Though the galiot was detained by contrary winds, as long as there was no alternative, I concluded to stick by her; but on the second day I was standing on the pier and looking up the sound towards Copenhagen, when I saw a ship coming down with a large American ensign flying, at the sight of which my heart leaped right up into my throat. I waited until she came to anchor, and then called a shore-boat and went off to her. She proved to be the Mary of Portland, Captain David Gray, and was homeward bound. This was joyful news, and affected me so deeply that I could hardly tell the Captain my story. At last, after making known who I was, and from whence I came, I asked him if he would take me as passenger, and he readily consented. I went immediately to the galiot to settle with the little Dutch skipper. To the question, how much was I to pay him, he answered that he only wanted “Was billig ist, das ist mir recht.” Not knowing exactly what that was, I tendered him twenty Spanish dollars, with which he was well satisfied, and made him a bonus of a pair of leather breeches, which he had worn ever since we left Cronstadt. Wishing him a prosperous voyage, I took my leave and my baggage and went on board the Mary. She was a fine ship, in ballast, and had a splendid cabin for the times. The captain was a social, clever fellow, and we soon became well acquainted. We left Elsinore on the 20th, and proceeded down the Kattegat. When we got down as far as Gottenburg, we found the wind blowing in heavily through the Sleeve, which obliged the pilot to put into Marstrand, a small port in Sweden. Here we lay two days.
On the 24th, we put to sea again. We passed the Naze of Norway, and steered for the Orkney Islands; but, owing to adverse winds and stormy weather, it was the 2d of December before we got through the Fair Isle Passage. We then encountered a series of westerly gales, in the course of which it was discovered that one of the ship’s rudder-braces had worked loose. It was deemed unsafe to pursue our course across the Atlantic, and Captain Gray accordingly altered his course for Liverpool, where we arrived on the 15th. This was a great disappointment to me, particularly as my pecuniary resources were exhausted, and I saw before me unavoidable expenses; at the same time, I had no relish for the storms of a northern passage and a winter’s coast. I reconciled myself, however, with the prospect of seeing England; and as Captain Gray offered to supply me with money until I reached Portland, I was quite content. I went with him to a boarding-house, where we remained while the ship was undergoing repairs. In the mean time, I made myself acquainted with the city and its environs. At the end of two months the Mary was ready for sea again, and having taken on board a quantity of salt, we sailed on the 7th of February. We had a pleasant voyage, and arrived at Portland on the 25th of March. Here I settled with the Captain, to whom I was indebted for my passage, board, and sundry loans, the whole amounting to the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars. I gave him a draft on Mr. John Park, of Boston, and it proved quite fortunate for him that I did so. His owners had failed just before our arrival, and, as they were indebted to him, he would have been a loser but for this draft.
You may suppose that I started with as little delay as possible for Bristol. I arrived there on the 1st of April, 1808, and thus terminated an absence of three years and eight months. In two years and six months from the time of my departure, the owners were in receipt of the proceeds of the voyage, which resulted in a clear profit of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.
I have now reached the end of my story; but before I lay down my pen, let me say a word more of the friends mentioned in the preceding pages. I continued in the Russian trade, in which I had made so successful a beginning, and returned to St. Petersburg in 1809. It so happened that I found Dr. Langsdorff and Lieutenants Schwostoff and Davidoff there. The latter two gentlemen, since we last met, had been engaged in the war with Sweden, and had become honorably distinguished. While I was visiting the Doctor, they came over to pass an evening with us, and we sat talking of old times until two in the morning. They then started for their own lodgings, which were on the other side of the river. Langsdorff and myself accompanied them to the drawbridge, which was open for ships to pass in the night. Our friends, therefore, passed over a plank which lay from the bridge to a vessel in the river and regained the other side of the bridge by another plank, calling to us and wishing us good-night, when they were safe over, and we then went back to our quarters. The next morning we received the melancholy intelligence that two naval officers had been drowned in the Neva during the night, and, upon further inquiry, we learned that they were our friends. After we had parted from them, they became desirous, God knows for what purpose, to return to us again, and, in order to get over quicker, they attempted to spring from the bridge upon a bark that was going through. They mistook a sail for the deck of the vessel, and both fell into the water. The people in the bark endeavored to rescue them, but the night was so dark, and the current so strong, that they went under before they received any assistance. Though fifty years have gone by since the death of these young men, I cannot forbear to recall their many virtues and lament their untimely end.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] Perry’s “History of the De Wolf Family,” p. 50.
[24] Three months before this vessel had brought into Bristol the first cargo received from a Chinese port.—Ed.
[25] Ever since Captain Robert Gray of Tiverton, R. I., master of the ship Columbia of Boston, had, in 1792, sailed his vessel into the great river to which he gave the name of his ship, the trade of the northwest coast had been almost entirely in the hands of Boston merchants. The natives called all traders “Boston Men.” So, in the days of the Crusades, the Saracens called all Crusaders “Franks” because of the overwhelming predominance of the French nation. The Crusades were the “Gesta Dei per Francos.” Captain Gray’s act laid the foundation for the American title to Oregon.—Ed.
[26] Cooper seized upon this well known fact for some striking passages in his novel “Afloat and Ashore.”—Ed.