My inclination, however, preponderated
this way. At length I determined to follow it; for, on deliberate
consideration, I found that I could not employ my time more advantageously
to the cause; for as other witnesses must be found out somewhere, it was
highly probable that, if I should fail in the discovery of this man, I
should, by moving among such a number of sea-faring people, find others,
who could give their testimony in our favour.
I must now inform the reader, that ships of war in ordinary, in one of
which this man was reported to be, are those, which are out of commission,
and which are laid up in the different rivers and waters in the
neighbourhood of the King's dock-yards. Every one of these has a boatswain,
gunner, carpenter, and assistants on board. They lie usually in divisions
of ten or twelve; and a master in the navy has a command over every
division.
At length I began my journey. I boarded all the ships of war lying in
ordinary at Deptford, and examined the different persons in each. From
Deptford I proceeded to Woolwich, where I did the same. Thence I hastened
to Chatham, and then, down the Medway, to Sheerness. I had now boarded
above a hundred and sixty vessels of war.
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