When all was ready, we stepped bravely each into a tub. At the moment of our departure we heard all the cocks and hens begin to crow, as if they were conscious that we had deserted them, yet willing to bid us a sorrowful adieu. This suggested to me the idea of taking the geese, ducks, fowls, and pigeons with us; observing to my wife, that if we could not find means to feed them, at least they would feed us.
We accordingly executed this plan. We put ten hens and an old and a young cock into one of the tubs, and covered it with planks; we set the rest of the poultry at liberty, in the hope that instinct would direct them towards the land, the geese and the ducks by water, and the pigeons by the air.
We were waiting for my wife, who had the care of this last part of our embarkation, when she joined us loaded with a large bag, which she threw into the tub which already contained her youngest son. I imagined that she intended it for him to sit upon, and also to confine him so as to prevent his being tossed from side to side. I therefore asked no questions concerning it. The order of our departure was as follows:
In the first tub at the boat’s head, my wife, the most tender and exemplary of her sex, placed herself.
In the second, our little Francis, a lovely boy six years old, full of the happiest dispositions, but whose character was not yet pronounced.
In the third, Fritz, our eldest boy, between fourteen and fifteen years of age, a handsome curl-pated youth full of intelligence and vivacity.
In the fourth was the barrel of gunpowder, with the cocks and hens and the sail-cloth.
In the fifth, the provisions for the support of life.
In the sixth, my son Jack, a light-hearted, enterprising, audacious, generous lad, about ten years old.
In the seventh, my son Ernest, a boy of twelve years old, of a rational reflecting temper, well informed, but somewhat disposed to indolence and the pleasures of the senses.