He asked if we would like some breakfast, and on our saying we would he gave an order to one of the soldiers to bring us something to eat. In less than a quarter of an hour we had a big pan of beef-stew before us, along with a large loaf of bread, and as much coffee as we wanted to drink. It was a real good breakfast, and every one of us felt a great deal better after we had eaten it.
That it was the intention to impress us into the British service I have not the least doubt, and Haines was correct when he suggested that the affair of the Warwick would save us. I heard afterward that not a few American sailors who became drunk and disorderly while on shore at Gibraltar and other British ports had been sent to jail over night and to a receiving-ship in the morning. They had no chance of escape, and in the course of time, and very short at that, found themselves serving on British ships-of-war.
At the time of which I write no fewer than four thousand impressed Americans were serving on British ships; that number had been reported through the consuls and other representatives of the United States abroad, and it is probable that two or three thousand more were unable to make their situations known. They were not allowed to send letters to their friends; and when in port, whether in British ports or not, they were never allowed ashore, lest they might escape, or at all events send a communication that would call attention to their impressment.
We had quite a talk on the subject as we sat and lay around after our breakfast, waiting to see what would next turn up. Haines predicted that in less than ten years the United States would have another war with Great Britain, and it would grow out of this very business of the impressment of American sailors. It is said that at one time a British officer who was taking some men from an American vessel remarked to the captain of it,—
"I wonder that the Americans permit this sort of thing to go on. Great Britain wouldn't stand it an hour, and I think the same can be said of every nation on the continent of Europe."
Well, we wouldn't have stood it an hour either if we had had a navy like that of Great Britain. She had a thousand sail, and we had less than twenty war-ships, taking all kinds and descriptions together.
"I'll tell you a bit of my experience," said Haines, "in this impressing business, and you can see just how it is. It's no wonder that the relations between the United States and Great Britain are what they are when the sort of thing I'm going to tell you about can go on.
"I was going out to Havana in the brig Julia in the latter part of 1798," said Haines, "and there were several sail of us under convoy of the twenty-gun sloop-of-war Baltimore. We were in sight of the Moro Castle, at the entrance of the port of Havana, and a dandy port it is—room enough for a thousand sail inside, but only one can go in or out at a time. Captain Phillips of the Baltimore made signal for us to crowd sail as hard as we could to get into port; it seemed that he had seen an English squadron away to the windward, and knew they would capture us if they could, as they were blockading Havana. In fact, they did take three of us; but the rest got in all right, and among 'em was the Julia.
"After he had signaled to his convoy, Captain Phillips bore up to speak to the English commodore, who was in the Carnatic, seventy-four, and he had four other war-ships with her, one of 'em a big feller with ninety-eight guns.
"When Captain Phillips got near the Carnatic, the English captain, his name was Loring, invited the American to go and visit him aboard. Captain Phillips went, and what do you suppose the Englishman told him when he got him there?"