Tuesday 24th. Cut the Pig up this morning, the weather being very hot, we had some strong Pickle, made from Rock-Salt, ready to put in what we did not want for present use. At noon we sighted the Martin Vas Rocks, on our lee beam, bearing about W.N.W. And distance about 25 miles. One of them is the shape of a haycock, thus: being apart from the other, about
We was going about 5 or 6 knots, having a T.G studding sail set besides F Topmast and Lower, in fact all the canvas that would draw. And we soon run past them. But these trades vary greatly at 8 PM took in T.G. Stud sail and braced the Yards a little for’ard.
Twelve long months have passed (this day) since I left my home and bid adieu to all my
old haunts, and in fact all that was near and dear to me, leaving the best of Fathers and Mothers to go among strangers, leaving a home where my every wish was gratified, yeah many is the time that Mother has denied herself things, that we might have the more, I did not then appreciate those things, but since then a thousand of her self-denials, crowd themselves up on my mind, and after all, wretch that I am, thus cruelly to leave her, against her will, and all to gratify a foolish longing to see foreign countries and other scenes, among the most wicked, blaspheming, set of men under the Sun. ButnI have now learned how to value Home, and all its comforts where instead of being up all night, or nearly, in the fiercest of hurricanes, you can go to bed and rest composedly until the morning dawns, when that Mother has been again busy getting
something nice ready for breakfast. Yea many is the time I offer up a silent prayer to the Allmighty to keep her with my Father, Brothers, Relations and Friends from all harm, and to send me safe back to atone for having caused them all so much Trouble and anxiety of mind. Which I hope and trust He will. I know every one will be glad to see me return, from the smallest to the greatest. During the last twelve months I have seen some strange sights. I have seen the poor Negro slaves in the Brazils, undergo the most brutal and cruel tortures from their inhuman masters, then again the Chinese, in Peru, at the Chincha Islands, receive little better treatment. Having to work the Guano all their life, which no European could do for long. Yea: people in Bolinbroke who never leave their homes can form no idea of the world and its cruelties.
We are again fast hastening towards London,
or Liverpool, these places where wickedness, and debauchery, is rife on every hand, where there are temptations and snares of every kind to entrap the unwary. but I trust that Providence (which has watched over, and kept me in safety through all the dangers, which I have passed, while crossing the vast Atlantic and Pacific Oceans), will not desert me then. - The Martin Vas Rocks are barren and uninhabited, excepting by a species of the feathered tribe, called Boobies, the night before we sighted them, one of them took up his quarters for the night on our Jib-boom, when attacked they are very ferocious, tearing the flesh of their Antagonist without mercy. These rocks are situate in Latitude 20.29.24 S and Longitude 28.51.24 W 24 miles to the Westward of them lays the Island of Trinidad we did not sight it as we were too far to the Eastward. At 2 PM The Captain took sights, for the rating of his Chronometer
which he found to be a little fast for Greenwich Mean-time.
Richard has now been away from home for a year and we learn today some of his back story - his wilfull determination to see the world against the wishes of his mother, and his regret at the pain he has caused his family. He reflects on what he has seen and the company he has been keeping, in a rare mood of introspection.
