On the sixteenth day of July, 1824, I made a contract with one Captain Oliver C. Murray, master of the Schooner Frances, of New-York, to proceed with him on a trading voyage to the Musquitto Shore, Chagres, Porto Bello, St. Blas, &c. as a pilot and assistant trader. We took on board an assorted cargo, and sailed from New-York about the last of July. After being at sea some three days Captain Murray was taken sick, when he called the mate and crew into the cabin and told them that he had given up the charge of the schooner to me, that they must obey me accordingly. This was unsolicited by me. We then proceeded direct to Porto Bello, where we opened a trade with the inhabitants, remaining there about three weeks, experiencing heavy showers of rain every day we tarried there, it then being the rainy season on that coast. We proceeded from that port Carthagena is the strongest fortified city I ever visited, being enclosed with a wall some fifteen feet high, which is approached by a slope of easy assent. The wall appears to be from fifteen to twenty feet thick, having embrasures with heavy cannon mounted on it, about one hundred feet from one to another, all around the city, with a good road on the top of the wall. On the outside of the wall there is a deep trench, where water can be let in five or six feet deep if the city should be invaded by an enemy. Vessels bound into the harbor are obliged to keep close to the main land, which brings them near a long tier of forts. The greatest part of the channel is filled in with large stones, which appears to have been the work of ages. We remained here about two weeks, and were visited by numbers of captains of Columbian privateers, most of them Americans, who had obtained commissions signed by General Bolivar; they purchased many articles from us. Before we got the schooner under weigh we took on board three members of the Columbian Congress and their servants. A son of one of the congressmen had been educated in Europe, and spoke good English. We agreed to convey them to Chagres. They came direct from Bogata, the seat of government of this Republic, A short time before we arrived at Chagres one of them, who had an English negro servant, ordered him to tell Captain Murray that he could put some of his goods amongst their baggage if he wanted to smuggle them on shore through the custom house, as their baggage was considered sacred, and that no custom house officer dare to examine it. Being well acquainted with the tricks of these Spanish officers, I prevailed on Murray not to trust them, telling him this was only a trick to cheat him out of his goods, as I had heard, from good authority, of a number of tricks of this kind which had been practised by the collector of Porto Bello and other ports on the Main. We landed our passengers and remained some days at Chagres, where we sold some goods and then returned to Porto Bello. We purchased some fustic and other articles, and proceeded to the coast of St. We left the schooner early in the morning and In the morning, while we were preparing to return to the schooner, Campbell called me out to a small store house, where he took up the hind quarter of a baboon or large monkey, well smoked, and presented it to me to eat on our passage back to the schooner. I did not like to wound his feelings by refusing his present. On looking into his store room I observed a number of large smoked birds about the size of a common turkey, which I told him suited my taste much better than monkey, which he readily exchanged, We continued trading along the coast a few days, when we fell in with an old schooner under Columbian colors, but American built, said to belong to a man named Varney, who was on board of her, but could not hold her papers while sailing under that flag, not being a naturalized citizen of that government. It appeared he had employed a black citizen of that country to hold her papers, in the capacity of captain, who was then laying sick in a canoe on the schooner's deck. Captain Murray told me he had heard from Carthagena that a government schooner was cruising in pursuit of the Frances to capture her for trading on this coast without license, that we must take the goods out of her and put them on board of Varney's old schooner as speedily as possible, and then proceed to sea with her immediately; that I must go on board of her and take charge of the goods as supercargo. The goods were transferred that afternoon in great haste, without my having time to examine the old vessel as I ought to have done. She had a motley crew of different nations on board. When I took a view of them, I told Murray that I would not trust my life on board of her without he gave me two or three of the Frances' crew to go with me, which request he complied with, when we hurried to sea, Immediately after our arrival in that harbor I took all the goods on shore. Two days after, Varney undertook to heave the old schooner out, to repair her bottom, when the deck slid off, and she sunk, never to rise again. The negro captain died the second day after we went to sea, when we committed his body to a watery grave. Some time after Captain Murray arrived with the Frances in the harbor and learned the fate of Varney's old vessel, when he chartered a small schooner belonging to St. Andreas to take the remainder of his goods on board, and carry them to St. John's, on the Spanish Main. The next day they were all put on board of the new schooner. Murray now made up his mind to send the Frances back to New-York, and wanted me to take charge of her as master, which I refused to do, knowing it to be a broken voyage, and if I acted as master of her I could not libel the vessel for my wages. I told him he could give the mate charge of the Frances, and that I would assist to navigate her back to New-York, which he agreed to. He and Varney went on board of the new chartered schooner, and proceeding Soon after we got to sea I examined the list of return cargo which Murray had left on board the Frances; it consisted mostly of fustic, which was selling in New-York at that time at reduced prices, and I found that the whole cargo would not pay the charter of the schooner, which was two hundred dollars per month, besides victualing, manning and port charges. The Frances proved to be such a dull sailer that we could seldom force her more than seven knots per hour, in addition to which her sails and rigging had been badly injured by the continued rains on that coast, which rendered her unfit for any voyage. We were beating to the northward about fourteen days before we made the land, which proved to be Cape Antonio, we then steered into the Gulf-stream, which assisted us to work our way to the northward and eastward, and were a number of days sailing in the Gulf before we reached the latitude of Charleston, where we encountered a succession of heavy gales of wind which split our sails and carried away the greatest part of our running rigging. Finding our water and provisions growing short, we concluded to put into Charleston for relief, and the next day the wind proving favorable we steered direct for that After we arrived in port it was discovered that Murray had not over twenty dollars when he first undertook the voyage. He was a good looking man, and belonged to the Masonic order, could sing a good song, and tell a humorous story, and had a peculiar way of gaining the confidence of his associates. He had but few personal acquaintances in the city; but had obtained security from two or three responsible merchants for the charter of the schooner Frances for a voyage of some months, at two hundred dollars per month, and they had loaned him money to pay the advance wages of the mate and seamen, and supplied him with ship stores, besides making large shipments of goods on their own account. He took many goods from different people in invoices of from fifty to one thousand dollars, agreeing to carry them free from freight, and return them one-half of the net profits. Among the shippers was his landlady, a poor widow woman, whom he persuaded to make a shipment |