull, would frighten the leather 
 apron Yankees to a speedy submission, began now 
 to harbour a more favourable opinion of the courage 
 of the latter. Mis Majesty repaired immediately 
 to the house of peers, and opened the sessions of 
 parliament warm debates look place, on account 
 of the ruinous manner in which the American war 
 was continued ; but Lord North and his party ap- 
 peared yet unwilling to give up the contest. The 
 capitulation of Cornwallis had however one good 
 effect, as it produced the immediate release of Mr. 
 juaurens from the Tower, and although it did not 
 put an immediate end to the war, yet all hopes of 
 conquering America from that moment appeared to 
 be given up by all except North and his adher* 
 
 There was no one engaged in the cause of Ameri- 
 ca> that did more to establish herfa:.ns m Enghnd, 
 and to satisfy the high boasting Britains of the 
 bravery and unconquerable resolutions of the "an- 
 
60 LIFE AKD ADVENTURES 
 
 kees, than that bold adventurer capt. Paul Jones ; 
 who, lor ten or eleven months kept all the western 
 coast of the island in alarm he boldly landed at 
 Whitehaven, where he burnt a ship in the harbour, 
 and even attempted to burn the town ; nor was 
 this to my knowledge the only instance in which 
 the Britains were threatened Mritjwa very serious 
 conflagration, by the instigation SPtheir enemies 
 abroad a daring attempt was made by one James 
 Aitkin, commonly known in London by the name 
 of John the Painter, to set fire to the royal dock 
 ar;d shipping at Portsmouth, and would probably 
 Jiave succeeded, had he not imprudently communi- 
 cated his intentions to one, who, lor the sake of a 
 few guineas, shamefully betrayed him poor Aiikin 
 was immediately seized, tried, Condemned, execu- 
 ted and hung in chains -every means was used to 
 extort from him a confession by whom he had been 
 employed, but without any success it was however 
 strongly suspected that he had been employed by 
 the FreRch, as it was about the time that they open- 
 ly declared themselves in favour of the Americans. 
 With regard to Mr. Laurens, I ought to have 
 mentioned that as soon as I heard of his capture on 
 his passage to Holland, and of his confinement in 
 the Tower, 1 applied for and obtained permission 
 to visit him in his apartment, and ;with some dis- 
 tant hopes that he might point out some way in 
 which I might be enabled to return to America) I 
 itated to him every particular as regarded my situ* 
 

 OF ISRAEL H. POTTER. 6) 
 
 ation. He seemed not only to lament very much 
 my hard fortune, but (to use his own words) " that 
 America should be deprived of the services of such 
 men, at the important period too when she most re- 
 quired them.*' He informed me that he was him- 
 self held a prisoner, and. knew not when or on what 
 conditions he would be liberated, but should he 
 thereafter be in a situation to assist me in obtaining 
 a passage to America, he should consider it a duty 
 which he owed his country to do it. 
 
 Although I succeeded in obtaining by my indus- 
 try, a tolerable living for myself and family, yet, so 
 far from becoming reconciled to my situation, I was 
 impatient for the return of Peace, when (as 1 then 
 flattered-myself) I should once more have an oppor- 
 tunity to return to my native country. I became eve- 
 ry dsy less attached to a country where i could not 
 meet with any thing (with the exception of my little 
 family) that could compensate me fur the loss of the 
 pleasing society of my kindred and friends in Amer- 
 ica born among a moral and humane people, and 
 having in my early days contracted their habits, and 
 a considerable number of their prejudices, it would 
 be unnatural to suppose that I should not prefer their 
 society, to either that of rogues, thieves, pimps and 
 vagabonds, or of a more honest but an exceedingly 
 oppressed and forlorn people. 
 
 1 found London as it haci been represented to me, 
 
 a large and magnificent city, filled with inhniiu it* 
 
 fcf almost every description and occupation and 
 
 6 
 
LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 an one indeed as might be pleasing to an English- 
 man, delighting in tumult and confusion, and accus. 
 tomed to witness scenes of riot and dissapation, as 
 well as those of human infliction ; and for the sake of 
 variety, would be willing to imprison himself wiihin 
 the walls of a Bedlam, where continual noise would 
 deafen him, where the unwholesomenesa of the air 
 would effect his lungs, and where the closeness of 
 the surrounding buildings would not permit him to 
 enjoy the enlivening influence of the sun ! There is 
 not perhaps another city of its size in the whole 
 world, the streets of which display a greater contrast 
 in the wealth and misery, the honesty and knavery, 
 of its inhabitants, than the city of London, The eyes 
 of the passing stranger (unaccustomed to witness 
 such scenes) is at one moment dazzled by the ap- 
 pearance of pompous wealth, wilh its splendid equip- 
 page at the next he is solicited by one apparently 
 of the most wretched of human beings, to impait a 
 single penny for the relief of his starving family ! 
 Among the latter class, there are many ; however, 
 \viio so far from being the real objects of charity that 
 they represent themselves to be, actially possess 
 more wealth than those who sometimes benevolently 
 bestow it these vile imposters, by every species of 
 deception that was ever devised or practiced by man, 
 aim to excite the pity and compassion, and to exiort 
 chaiity from those unacquainted with their easy cir- 
 cum| lances they possess the faculty of assuming a- 
 tiy character that may best suit their purpose -some- 
 
OJ ISRAEL R POTTI5B. 63 
 
 times hobbling with a crutch and exhibiting a wood- 
 en leg at other times an honourable scar of a 
 wound, received in Egypt, at Waterloo or at Trafal- 
 gar, fighting for their most gracious sovereign and 
 master King George I" 
 
 Independent of these there is another species of 
 beggars (the gypsies) who form a distinct clan, and 
 will associate with none but those of their own tribe 
 they are notorious thieves as well as beggars, and 
 constantly infest the streets of London to the great 
 annoyance of strangers and those who have the ap- 
 pearance of being wealthy they have no particular 
 home or abiding place, but encamp about in open 
 fields or under hedges, as occasion recpjires they 
 are generally of a yellow complexion, an 1 cnnvc-sc 
 in a dialect peculiar only to themselves their thiev- 
 ing propensities does not unfrequently lead them to 
 kidnap little children, whenever an opportunity pre- 
 sents ; having first by a dye changed their complex- 
 ion to one that corresponds with their o vn, they re- 
 present them as their own offspring, and carry them 
 about hali naked on their backs to excite the pity and 
 compassion of those of whom they beg chanty. An 
 instance of this species of theft by a party of these 
 unprincipled vagabonds, occurred once in my neigh 
 borhood while an inhabitant of London the little 
 girl kidnapped was the daughter of a Capt. Kellem 
 of Coventry Street being sent abroad on some busi- 
 ness ior her parents, she was mst by a gang of Gyp- 
 sies, consisting of five men and six women, who seiz- 
 
4 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 ed her, and forcibly carried her away to their camp, 
 In the country, at a considerable distance, having 1 
 first stripped her of hero wn cloathes, and in exchange 
 dressed her in some of their rags thus garbed she 
 travelled about the country with them for nearly 7 
 months, and was treated as the most abject tlave v and 
 her life threatened if she should endeavour to escape 
 or divulged her slory ; she stated that during the 
 time she was with them they entrapped a little boy 
 about her own age, whom they also stripped and c^p- 
 lied with them, but took particular care he should 
 never converse with her, treating him in the like sa- 
 vage manner ; she said that they generally travelled 
 by cross roads and private ways, ever keeping a 
 watchful eye that she might not escape, and thai no 
 opportunity offered until when, by some accident, 
 they were obliged to send her from iheir camp to a 
 neighboring farm house, in order to procure a lig-t, 
 which she took advantage of ; and scrambling over 
 hedges and ditches ; as she Supposed for the distance 
 of 8 or 9 miles, reached London worn out with fa- 
 tigue and hunger, her suppoit with then, b-.ing al- 
 ways scanty, and of the worst sort ; to which was ad- 
 ded the misery of sleeping under hedgys, and expo., 
 sure to the inclemency of the weather it was the in- 
 tention of the gypsies she said to have coloured her 
 and the boy when the walnut season approached. 
 
 The streets of London and its suburbs are also in- 
 fested with another and a still more dreadful species 
 of rogues, denominated Fcotpads, and who often mur- 
 
OF ISRAEL R. POTTER* 65 
 
 der in the most inhuman manner, for the sake of on- 
 ly a few shillings, any unfortunate people who hap- 
 pen to fall in their way of this I was made acquain- 
 ted with enumerable instances, while an inhabitant of 
 London ; I shall however mention but two that 1 have 
 now recollection of: 
 
 A Mr Wylde while passing through Marlborough 
 Street, in a chahe, was stopped by a footpad, who, 
 on demanding his money, received a few shillings. 
 but being dissatisfied with the little booty he ob'ained, 
 slill kept a pistol at Mr. Wylde's head, and on the 
 latter's attempting gently to turn it aside, the villain 
 fired, and lodged seven slugs in his head and breast, 
 which caused instant death Mr. W. expired hi the 
 arms of his son and grandson without a groan. A 
 few days after as a Mr. Gre.enhill was passing through 
 York-Street in a single horse chaise, lie was met and 
 stopped by three footpads s armed with pistols owe of 
 them seized and held the horse's head, while ihe o- 
 ther two most inhumanely dragged Mr. G. over the 
 back of his chaise, and alter robbing him of his notes, 
 watch and hat gave him two severe cuts on his head 
 and left him in that deplorable state in the road. 
 The above are but two instances of hundreds of a 
 similar nature^ which yearly occur in the most public 
 streets* of the city of London* The city is infested 
 with a slill higher order of rogues, denominated pick* 
 pockets or cmpurses, who to carry on their nefarious 
 practices, garb themselves like gentlemen, and inirc- 
 
 ' ce themselves into the most fashionable circles j 
 6* 
 
66 LIFK AND ADVENTURES 
 
 many of them indeed are persons who once sustain- 
 ed respectable characters, but who, by extravagance 
 and excesses, have reduced themselves to want) and 
 find themselves obliged at last to have recourse to 
 pilfering and thieving. 
 
 Thus have I endeavoured to furnish the leader 
 with the particulars of a few of the vices peculiar to a 
 large portion of the inhabitants of the city of London 
 to these might be added a thousand other misde. 
 meanors of a less criminal nature, daily practiced by 
 striplings from the age of six, to the hoary headed of 
 ninety Ithis 1 assure my readers is a picture cor- 
 rectly deliniated and not too highly wrought of a ci- 
 ty famous for its magnificence,and where 1 was doom- 
 ed to spend more than 40 years of my life, and in 
 which time pen, ink, and paper would fail, were I to 
 attempt to record the various instances of misery and 
 want that attended me and my poor devoted family. 
 
 In September 1783, the glorious news of a defin- 
 itive treaty of Peace having been signed between the 
 United States and Great-Britain, vas publicly an- 
 nounced in London while on i he minds of those 
 who had been made rich by the war, the unwelcom- 
 cd news operand apparently like a paralytic stroke^ 
 a host of those whose views had been inimical to the 
 cause of America, and had sought refuge in England, 
 attempted to disguise their disappointment and cejec 
 tion under a veil of assumed cheerfulness. As re- 
 garded myself, 1 can only say, that had an event so 
 long and ardently vusl.cu lor by me taken place but 
 
OF IS.RAEL R POTTER. 67 
 
 a few months before, I should have hailed it as the'e- 
 poch of my deliverance from a state ?of oppression 
 and privation that I had already too long endured. 
 
 An opportunity indeed now presented for me to 
 return once more to my native country, after so 
 
 ong an absence, had I possessed the means ; but 
 .'uch was the high price demanded for a passage, 
 and such had been my low wages, and the expences 
 attending the support of even a small family in Lon- 
 don, that I found myself at this time in possession 
 of funds hardly sufficient to defray the expsnce of 
 my own passage, and much less that of my wife and 
 child hence the only choice left me was either to 
 desert them, and thereby subject them (far sepera- 
 ted from me) to the frowns of an uncharitable peo- 
 ple, or to content myself to remain with them and 
 partake of a portion of that wretchedness which e- 
 ven my presence could not avert. When the af- 
 fairs of the American Government had become so 
 far regulated as to support a Consul at the British 
 court, I murht indeed have availed myself individ- 
 ually of t ie opportunity which presented of pro- 
 uring a passage home at the Government's ex 
 ence ; but as this was a priviledge that could not 
 >e extended to my wife and child, my regard for 
 hem. prevented my embracing the only means pro- 
 vided by my country for the return of her captured 
 soldiers and seamen. 
 
 To make the best of my hard fortune, 1 became 
 as resigned and reconciled to my situation as cir- 
 
68 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 cumstances would admit of; flattering myself that 
 fortune might at some unexpected moment so far 
 decide in my favour, as to enable me to accomplish 
 my wishes I indeed bore my afflictions with a de- 
 gree of fortitude which I couid hardly have believ- 
 ed myself possessed of I had become an expert 
 workman at brick making, at which business and 
 at gardening, I continued to work for very small 
 wages, for three or four years after the Peacebut 
 still found my prospects of a speedy return to my 
 country, by no ways flattering. The peace had 
 thrown thousands who had taken an active part in 
 the war, out of employ ; London was thronged with 
 them who, in preference to starving, required no 
 other consideration for their labour than a humble 
 living, which had a lamentable effect in reducing 
 the wages of the labouring class of people ; who, 
 previous to this event were many of them so ex- 
 tremely poor, as to be scarcely able to procure the 
 necessaries of life for their impoverished families 
 among this class I must rank myself, and from 
 this period ought I to date the commencement of 
 my greatest miseries, which never failed-, to attend 
 me in a greater or less degree until that happy mo- 
 ment, when favoured by providence, I was per- 
 mitted once more 10 visit the peaceful shores of the 
 land of my naiivity. 
 
 When I first entered the city of London, I was 
 almost stunned, while my curiosity was n-.-t a liuie 
 excited bv what is termed the t: - cries oi London" 
 
Or ISRAEL R. POTf JR. 69 
 
 the streets were thronged by persona of both sex- 
 es and of every age, crying each tho various articles 
 which they were exposing for sale, or for jobs of 
 work at their various occupations ; I ht'Je thea 
 thought that this was a mode which I ahiulcl be o- 
 bliged myself lo adapt to obtain a scanty pittance 
 for my needy family but, such indeed proved to be 
 the case. The great increase of labourers produ- 
 ced by the cessation of hostilities, had S3 great an 
 effect in the reduction oi wages, that the trifliag 
 consideration now allowed me by my employers for 
 my services, in the line of business in which I had 
 been several years engaged, was no longer an ob- 
 ject, being insufficient to enable me to procure a 
 humble sustenance. Having in vain sought for 
 more profitable business, i was induced to apply ta 
 an acquaintance for instruction in the art of chair 
 bottoming, and which 1 partially obtained from him 
 for a trifling consideration. 
 
 It was now (which was in the year 1789) thai I 
 assumed a line of business very different from that 
 in which 1 had ever before been engage J fortun- 
 ately for nie, I possessed strong lungs, which I 
 found very necessasy in an employment the success 
 of which depended, in a great measure, in being 
 enabled to drown the voices of others (engaged hi 
 the same occupation) by my own " Oid Chairs to 
 Mend," became r.0w niy constant cry trough the 
 streets of London, from morning tonight; and al- 
 though 1 found my business not so profitable as I 
 
70 LITE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 could have wished, yet it yielded a tolerable support 
 for my family some lime, and probably would have 
 continued so to have done, had not the almost con- 
 stant illness of my children, rendered the expences 
 of my family much greater than they otherwise 
 would have been thus afflicted by additional cares 
 and expence, (although I did every thing in my 
 power to avoid it) I was obliged, to alleviate the 
 sufferings of my family, to contract some trifling 
 debts which it was not in my power to discharge. 
 
 I now became the victim of additional miseries 
 I was visited by a biliff employed by a creditor, who 
 seizing me with the claws of a tyger, dragged me 
 from my poor afflicted family and inhumanly thurst 
 me into prison I indeed no misery thai I ever be- 
 fore endured equalled this seperated from those 
 dependent on me for the necessaries of lii'e, and 
 placed in a situation in which it was impossible tor 
 me to afford them any relief ! fortunately for me 
 at this melaricholly moment, my vile ebjoyed good 
 health, and it was to her praiseworthy exertions 
 that her poor helpless children, as well as myself, 
 owed our preservation from a slate of starvation ! 
 this good woman had become acquiinted with many 
 who had been my customers, whom she made ac- 
 quainted with my situation, and the sufferings of my 
 family> and who had the humanity to furnish me 
 with work ,4ft ring my co^firienisru-- -the chairs were 
 conveyed to and from the prison by my wife--. in 
 this way I was enabled to support myself and to 
 
ISRAEL R. POTTER. 71 
 
 contribute something to the relief of my afflicted 
 family. I had in vain represented to my unfeeling 
 creditor my inability to satisfy his demands, and in 
 vain represented to him the suffering condition of 
 those wholly dependent on me ; unfortunately for 
 me, he proved to be one of those human beasts* 
 who, having no soul, take pleasure in tormenting 
 that of others, who never feel but in their own 
 misfortunes, and never rejoice but in the afflictions 
 of others-. .of such beings, so disgraceful to hu- 
 man nature, I assure the reader London contains 
 not an inconsiderable number. 
 
 After having for four months languished in a 
 horrid prison, I was liberated therefrom a mere 
 skeleton; the mind afllicted had tortured the body; 
 so much is the one in subjection to the otherI 
 returned sorrowful and dejected to my afflicted fam 
 ily, whom I found in very little better condition. 
 We now from necessity took up our abode in an 
 obscure situation near Moorfields ; where, by my 
 constant application to business, I succeeded in 
 earning daily a humble pittance for my family, 
 bearly sufficient however to satisfy the cravings 
 of nature ; and to add to my afflictions, some one 
 of my family were almost constantly indisposed, 
 
 However wretched my situation there were many 
 others at this period, with whom I was particularly 
 acquainted, whose sufferings were greater if possible 
 than my own; and whom want and misery drove to 
 this commission of crimes, that in any other situation 
 
 
thpv wr 
 
 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 they would probably not have been guilty of. Such 
 was the case of the unfortunate Bellamy, who was 
 capitally convicted and executed for a crime which 
 distresses in his family, almost unexampled, had in 
 a moment of despair, compelled him to commit. He 
 was one who had seen better days, was once a com* 
 missioned t fficer in the army, but being unfortunate 
 he was obliged to quit the service to avoid the hor- 
 rors cf a prison, and was thrown on the world, with- 
 out a single penny or a single friend. The distress- 
 es of his family were such that they were obliged to 
 live for a considerable time deprived of all susten- 
 ance except what they could deiive from scanty and 
 piecarious meals ot potatoes and n ilk- -in this situ- 
 ation his unfortunate wife was confined in child bed 
 --Itdgirg in an obscure ganet, she was destitute of 
 every species of these tcnvtniexcc* almost indekpen- 
 sable with feu, ales in her cor c'hion, being herself 
 withe ut clothes, and to procure a covering for her 
 new born infant, el) iheir resources were exhausted. 
 In this situation his wife and children must inevita- 
 bly have starved, were it not for the lean < f five shill- 
 ings which he walked frcm London to Blackheaih to 
 borrow. At his trial lie made a solemn appeal to 
 heaven, as to the truth of every particular as a. 
 bove stated- -and that so far from wishing to ex- 
 aggerate a single fact, he had suppressed many 
 n;cie instances of calamity scarcely to be parral- 
 leled that after the disgrace brought upon him- 
 self by this single transaction, life could not be a 
 
OF ISRAEL R. POTTftB. 73 
 
 boon he would be anxious to solicit, but that nature 
 pleaded in his breast for a deserving wife and help- 
 less child all however was ineffectual, he was con- 
 demned and executed pursuant to his sentence. 
 
 I have yet one or two more raelancholly instances of 
 the effects of famine to record, the first of which hap* 
 pened within a mile ot my then miserable habitation 
 a poor widow woman, who had been left destitute 
 with five small children, and who had been driven to 
 th? most awful extremities by hunger, overpower- 
 ed at length by the pitiful cries of her wretched off- 
 spring, for a morsel of bread, in a fit of despair, rush- 
 ed into the *hop of a baker in the neighborhood, antf 
 seizing a loaf of bread bore it off to the relief of her 
 starving family, and while in the act of dividing it a- 
 mong them, the baker (who had pursued her) enter- 
 ed arc! charged her with the theft the charge she' 
 did not deny, but plead the starving condition of her 
 wretched family in palliation of the crime I the ba- 
 ker noticing a platter on the table containing a quan- 
 tiiy of roasted meat, he pointed to it as a proof that 
 she could not have been driven to such an extremity 
 by hunger but, his surprize may be better imagin- 
 ed than described, when being requested by the half 
 distracted mother to approach and inspect more 
 closely the contents of tire phtter, to frid it to con- 
 sist of !he remains of a roasted (tog ! and which she 
 i. (termed him had been her only food, and lhat of her 
 poor children, for the three preceding days ! the 
 baker struck with so shocking a proof of the poverty 
 
LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 and distress of the wretched ianiily, humanely contri- 
 buted to their relief until they were admitted into 
 the hospital* 
 
 1 was not personally acquainted with the family, 
 but I well knew one who was, and who communica* 
 lid to me the following melancholly particulars of its 
 wretched situation ; and with which I now present 
 my readers, as another proof of the deplorable situa- 
 tion of the peer in England, after the close of the A- 
 merican war : The minister of a parish was sent 
 for to attend the funeral of a deceased person in his 
 neighborhood, being conducted to the apartment 
 which contained the corpse (ar.d which was the only 
 one improved by the wretched family) he found it so 
 low as to be unable to stand upright in it in dark 
 corner of the room stocd a three legged stool, which 
 supported a coffin of rough boards, and which con- 
 tained the body of the wretched mother, who- had the 
 day previous expired in labour for the want of assis- 
 tance. The father was sitting on a little stool over 
 a lew coals of fire, and endeavouring to keep the in- 
 fant warm in his bosom ; five of his seven childien, 
 half naked, were asking their father for a piece of 
 bread, while another about three years old was stand- 
 ing over the corpse of his motherland crying, as Ue 
 was wont to do, "take me, take me, mammy !" 
 Mammy is asleep,*' said one of his sisters with 
 tears in her eyes, " mammy is asleep, Johnny, don't 
 cr y, the good nurse has gone to beg you some bread 
 and will soon return I" In a few minutes after, an 
 
Of ISRAEL R. POTTER. ?5 
 
 old woman, crooked with age, and clothed in tatters 
 came hobbling into the room, with a two-penny loaf 
 in her hand, and after heaving a sigh, calmly set 
 down, and divided the loaf as far as it would go n- 
 mong the poor half famished children ? and which 
 she observed was the only food they had tasted for 
 the last 24 hours I By the kind interposition of the 
 worthy divine, a contribution was immediately raised 
 for the relief of this wretched family. 
 
 I might add many mbre melancholly instances of 
 the extreme poverty and distress of the wretched 
 poor of London, and with which 1 was personally ac- 
 quainted ; but the foregoing it is presumed will be 
 sufficient to satisfy the poorest class of inhabitants of 
 America, that, if deprived of the superfluities, so Ion;* 
 as they can obtain the necessaries of life, they ought 
 not to murmer, but have reason to thank the Almigh- 
 ty that they were born Americans. That one half the 
 world knows not how the other haif lives, is a com- 
 mon and just observation; complaints and murmers 
 are frequent I find among those of the inhabitants of 
 this highly favoured country j who are not only bles- 
 sed with the liberty and means of procuring for them- 
 selves and their families, the necessaries and com. 
 forts, but even many of the luxuries of life !-~they 
 complain of poverty, and yet never knew what it was 
 to be really poor ! having never either experienced 
 or witnessed such scenes of distress and woe as I 
 have described, they even suppose their imaginary 
 wants and privations equal to those of almost any of 
 the human race ! 
 
LIFE AND ADVKJJTURE9 
 
 Let theae of my countrymen wh/o thus i 
 themselves ijniaerraUle amid plenty, -cwws fthe atlamic 
 and visit the misei^bte habitation* of seal ewJ jupaf- 
 fected woe-* if their hearts ane not destitute ofjfeiel- 
 g, they will return satisfied to their own peaceful 
 *nd happy shores, and pour fourth the ejaculations 
 I gratitude to that universal parent, who has given 
 Ibem abundance and exempted them from ihe thous- 
 and ills, under the pressure of which a great portion 
 of his children drag the load of life. Permit ,rae to 
 enquire ot such unreasonable murmerers. have you 
 compared your situation and circumsiance&of which 
 you so much complain, with that of those of your 
 fellow creatures, who are unable to earn by their hard 
 labour even a scanty pittance for their starving fam- 
 ilies ? have you compared your situation and circum- 
 stances with that of those who have hardly ever seen 
 the sun, but live confined in lead mines, stone quar- 
 ries, and coal pits ? before you call yourselves 
 wretched, take a survey of the goals hi Europe, jin 
 which wretched beings who have been driven to the 
 commission of crimes by starvation, or unfortunate 
 and honest debtors (who have been torn trom their 
 impoverished families) are doomed to pine. 
 
 So far from uttering unreasonable complaints, tjie 
 hearts of my highly favoured countrymen ought ra- 
 ther to be filled with gratitude to that Being, by whose 
 assistance they have been enabled to avert so jmany 
 of the miseries of life, so peculiar to a portion tf the 
 oi Europe at the present day and 
 
OF ISRAEL B. POTTER. 77 
 
 after groaning themselves for some time under the 
 yoke of foreign tyranny, succeeded in emancipating 
 themselves from slavery and are now blessed with 
 the sweets of iibtrtv and the undisturbed enjoyment 
 of their natural rights Britain, imperious Britain? 
 who once boasted the freedom of her government and 
 the invincible power of her arras- now finds herself 
 reduced to the humiliating necessity of receiving les- 
 sons of liberty from those whom till late she dispis- 
 ed as slaves ! while our own country on ihe other 
 hand, like a phenix rom her ashes, having emerged 
 from a long, an expensive and bloody war, and es- 
 tablished a constitution upon the broad and immova- 
 ble basis of national equality, now promises to be- 
 come the permanent residence of peace, liberty, sci- 
 ence, and national ftlicity. But, to return to the tale 
 of my own sufferings- 
 While hundreds were daily becoming the wretch- 
 ed victims of hunger and slarvaiior , I was enabled by 
 my industry to obtain a morsel each day for my fam- 
 ily ; although [hit morsel, which was to b* divided a- 
 nii>ng four, would ma.iy times have proved insuffici* 
 ent to have satisfied the hunger of one I seldom e- 
 ver failed from morning to night to cry ** old chairs 
 to mer.d," through thu principal streets of the city, 
 but many times with very little success -if f obtained 
 four chairs to rebottum in the course of one day, I 
 considered myself loi tunaie indeed, but instances of 
 such good luck were very rare ; it was more fre- 
 quent that I did not obtain a single one, and after cry- 
 7* 
 
78 LIFE AND ADVENTUBR3 
 
 ing the whole day until 1 made myself hoarse, I was 
 obliged to return to nay poor family at night empty 
 handed. 
 
 So many at one time engaged in the same business, 
 that had 1 not resorted to other means my family must 
 inevitably have starved while crying " old chairs to 
 mend," I collected all the old rags, bits of paper, nails 
 and broken glass which I could find in the streets, 
 and which I deposited in a bag, which I carried with 
 me for that purpose these produced me a trifle, and 
 that trifle when other resoarces failed, procured me 
 a morsel of bread, or a few pounds of potatoes, lor 
 xny poor wife and children yet I murmeicd nut at 
 the dispensation of the supreme Arbiter of allot- 
 ments, which had assigned to me so humbled a line 
 of duty; although I could not have believed once, 
 that 1 should ever have been brought to such a state 
 of humiliating distress, as would have required such 
 means to alleviate it. 
 
 In February 1793, War was declared by Great 
 Britain against the republic of France and although 
 War is a calamity that ought always to be regretted 
 by friends of humanity, as thousands are undoubted 
 ly thereby involved hi misery ; yet, no event could 
 have happened at that time productive of so much 
 benefit to me. as this it was the means of draining 
 the country of those who had been once soldiers, and 
 Vho, thrown out of employ by the peace, demanded 
 a sum so trifling for their services, as to cause a re- 
 duction in the wages of the poor labouring class of 
 
OF ISRAEL R- POTTER. 7 
 
 people, to a sum insufficient to procure the necessa- 
 ries of life for their families ; this evil was now re- 
 moved the old soldiers preferred an employment 
 more in character of themselves, to doing the drud- 
 gery of the city great inducements were held out 
 to them to enlist, and the army was not long retard- 
 ed in its operations for the want of recruits My 
 prospects in being enabled to earn something to sat- 
 isfy the calls of nature, became now more flattering ; 
 the great number that had been employed during 
 -the Peace in a business similar to mv own, were now 
 reduced to one half, which enabled me to obtain such 
 an extra number of jobs at chair mending, that I no 
 longer found it necessary to collect the scrapings of 
 the streets as I had been obliged to do for the many 
 months past I was now enabled to purchase for my 
 family two or th-iee pounds of fresh meat each week, 
 an article to which (with one or two exceptions) we 
 had been strangers for more than a year having 
 subsisted principally on potatoes, oat meal bread, and 
 salt fish, and sometimes, but rarely however, were 
 enabled to treat ourselves to a little skim milk. 
 
 Had not other afflictions attend? d me, I should not 
 have had murh cause to complain of very ex .^or- 
 dinary hardships or privations from this period, un- 
 til the conclusion of the war in 1817 ; my family 
 had increased, and to increase my cares there was 
 scarcely a week passed but that some one of them 
 was seriously indisposed of ten children of which I 
 was the faiher, 1 had the misfortune to bury seven 
 
LIFR AKD ADVENTURES 
 
 under five years of age. and two more after fhev hacl 
 arrived to the age of twenty mv last and only child 
 now living, it pleased the Almiirhtv to spare to me, 
 to administer help and comfort to his poor affl cted 
 parent, and without whose assistance I should (to 
 far from having been enabled ot ct more to visit the 
 land of my nativity) 'ere this have paid the debt of 
 nature in a fore gn land, and that too by a death nt 
 less horrible than that of starvation 1 
 
 As my life wa unattended with any very extraor- 
 dinary circumstance (except the one just mentioned) 
 from lh; commencemen* of the war, until the re-es 
 tablishment of monarchy ii, France- and ihe cessation 
 of hostilities on the part of G<eat Britain, in 1817, I 
 shall commence on the miration of mv unpirralel* 
 cd sufferings, frovp the latter period, until that when 
 by the kind interposition of P evidence^ 1 was enabled 
 finally to obtain a pas^e to my na'ive country ; and 
 to bid an adieu, and I hope and trust a final one, to 
 that Island, where 1 had endured a complication of 
 miseries beycwl the power o f description. 
 
 The peace produced similar effects to that of 1783 
 thousands were thrown out of employ and ti;e 
 streets of London thronged wi'h soldiers seeking 
 means to e-rn 3 humble subsistence. The ciy of 
 u Old Chairs to Mend/' (and that too at a very r-'duc- 
 ed price) was reiterated through the streets of Lon- 
 don by numbers \vho but the month before were at 
 \Vat rloo fighting the battles ol their country which? 
 so seriously effected my Lioness in this line, that to 
 
Q* ISRAEL R. POFTEB. 81 
 
 obtain food (and that of the most bumble kind) for 
 my . family j I was obliged once more to have recourse 
 to the collecting of scraps of rags, paper., glass, and 
 such other articles of however trifling value that I 
 could find in the sueets. 
 
 It was at this distressing period, that, in conse- 
 quence of the impossibility oi so great a number who 
 had been discharged from the service procuring a 
 livelihood by honest means, that instances of thefts, 
 and daring robberies, increased throughout Great 
 Britain three fold. Bands of highwaymen and rob- 
 bers hovered about the vicii.ity of London in num- 
 bers which almost defied suppression ; many were 
 taken and executed or transported ; but this seemed 
 to render the rest only the more desperately bold 
 and cruel, while house-breaking and assassination 
 were daily perpetrated with new arts and outrages 
 in the very capital. Nor were the starving condi.ion 
 of the ho nest poor, who were to be met with at all 
 times of day and in every street, seeking something 
 to appease their hunger, less remarkable unable to 
 procure by any means within their power sustenance 
 sufficient to support nature, some actually became 
 the victims of absolute starvation, as the following 
 melancholly instance will show : .a poor man ex- 
 ha u sted by want ; dropped down in the street those 
 who were passing unacquainted with the frequency 
 of such melancholly events, at first thought him in- 
 toxicated ; but alter languishing half an hour, he ex- 
 pired . On the following day, an inquest was held 
 
82 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 on the body, and the verdict of the jury not giving 
 satisfaction to the Coroner, they adjourned to the 
 next day In the interim, two respectable surgeons 
 were engaged to open the body, in which not a par- 
 ticle of nutriment was to be found except a little yel 
 low substance, supposed to be grass, or some crude 
 vegetable ; \fhich the poor man had swallowed to ap- 
 pease the cravings of nature !--this lamentable proof 
 confirmed the opinion of the jury, that he died for 
 want of the necessaries of life, and gave their ver. 
 diet accordingly. 
 
 Miserable as was the fate cf this man and that of 
 many others, mine was but little better, and would 
 ultimately have been the same, had it not been for 
 the assistance afforded me by my only remaining 
 child, a lad but six years of age, I had now arriv- 
 ed to an advanced age of life, and although posses- 
 sing an extraordinary constitution for one of my 
 years, yet by my incessant labours to obtain subsis- 
 tence for my family, I brought on myself a severe 
 fit of sickness, which confined me three weeks to 
 my chamber ; in which time my only sustenance 
 was the produce of a few half pennys, which my 
 poor wife and little son had been able to earn each, 
 day by, disposing of matches of their own make, 
 and in collecting and disposing of the si tides of 
 small value, of which I have before made mention* 
 which were to be found thinly scattered in the streets. 
 In three weeks it was the will of providence so far 
 to restore to me my strength, as to enable me one 
 
OF ISRAEL B. POTTER. l 
 
 tnore to move abroad in search of something to 
 support naiure. 
 
 The tenement which I at this time rented and 
 which was occupied by my family, was a small and 
 wretched apartment of a garret, and for which I 
 had obligated myself to pay sixpence per weekj 
 which was to be paid at the close of every week ; 
 and in case of tailure (agreeable to the laws or cus- 
 toms of the land) my furniture was liable to be 
 seized* In consequence of my illness, and other 
 misfortunes? I fell six weeks in arrears for rent ; 
 and having returned one evening with my wife and 
 son, from the performance of our daily task, my 
 kind readers may judge what my feelings must 
 have been to find our room stripped of every arti- 
 cle (of however trifling value) that it contained I- 
 alas, oh heavens ! to what er state of. wretchedness 
 were we now reduced ! if there was anything want- 
 ing to complete our misery, thh additional drop to 
 the cup of our afflictions, more than sufficed. Al- 
 though the real value of all that they had taken 
 from me, or rather robbed me of, would not if 
 publicly disposed of, have produced a sum probably 
 exceeding five dollars ; yet it was our all, except 
 the few tattered garments that we had on our backs f 
 and were serviceable and alUimportant to us in our 
 impoverished situation. Not an article of bedding 
 of any kind w^s left us on which to repose at night; 
 or a chair or stool on which we could rest our 
 wearied limbs ! but, as destitute as we were, and 
 
84 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 naked as they had left our dreary apartment, we 
 had no other abiding place. 
 
 With a few halfpenny's which were jointly our 
 hard earnings of that day, I purchased a peck of 
 coal and a few pounds of potatoes ; which while 
 the former furnished us with a little fire, the latter 
 served for the moment to appease our hunger by 
 a poor family in an adjoining room I was obliged 
 with the loan of a wooden bench* which served as 
 a seat am) a table, Irom which we partook of our 
 homely fare In this woeful situation, hovering o- 
 ver a few half consumed coals, we spent a sleepless 
 night. The day's dawn brought additional afflic- 
 tions-- my poor wife who had until this period borne 
 her troubles without a sigh or a murmur, and had 
 passed through hardships and sorrows, which noth- 
 ing but the Supreme Giver of patience and forti- 
 tude, and her peifect confidence in him, could have 
 enabled her to sustain ; yet so severe and unexpec- 
 ted a stroke as the last; she could not withstand 
 I found her in the morning gloomy and dejected, 
 and so extremely feeble as to be hardly able to 
 descend the stairs. 
 
 We left our miserable habitation in the morning, 
 with hopes that the wretched spectacle that we pre- 
 sented, weak and emaciated as we were, would 
 move some to pity and induce them to impart that 
 relief which our situations so much required"-it 
 would however be almost endless to recount the 
 many rebuffs we met with in our attempts to crave 
 
6f ISRAEL ft. JOTTER. 85 
 
 fcgsistance* Some few indeed were more merciful, 
 and whatever their opinion might be of the cause 
 of our misery, the distress they saw us in excited 
 their chanty, andfcr their own sakes were induced 
 to contribute a trifle to our wants We alternately 
 happened among savages and Christians, but even 
 the latter, too much influenced 0y appearances, were 
 very sparing of their bounty. 
 
 With the small trifle that had been charitably be- 
 stowed on us. we relumed at night to our wretched 
 dwelling, which, stripped as it had been, could pro- 
 mise us but little more than a shelter, and where we 
 spent the night very much as the preceding one. 
 Such was the debilitated state of my poor wife the 
 ensuing morning:, produced by excessive hunger and 
 fatigue, as to render it certain, that sinking under the 
 weight of misery, the hand of death in mercy to her s 
 was about to release her from her long and unpar- 
 alelled sufferings. 1 should be afraid of exciting too 
 pimful sensations in the minds of my readers, were 
 I to attempt to describe my feelings at this moment, 
 and to paint in all their horror, the miseries which 
 afterward attended me ; although so numerous had 
 been my afflictions, that it seemed impossible for a- 
 ay new calamity to be capable of augmenting them ; 
 men accustomed to vicissitudes are not soon de- 
 jeoted, but there are trials which human nature a- 
 lone cannot surmountindeed to such a state of 
 wretchedness was I now reduced, that had it not beea 
 'for my suffering family, life would have been nolon* 
 8 
 
8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 ger desirable. The attendance that the helpless sit- 
 uation of my pcor wife now demanded it was* not 
 within my power to afford her, as early the next day 
 1 was reluctantly driven by hunger abroad in search 
 of something that might serve to contribute to our 
 relief. } teft my unfortunate companion, attended by 
 no other person but our little son, destitute of fuel 
 and food, and stretched en an armful of straw, which 
 I had been so fortunate as to provide myself with the 
 clay preceding ; the whole produce of my labours 
 this day (which I may safely say was the most mcl- 
 ancholly one of iny life) amounted to no more than 
 one shilling! which I laid out to the best advantage 
 possible, in the purchase of a few oi the necessaries, 
 which the situation of my sick companion most re- 
 quired. 
 
 I ought to have mentioned, that previous to this 
 melancholly period, when most severely afHicud, I 
 had been two or three limes driven to the necessity 
 of making application to the Overseers of the poor, of 
 the parish in which I resided, for admittance inio the 
 Almshouse, or for some assistance, but never with a- 
 ny success ; having always been put off by them with 
 some evasive answer or 'frivolous pretence some- 
 times charged by them with being an imposter, and 
 that laziness more than debility and real want, hed 
 induced me to make the application at other times 
 } was told that being an American born, I had no law- 
 ful claim on the government of that country for sup- 
 port ; that I ought to have made application to the 
 
Wr ISRAEL* R. POTTBB. < 87 
 
 American Consul for assistance, whose business it 
 was to assist such of his countrymen whose situations 
 required it. 
 
 But such now was my distress, in consequence of 
 the extreme illness of my wife, that I must receive 
 that aid so indispensably necessary at this important 
 trisis, or subject myself to witness a scene no less 
 distressing, than that of my poor wretched wife, ac- 
 tually perishing for the want of that care and nour- 
 ishment which it was not in my power to afford 
 her ! Thus situated I was induced to renew my ap- 
 plication to the Overseer for assistance, representing 
 to him the deplorable situation of my family, who 
 were actually starving for the want of that sustenance 
 which it was not in my power to procure for them ; 
 and what I thought would most probably effect his 
 feelings, described to him the peculiar and distress- 
 ing situation of my wife, the hour of whose dissolu- 
 tion was apparently fast approaching but, I soen 
 found that f was addressing one who possessed a 
 heart callous to the feelings of humanity one, whose 
 feelings were not to be touched by a representation 
 of the greatest misery with which human nature 
 could be Afflicted. Tho same cruel observations 
 were made as before, that I was a vile imposture who 
 was seeking by imposition to obtain that support in 
 England, which my own country had withheld from 
 me that the American Yankees had fought for and 
 obtained their Independence, and yet were not inde- 
 pendent enough to support their own poor ! that 
 
LIFE AN ADTBNTUB1S 
 
 Great Britain would find enough to do, was she to 
 afford relief to every d d yankee vagabond that 
 should apply for it ! fortunately for this abusive 
 feritish scoundrel, 1 possessed not now that bodily 
 strength and activity, which I could once boast of, or 
 the villian (w-hether within his majesty's dominions 
 r not) should have received on the spot a proof of 
 "Yankee Independence" for- his insolence 
 
 Failing in my attempts to obtain the assistance 
 which the lamentable situation of my wife required, 
 lhad recourse to other means I waited on two or 
 three gentlemen in my neighborhood, who had been 
 represented to me a persons of humanity, and in- 
 treated them to visit my wretched dwelling, and to 
 satisfy themselves by occular demonstration, of the 
 state of my wretchedness, especially that of my dying 
 companion they complied with my request, and 
 were introduced by me to a scene, which for misery 
 and distress, they declared surpassed every thing that 
 they had tv<r before witnessed ! they accompanied 
 me immediately to one in whom was invested the 
 principal government of the poor of the parish, arid 
 represented to him> the scene of human misery which 
 they had been an eye witness to whereupon an or- 
 der was issued to have my wife conveyed to the 
 Hospital, which was immediately clone and where 
 she was comfortably provided for but, alas, the re- 
 lift which her situation had so much required had 
 been too long deferred her deprivation and suffer- 
 ings had been too great to admit of her being nojF . : , 
 
07 ISRAEL R. POTTER. #9 
 
 restored to her former state of health, or relieved by 
 ary thitis: thai. couJ be administered after her re- 
 moval to the H > pita), she lingered a few days i a 
 staie of perfect insensibility, and then closed her eyes 
 forever on a world, where for many years, she had 
 been the unhappy subject of almost constant afflio 
 tion. 
 
 I felt very sensibly the irreparable loss of one who 
 had been my companion in adversity, as well as in 
 prosperity ; and when blessed with health, had affor- 
 ded m by her industry that assistance, without 
 which, the sufferings of our poor chi dren would 
 have been greater if possible than what they were. 
 My situation was now truly a lonely one, bereaved of 
 my wife, and all my children except one ; who', al- 
 though but little more than seven years of age, was a 
 child of that sprig hliness and activity, as to possess 
 himself with a pe; feet knowledge of >be chair bottom- 
 ing business, and by which he earned not only enough 
 (when work could be obtained) to furnish himself 
 with food, but contributed much to the relief oi his 
 surviving parent, when confined by illness and infir- 
 mity. 
 
 We continued to improve the apartment from 
 which my wife had been removed, until I was so for* 
 tunate as to be able to rem a ready furnished apart* 
 ment (as it was termed) at four shillings and sixpence 
 per week. Apartments of this kind are not uncom- 
 mon in London, and are intended to accommodate 
 poor families, situated as we were, who had been so 
 S* 
 
90 LIFE AND AD VENT USES 
 
 tinfortunate as to be stripped of every thing but the 
 cloathes on their backs by their unfeeling landlords. 
 The.se ready furnished rooms" were nothing but 
 miserable apartments in garrets, and contain but few 
 more conveniences than what many of our common 
 prisons in America afford a bunk of straw, with 
 two or three old blankets, a couple of chairs, and a 
 rough table about three feet square, with an article 
 or two of iron ware in which to cook our victuals (if 
 we should be so fortunate as to obtain any) was the . 
 contents of the " ready furnished apartment" that we 
 was now about to occupy but even with these few 
 conveniences, it was comparatively a palace to the 
 one we had lor several weeks past improved. 
 
 When my health would permit, 1 seldom failed to 
 visit daily the most public streets of the city, and 
 from morning to night cry for old chairs to mend 
 accompanied by my son Thomas, with a bundle of 
 flags, as represented in the Plate annexed to this vol- 
 ume If we was so fortunate as to obtain a job of 
 work more than we could complete in the day, with 
 the permission of the owner, I would convey the 
 chairs* on my back to my humble dweLirig, and witrr 
 the assi lance of my little son, improve the evening 
 to complete the work, which would produce us a few 
 half prnnys to purchase something for our breakfast 
 the next morning l>ut it was very seldom that in 
 stances of this kind occurred, as it was more fre- 
 quently the ease that after crjing for old chairs to 
 mend, the whole day, we were obliged to return^ 
 
ISRAEL It. POTTER 9 1 
 
 hungry and weary, and without a tingle half penny 
 in our pockets, to our humble dwelling, where we 
 were obliged to fast until the succeeding day ; and 
 indeed there were some instances in which we were 
 compelled to fast two or three days successively) 
 without being able to procure a single job of wjrk 
 The rent I had obligated myself to pay every night, 
 and freqaently when our hunger was such as hardly 
 to be endured, I was obliged to reserve the few pen- 
 nys that 1 was possessed of to apply to this purpose. 
 In our most starving condition when every o f her 
 plan failed, my little son would adopt the expedient 
 of sweeping the public cause- ways (leading from one 
 walk to the other) where he would labour the whole 
 day, with the expectation of receiving no other re- 
 ward than what the generosity of gentlemen, who had 
 occasion to cross, would induce them to bestow in 
 chuity, and which seldom amounted to more than 
 a few pennys sometime the poor boy would toil 
 in thi way the whole day, without being so fortunate 
 as to receive a single half penny it was then he 
 would return home sorrowful and dejected, and while 
 he attempted to conceal his own hu ger. with tears 
 in his eyes, would lament his hard fortune in not be- 
 ing able to obtain something to appease mine. - 
 While he was thus employed i remained at home, 
 bat not idle, being as busily engaged in making 
 matches, with which ('.vhen he returned home emp- 
 ty handed j we were obliged as fatigued jt* we were, 
 to visit the markets to expose for sale, and where we 
 
JS LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 were obliged sometimes to tarry until eleven o'clock 
 at night, before we could meet with a single purcha- 
 er 
 
 Having one stormy night of a Saturday, visited the 
 market with my son for this purpose, and after expos- 
 ing ourselves to the chilling rain until pastjlO o'clock; 
 without being able either of us to sell a single match) 
 1 advised the youth (being thinly clad to return home 
 feeling disposed to tarry myself a while longer, in 
 hopes that better success might attend me, a* having 
 already fasted one day and r,irht> it was indispensa- 
 bly necessary that 1 should ob am something to ap- 
 pease our hunger the succeeding day (Sunday) or 
 what seemed almost impossible, to endure longer its 
 torments ! 1 remained until the clock struck eleven, 
 the hour at which the market closed, and yet had 
 met with no better success ! It is impossible to de- 
 scribe the sensation of despondency which over- 
 wlie;med me at this moment I 1 now considered it 
 as certain that I must return home wiih nothing 
 wherewith to satisty our craving appetites and with 
 my mind filled with the most heart rending reflec- 
 tions, I was about, to return, when. Heaven seemed 
 pleased to interpose in my behalf, and to send relkf 
 when I little expected it ; -passing a beef stall I at- 
 tracted the notice of the butcher who viewing me, 
 probably as I was, a miserable object of i;'y, emaci- 
 ated i)> L-ng iastings, and cla i in tattered garments,, 
 fro n wuica the water wa^ frst drippling, and judg- 
 ing uo doubt b) my appearance lhat on no one could 
 
Or ISRAEL . POTTER. 9& 
 
 charity be more properly bestowed, he threw into my 
 basket a beeve's heart, with the request that 1 would 
 depart with it immediately . for my home, if any I 
 had ! I will not attempt to describe the joy that 1 felt 
 on this occasion, in so unexpectedly meeting with 
 that relief, which my situation somuch required, I 
 hastened home with a much lighter heart than what 
 3 had anticipated ; and when I arrived; the sensations 
 of joy exhibited by my little son on \iewing the prize 
 that I bore, produced effects aa various as extraordi- 
 nary ; he wept, then laughed and danced with trans- 
 port. 
 
 The reader must suppose that while I found it so 
 extremely difficult to earn enough to preserve us 
 from starvation, I had little to spare for cloathing and 
 other necessaries ; and that this was really my situ* 
 ation, i thiiik no one will doubt, when 1 positively 
 declare that to such extremeties was i driven, that 
 being unable to pay a bavber for shaving me I was 
 obliged to adopt the expedient ior more than two 
 years, of clipping my beard as close as possible with 
 a pair of scissors, wfcich 1 kept expressly ior that pur- 
 pose ' as strange and laughable as the circumstance 
 may appear to some, I assure the reader that I state 
 facts, and exaggerate nothing. As regarded our 
 cloathes, 1 can say no more than that they were the 
 best that we could procure, and were such as persons 
 in cur situation! were obliged to wear they served 
 to conceal our nakedness, but would have proved in* 
 ftufficiem to have protected our bodies, from .the if* 
 
;94 L1IE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 clemency ef the weather of a colder climate. Such 
 indeed was sometimes our miserable appearance, 
 t lad in tattered garments, that while engaged in our 
 employment in crying for old chairs to mend, we not 
 nly attracted the notice of many, but there were in- 
 stances in which a few half pennys unsolicited weie 
 bestowed on us in charity an instance of this kind 
 happenetione day as I was passing through thread- 
 needle street ; a gentleman perceiving by the appear- 
 ance of the shoes that 1 wore, that they were about 
 to quit me, pat a half crown in my hand, and bid me 
 go and cry " old i hoes to meed !' 
 
 In long and gloomy winter evenings, when unable 
 to furnish myself with any other light than that emit- 
 ted by a little fire of se -coal, I vrould attempt to 
 drive away mcbncholly by amusing my son with an 
 account of my native country, and of the many bles- 
 ings there enjoyed by even the poorest classof peo- 
 ple of their fair fields producing a regular supply 
 of bread their convenient houses, to which they 
 could Repair after the toils of the day, to partake of 
 the fruits of their labour, safe^ from the storms and 
 the cold, and where they could lay down their heads 
 lo rest without any to molest them or to make them 
 afraid. Nothing could have been better calculated 
 to excite animation in the rr.ind of the poor child, than 
 an account so flattering of a country which had giv- 
 en birth to his father, and to which he had received 
 my repeated assurances he should accompany me as 
 soon as an opportunity should present after expres- 
 
OF ISRAEL ft. POTTER* 95 
 
 sing his fears that the happy day was yet far distant* 
 with a deep sigh he wouid exclaim " would to God 
 it was to morrow \" 
 
 About a year after the decease of my wife, T was 
 taken extremely ill insomuch that at one time my 
 life was 'desparred of, and had it not been for the ' 
 friendless and lonely situation in which such an event 
 would have placed my son, I should have welcomed 
 the hour of my dessolution and viewed it as a con* 
 summation rather to be wished than dreaded ; for so 
 great had been my sufferings of mind and body, and 
 the miseries to which I was still exposed, that life ' 
 had reaily become a burthen to meindeed I think 
 it would have been difficult to have found on the face 
 of the earth a being- more wretched than I had been 
 for the three years past. 
 
 During my illness my only friend on earth waa my 
 son Thomas, who did every thing to alleviate my 
 wants within the power of his age to dosometimes 
 by crying for old chairs to mend (for he had become 
 as expert a workman at this busmen as his father) 
 and sometimes by sweeping the cause-ways, and by 
 making and selling matches, he succeeded in earn* 
 ing each day a trifle sufficent to procure for me and 
 himself a humble sustenance. When 1 had 'so far 
 recovered as to be able to creep abroad, and the youth 
 had been so fortunate as to obuin a good job, ! wouid 
 accompany him, although/very feeble, and assist him 
 in conveying the chairs home -h wai> on such occa- 
 sions that my dear child would manifest .-bis tender- 
 
tfi LIFE AND ADTBNTUH13 
 
 ness and affection for me, by insisting (if there were 
 four chairs) that I should carry but one, and he wouid 
 carry the remaining three, or in that proportion rfa 
 greater or less '-umber. 
 
 From the moment that I had 'informed him of the 
 many blessings njoved by my countrymen of every 
 class I \vas almost constantly urged by my son toap. 
 ply to the A nerican Consul tor a passage it *as in 
 vain that I it presented to him that if such an appli- 
 cation was aitended wiih success, and the opportuni- 
 ty should be improved by me, 'it must rause our se- 
 peration, pefhaps forever ; as he would not be per- 
 miued to accompany me at the expence oi govern- 
 ment "never mind me (he would repl> ) do noi lather 
 suffer any more on my account \ if you can only suc- 
 ceed in obtaining a passage to a country where you 
 can enj< y .he blessings that you have described to 
 me, 1 mav hereafter 'be so fortunate as to meet with 
 an opportunity to join you- -and it not, it will be a 
 consolation to me, whatever my afflictions may be, to 
 think that yours have ceased!" My ardent wish to 
 return to America, was not less than that of my son, 
 but could not bear the thoughts ot a seperation \ of lea- 
 ving him behind exposed to all the miseries peculiar 
 to the friendless poor of that country ;---he was a 
 child of my old age, and from whom I had received 
 too many proofs of his love and regard lor me, not to 
 feel that parental aff'Ction for him to which 
 able disposition entitled him. 
 
 i was indeed unacquainted with the place of 
 
T ISRAEL R. POTTES. $? 
 
 dence of the American Consul I had made frequent 
 enquiries, but found no one that could inform me 
 eorrectly where he might be found ; but so anxitus 
 was my son that I should spend the remnant of my 
 days in that country where I should receive (if noth- 
 ing more) a Christian burial at my decease, and bid 
 adieu forever to a l&nd where I had spent so great a 
 portion of my life in sorrow, and many years had en- 
 dured the lingering tortures of protracted famine 
 that he ceased not to enquire of every one with whom 
 he was acquainted, until he obtained the wished for 
 information. Having learned the place of residence 
 of the American Consul, and fearful of the conse- 
 quences of delay, he would give me no peace until 
 1 promised that I would accompany him there th* 
 succeeding day, if my strength would admit Of it ; 
 for although ! had partially recovered from a severe 
 Tit of sickness, yet I was still so weak and feeble as 
 to be scarcely able to walk. 
 
 My son did not forget to remind me early the next 
 morning oi my promise, and to gratify him more than 
 with an expectation of meeting; with much success* 
 I set out with him, feeble as I was, for the Consul's. 
 The distance was about two miles, and before I had 
 succeeded in reaching half the way, I had wished 
 myself a dozen times safe home again and had it not 
 been for the strong persuasions of my son to the con* 
 trary, 1 certainly should have returned.-*! was never 
 before so sensible of the effects of my long suffer- 
 ingswhich had produced thatrdegree of bodily 
 
91 fclFR AND ADTBNTUBE& 
 
 weakness and debility, as to leave me scarcely 
 strength sufficient to move without the assistance of 
 my son ; who, when he feund me reeling or halting 
 through weakness, would support me until 1 had 
 gained sufficient strength to proceed. 
 
 Although the distance was but two miles, yet such 
 was the state of my weakness, that although we star- 
 ted early in the morning* it was half past 3 o'clock 
 P. M. when we reached the Consul's office, when I 
 was so much exhausted as to be obliged to ascend 
 the steps on my hands and knees. Fortunately we 
 found the Consul in, and on my addressing him and 
 acquainting him with the object of my visit, he seem- 
 ed at first unwilling to credit the fact that 1 was an 
 American born but after interrogating me some- 
 time, as to the place of my nativity, the cause which 
 first brought me to England, 8cc, he seemed to be 
 more satisfied ; he however observed (on being in- 
 formed that the lad who accompanied me was my son) 
 that he could procure a passage for me, hut not for 
 him, as being born in England, the American gov- 
 ernment would consider him a British subject, and 
 under no obligation to defray the expence of his pas- 
 sage -and as regarded myself, he observed, that he 
 had his doubts, so aged and infirm as I appeared to 
 be, whether I should live to reach America, if I 
 should attempt it. 
 
 I cannot say that I was much surprised at the ob- 
 servations of the Consul, as they exactly agreed with 
 what I had anticipated and as anxious as I then felt 
 
OF ISRAEL R. POTTER. $9 
 
 to Tiiit once more my native country, I felt deter- 
 mined not to attempt it, unless 1 could be accompa- 
 nied by my son, and expressed myself to this effect 
 to the Consul the poor lad appeared nearly over- 
 come with grief when he saw me preparing to return 
 without being able to effect my object ; indeed so 
 greatly was he affected, and such the sorrow that hs 
 exhibited, that he attracted the notice (and I believe 
 1 may add the pity) of the Consul who, after mak- 
 ing some few enquiries as regarded his disposition, 
 age, &c. observed that he could furnish the lad with 
 a passage at his* own expence, which he should have 
 no objection to do if I would consent to his living 
 with a connexion of his (the Consul,) on his arrival 
 in America ."but (continued he,) in such a case you 
 must be a while sepe rated, for it would be imprudent 
 for you to attempt the passage until you have gained 
 more strength 1 will pay your board, where by bet- 
 ter living than you have been latterly accustomed to, 
 you may have a chance to recruit but your son 
 must take passage on board the London Packet* 
 which sails for Boston the day after to-morrow." 
 
 Although but a few moments previous, my son 
 would have thought no sacrifice too great, that would 
 have enabled us to effect our object in obtaining pas- 
 sages to America ; yet, when hs found that instead of 
 himself, I was to be left for a while behind, he ap- 
 peared at some loss how to determine but on being 
 fissured by the Consul that if my life was spared I 
 should soon join him, he consented ; and being fur- 
 
lOO LIVE AND 
 
 niched by the Consul with a few necessary articles c? 
 eloathing, I the next day accompanied him on board 
 the packet which was to convey him (o America 
 and after giving him the best advice that I was cap- 
 able of as regarded his behaviour and deportment 
 while on his passage, and en his arrival in America, 
 1 took ray leave of him and saw him no! again uniij 
 ] met him on the wharf on my arrival at Boston. 
 
 When I parted with the Consul he presented me 
 with half a crown, and directions where to apply for 
 board -it was at a public Inn where I found many 
 American seamen, who, like myself, were boarded 
 there at the Consul's expence, until passages could 
 be obtained for them to America i was treated by 
 them with much civility, and by hearing tht-sn daily 
 recount their various and remarkable adventures, as 
 well as by relating my own, 1 passed my time more 
 agreeably than what I probably should have done in 
 other society. 
 
 In eight weeks I was so far recruited by good liv- 
 ing, as in the opinion of the Consul, to be able to en 
 dure the fatigues of a passage to my native country, 
 and which was procured for me on board the ship 
 Carterian, bound to New- York. We set sail on the 
 3th April, t 823, and after a passage of 42 days, arriv- 
 ed saie at our port of destmaticn. Afttr having expe- 
 rienced in a foreign land so much ill treatment from 
 those from whom I eouid expect no mercy, and for 
 no oiher fault than that of being an American, I could 
 not but flatter myself that when I bid adieu to tha$ 
 
V ISRAEL 1 
 
 country, I should no ^longer ije tjiq .subject <$; .uajutt 
 persecution, or nave occasion W complain af' ill ir eat* 
 ment from those whose duty it was to afford me pro- 
 tection. But the sad reverse which 1 experienced 
 while on board the Carterian, convinced me of the 
 incorrectness of my conclusions. For my country's 
 sake, I am happy that I have it in my power to s-y 
 that the crew of this ship> was not composed alto- 
 gether of Americans there was a mixture of all 
 natiens ; and among them some so vile, and destiiu^ 
 of every humane principle, as to delight in nothing 
 so much as to sport with the infirmities of one, who*c 
 grey lock* ought at least to have protected him. By 
 those unfeeling wretches (who deserve not the name 
 of sailors) 1 was not only most shamefully ilUused 
 on the passage, but was robbed of some necessary 
 articles of cloathing, which had been chaiitably be- 
 stowed on me by the American Consul. 
 
 We arrived in the harbour of New-York about 
 midnight, and such were the pleasing sensations pro*> 
 duced by the reflection that on the morrow I should 
 be indulged with the priviledge of walking once more 
 on American ground after an absence of almost 50 
 years, and that but a short distance now separated me 
 from my dear son, that it was in vain that 1 attempt- 
 ed to close rny eyes to sleep. Never was the morn* 
 ing'* dawn so cheerfully welcomed by me. I solici- 
 ted and obtained the permission of the captain to be 
 early set on shore, and on reaching which, I did not 
 
 forget to offer up my unfeigned thanks to that Al 
 9* 
 
102 
 
 > whtf had toot or-iy sustained me 
 ing tny Wavy afflicii<ih 'abfoAd, but had finally re- 
 stored me te my native country. The pleasure that 
 I enjoyed in viewing the streets thronged by those, 
 who, although I could not claim as acquaintances, 1 
 could greet as my countrymen, wa unbounded, I 
 felt a regard for almost every object that met my eye, 
 because it was American. 
 
 Great as was my joy on finding myself once more 
 amor g my countrymen, 1 felt not a Tittle impatient 
 for the arrival of the happy moment when I should 
 be able to meet my eon. Agreeable to the orders 
 which I received from the American Consul, I appli- 
 ed to the Custom House in New-York for a passage 
 from thence to Boston, and with which I was provid- 
 ed on board a regular packet which sailed the morn- 
 ing ensuing in justice to the captain, I must say 
 that I was treated by him as well as by all on board, 
 with much civility. We arrived at the Long Whaif 
 in Boston after a short and pleasant passage I had 
 been informed by the Consul, previous to leaving 
 London, of the name of the gentleman with whom 
 my son probably lived, and a fellow passenger on 
 board the packet was so good as to call on and in- 
 form him ot my arrival in less than fifteen minutes 
 after receiving the information my son met me on 
 the wharf I Reader, you will not believe it possible 
 forme to describe my feelings correctly at this joy fu! 
 moment I if you are a parent, you may have some 
 conception of them j but a faint one however unless 
 
O? ISRAEL . POTTER. W3 
 
 you and an only and beloved child have been placed 
 in a fcimilar situation. 
 
 After acquainting myself with the statt of my 
 boy's health, 8cc. my next enquiry was whether he 
 iound the country as it had been described by me, 
 and how he esteemed it * well, extremely well (was 
 his reply) since my arrival I have fared like a Prince, 
 I have meat every day, and have feasted on American 
 puddings and pies (suth as you used to tell me about) 
 until I have become almost sick of them !"" I was 
 immediately conducted by him to the house of the 
 gentleman with whom he lived, and by whom 1 was 
 treated with much hospitality in the afternoon of 
 the day succeeding (by the earnest request of my 
 son) I visited Bunker-Hill, which he had a curiosity 
 te view, having heard it so frequently spoken of by 
 me while in London, as the place where the memor- 
 able battle was fought and in which J received my 
 wounds. 
 
 I continued in Boston about a fortnight, and then 
 set out on foot to visit once more my native State. 
 My son accompanied me as far aa Roxbury, when 1 
 was obliged reluctantly to part with him, and pro- 
 ceeded myself no farther on my journey that day. 
 than Jamaica plains, where at a public house I tarri- 
 ed all night from thence I started earty the nest 
 morning and reached Providence about 5 o'clock in 
 the afternoon> and obtained lodgings at a public Inn 
 Hi High- Street. 
 
 It may not be improper here to acquaint my 
 
** LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 ders that as 1 had left my father possessed of very 
 considerable preperly, and of which at his decease I 
 thought myself entitled to a portion equal to that of 
 the other children, which (as my father was very e- 
 eonomical in the management of his affairs) 1 knew 
 could not amount to a very inconsiderable sum ; it 
 Tras to obtain thU if possible, that I becawe extreme- 
 ly anxious to visit immediately the place of my na- 
 tivityaccordingly the day after 1 arrived in Provi- 
 iclence. I hastened to Cranston, to seek my connex- 
 ions if any were to be found ; and if aot to seek among 
 the most aged of the inhabitants, some one who had 
 not forgotten me, and who might be able to furnish 
 me with the sought for information. But, alas, loo 
 oon were blasted ray hopeful expectations of finding 
 something m reserve far me, that might have affor- 
 ded me a humble support, the few remaining years 
 of my life. It was by a distant connexion that I was 
 informed that my brothers had many years since re- 
 moved to a distant part of the country that having 
 credited a rumour in circulation of my death, at the 
 decease of my father had disposed of the real estate 
 of which he died possessed, and had divided the pro- 
 ceeds equally among themselves ! This was anoth- 
 er instance of adverse tortune that I had not antici- 
 pated! it was indeed a circumstance so foreign 
 Ironi my mind that 1 felt myself for the first lime, 
 tinhappy, since my return to my native country, and 
 even believed myself now doomed to endure, among 
 y own counirymen ' v for whose liberties 1 had foughlt 
 
G* ISRAEL R. POTTER. 105 
 
 and bled) miseries ilmilar to those that had attended 
 me for many years in Europe. With these gloomy 
 forebodings I returned to Providene, and contract- 
 ed for board with the gentleman at whose house I 
 had lodged the Hist night of my arrival in town, and 
 to whom for the kind treatment that 1 have recei?ed 
 from him and his family, 1 shall feel till death under 
 the deepest obligations that gratitude can dictate ; for 
 I can truly say of him, that 1 was a stranger and he 
 took me in, I was hungry and naked) and he fed and 
 cloathed me. 
 
 As I had never received any remuneration for ser 
 vices rendered, and hardships endured in the cause 
 of my country, I was now obliged, as my last resort> 
 to petition Congress to be included in that number of 
 the few surviving soldiers of the Revolution, for 
 whose services they had been pleased to grant pen- 
 sionsand I would to God that I could add, for the 
 honour of my country, that the application met with 
 iis deserving success but. although accompanied by 
 the deposition of a respectable gentleman (which de- 
 position I have thought proper to annex to my nar- 
 lative) satisfactorily confirming every iact as therein 
 stated -yet on no other principle, than that / was ab- 
 sent from the country it/hen the pension law fiassfdmy 
 Petition was REJECTED ! ! I Reader, I have bee n 
 for 30 years (as you will perceive by what I have sta- 
 ted in the foregoing pages) subject, in *. foreign coun- 
 try; to almost all the miseries with which poor hu- 
 man nature IB capable of being inflicted yet) in DO. 
 
106 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 one instance did I ever feel so great degree of a dev 
 pression of spirits, as when the fate of ray Petition 
 was announced to me! 1 love too well the country 
 vhich gave me birth, and entertain too high a respect 
 for those employed in its government, to reproach 
 them with ingratitude ; yet, it is my sincere prayer 
 that this strange and unprecedented circumstance) of 
 withholding fiom me that reward which they have 
 so generally bestowed on others, may never be told 
 in Europe, or published in the streets of London, least 
 it reach the ears of some who had the effrontery to 
 declare to me personally, that for the active part that 
 I had taken in the rebellious war" misery and star- 
 vation would ultimately be my reward I 
 
 To conclvde*althcugh I may be again unfortun- 
 ate in a renewal of my application to govenment, for 
 that reward to tviich my services so justly entitle 
 me yet 1 feel thankful that I am priviledged (after 
 nduring so much) to spend the remainder of my 
 days, among those who I am confident are posses- 
 sed of too much humanity, to see me suffer ; and 
 which I am sensible I owe to the divine goodness* 
 which graciously condescended to support me un 
 dei my numerous afflictions, and finally enabled me 
 to return to my native country in the 79th year of 
 my age for this 1 return unfeigned thanks to the 
 Almighty ; and hope to give during che remainder 
 of my life, convincing testimenies of the strong im- 
 pression which those afflictions made on my mind, 
 fcy devoting myself sincerely to the dunes of religion. 
 
01? ISRAEL A. FOTTE&. JOf 
 
 DEPOSITION OF JOHN VTAL. 
 f JOHN VIAL of North Providence, in the county 
 of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, on 
 oath certify and say, that sometime in the latter part 
 of November or the beginning of December A.D. 
 1775--- 1 entered as gunner's mate on board the 
 Washington, a public armed vessel in the service 
 of the United States, and under the command of 
 S. Martindale, Esq said vessel was sent out by 
 order of Gtneral WASHINGTON, from Plymouth 
 (Mass.) to cruize in Boston harbour to intercept 
 supplies going to Boston, ther* in the possession of 
 the British troops. Alter we had been out a short 
 time, we were captured by a British 20 gun ship, 
 called the " Foy " and weie carried to Bcstor, wher* 
 we remained about a week and were then put on 
 board the frigate Tartar, and sen* to England as 
 prisoners'and 1 the sa<d John further testify ard 
 say, that 1 well remember lsr.M-1 K Potter, now re- 
 siding in Cranston, who was a mariner on board the 
 Washington also said Potter entered about the time 
 1 did and was captured and carried to Eagland with 
 me. We arrived in England in January 1776, we 
 were then put into the Hospital, the greater part of 
 the crew being sick in consequence of the confine- 
 ment during the voyage, where many died 1 remain- 
 ed in imprisonment about sixteen iror.ths when I 
 tnncle my escape what became of sakt Potter after* 
 wards 1 do net know bin I have not the least doubt 
 lie remained a piiboner until the ptace 1783 as he 
 
10S U*B AMD ABVENTUAP.S ? ScC. 
 
 stated in his application for a pension I have a* 
 doubt he suffered a great deal during his captivity. 
 According to my best recollection nearly one third 
 of the crew died in the hospital -1 do remember an 
 affair which took place during our voyage to England 
 which caused Potter to suffer a great deal more than 
 perhaps he otherwise would a number of the crew 
 of the Washington formed a plan to rise and take the 
 Frigate but was defeated in their purpose, among 
 %vhom I believe Potter was one, and in consequence, 
 put in irons for the remaining part of the voyage with 
 a number of others. And 1 the said John do further 
 testify that I do not know of any of the said crew of th4 
 Washington now being alive except said Potter and 
 myself- and that I do not believe it to be in the pow- 
 er of said Potter to procure any other testimony of 
 the above mentioned facts except mine. 
 
 JOHN VIAL. 
 
 Rhode Island District Providence Aug 6, 1823. 
 
 The said John Vial, who is well known to me and 
 is a creditable witness, made solemn oath to the truth 
 of the foregoing doposition by him subscribed in my 
 presence. DAVID HOWELL. 
 
 DISTRICT JUDGE. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 In page 82, 15th line ftom the top for " a child but 
 six years of age" read ' a child but seven years of 
 age" In page 82, sixth line from the top, for " six- 
 pence per week" read " sixpence per day" In ad. 
 diticntothe above some few typographical errors of 
 vcrds m prrperly spelled, escaped the notice of thfc 
 publisher, until too late to correct them. 
 
M92562 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY