Nor when the regular confusion ends.’
I was now rapidly gaining strength; my leg I could bear my weight on; and after remaining here two months, I was strong enough to take passage for Buenos Ayres, distant about a hundred and ten miles, farther up, and on the opposite side of the river.
I arrived the next day, and found a great number of old acquaintance, who were very kind and friendly. A subscription paper was immediately handed round among the English merchants, by the goodness of the owners, Messrs. McFarlane and Eastman, to whose friendship I must ever remain indebted, and several hundred subscribed in an hour, and collected for my benefit. About two hundred were also collected for the benefit of the old woman at the hut, and two hundred more previously in Monte Video, and sent down to her.
I remained some months on account of lameness in Buenos Ayres, and applied for a passage in the Congress, Captain Sinclair, which was at that time ready to return home with the three commissioners which she conveyed out; but failing in this, I soon after had an application to the birth of first officer of a large ship; the Manhattan, of 700 tons, sent from the United States to be sold. Not succeeding in the sale, I entered on board an Enserada, and we proceeded to fit her for her return home in ballast.
On the 11th of July, 1818, we left the La Plata, and in forty days had sight of Bermudas. On the 12th of September, we anchored off Fort Henry, at Baltimore. I was detained here much against my will, twenty days, in settling the ship’s accounts, taking an inventory, &c. and she was publicly sold.
On Sunday morning, October 4th, I arrived at my native place, Boston, after an absence of over two years; when I fully experienced the truth of the observation, that the unavoidable evils and misfortunes of life, afford by their contrast, a ten fold relish to its comforts, which are many, but which before were unprised.
The meeting of relatives must be conceived. I will only add, that safe in the embrace of parents and friends, forgotten like a dream, WERE THE PERILS OF THE OCEAN.