Note 1 — CHAP. XXX.

Every thing being at last perfectly adjusted for our departure, both vessels, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel des Borgnes, weighed anchor on the morning of the 1st of April, 1777, when, with a fresh breeze at E. we put to sea, and kept course N. and N. W.—Motionless and speechless, I hung over the ship’s stern till the land quite disappeared. After some days, however, by considerable exertions, I got the better of my melancholy, though not of my affection, and my mind became once more composed and calm. What chiefly contributed to the restoring of my peace, was the comfortable reflection, that if I had in some measure injured myself, I had at least done good to a few others, by relieving three1 innocent and deserving young people from a state of bondage. Yet, for this action, I was assuredly most amply rewarded by the preservation of my life, principally owing to their unremitting care and attention, while such numbers fell all around me, and more were ruined in their constitution, the victims of the climate and the service, some having lost the use of their limbs, and some of their memory; nay, one or two were entirely deprived of their mental faculties, and continued in a state of incurable insanity for ever.