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a respectable looking woman, who attended the ship with a bum-boat, and supplied the sailors with necessaries on the credit of their approaching pay, which was considerable, the ship having been six years stationed in New South Wales. As this woman appeared to possess some sensibility, I ventured to represent to her the distress I was in at my confinement to the service, and particularly my fears that I should not obtain leave to visit my friends before I was sent to sea again. The good woman, whose name was By, had sufficient penetration to perceive my drift, and that I wanted to take French leave of an English man-of-war. After expatiating on the risk she should incur in case of a discovery, and many injunctions of secrecy, she declared her willingness to assist me as far as lay in her power, as she had, she said, children of her own and pitied my situation. She. then advised me to pack up a suit of clothes, (which I informed her I had by me,) and commit them to her care, saying, that she would take them privately to her lodgings, to which she directed me, and that I must next contrive to get ashore on duty, or by any other means, when I should immediately come to her, and she would assist me in my further proceedings. Having treated this worthy creature with a glass of grog, and overwhelmed her with thanks for her disinterested kindness, (for such it certainly was,) I hastened to put up my clothes, consisting of a genteel black
