LETTER IX.
The uncertainty of the law has established itself into an adage: but I begin to suspect that, proverbial as it is, it must yield to the greater incertitude of military service. In my last letter I mentioned to you that we were to proceed to Cove the moment the wind was fair, and, in this idea, we had written to our friends desiring them not to address us, again, at Spithead; but to send their letters to Ireland, that they might meet us at Cork. Now, we find that our destination is again changed, and within the few last days, it has been so rapidly altered and confirmed, fixed, reversed, and varied, that we are totally at a loss on what assurance to depend.
At present it is reported that three forty-four gun ships, viz. the Ulysses, the Experiment, and the Charon, are to take in the troops, which were in such extreme peril, during the gale, on board the vast and unwieldy Commerce de Marseilles, and to run out with them, as speedily as possible, to the West Indies.
Consistent with this arrangement, vessels came alongside the Ulysses early on the morning of the 26th instant, for the purpose of removing the St. Domingo stores; and the hospital packages, which were stowed in this ship, are now distributed into two or three vessels; which is an improvement, gained by the change, for should either of these ships chance to be lost, captured, or delayed, still a proportion of the stores may safely arrive in the others. Further advantages may also derive from the distribution, as an assortment will be more conveniently at hand for any case of emergency; such as immediate or unexpected service, detachments, or supplying particular islands or colonies.
It were difficult to acknowledge similar advantages from the separation of our happy and social mess, although we are, likewise, obliged to divide our stores, and mess-apparatus, being now instructed to make the voyage in different ships. This is matter of high regret to us all, and the more so, as we had been long enough together to become well acquainted, and happy in each other’s society, besides having jointly provided ourselves for the voyage.
We have received orders to repair, two of us to the George and Bridget, and two to the Lord Sheffield: Dr. Master and myself feel ourselves fortunate in being appointed to the latter, for we had visited the George and Bridget, and had not acquired any predilection in her favor. The Lord Sheffield we have not yet seen, but her captain tells us that she is a fast-sailing ship, and fitted up in a superior style, with her cabin “neat, light, and lively as a drawing-room.” We do not give implicit confidence to the report of one so strongly interested in speaking her fair: but the probabilities are much in her favor, she being a West India trader, and, no doubt, better fitted for passengers, and better adapted, in all respects, for a tropical climate. The George and Bridget is a large Baltic timber ship, and, of course, has not had the same occasion either for conveying or accommodating passengers.
We have met with many of the officers at Portsmouth who were out, in the fleet, during the late destructive gale. Their accounts are afflicting beyond all the suggestions even of fearful anticipation. Deducting in due allowance for the augmented terrors of young and fresh-water sailors, still the whole scene, and its result have been most painfully disastrous; for, melancholy to repeat! multitudes of souls have perished; and six or seven vessels have not been heard of since the storm.