purchase, and referred me to a mercantile house there as his reference.
They said he had run vessels for them on Lake Erie when they were doing
business in Buffalo. I concluded that was entirely satisfactory; that
that had evidently been his regular business. He said he wanted to
employ all his own hands. I had the vessel, at the time, half loaded
with freight, which I turned over to him. I paid my men and discharged
them, and told them the vessel was about to change owners, and put him
in full possession of it. Of course I had nothing more to do with it
until he returned from the trip to Stockton; then I expected he would
close the purchase as he said that the price was satisfactory to him.
After a few weeks I commenced looking for the return of my brig, but it
did not come. Finally I heard a rumor that the captain had left the
vessel at Stockton, but did not believe it, but thought that some
accident might have happened. I had borrowed a spy-glass to investigate
the bay. I could have recognized my vessel by the red streak around it.
Finally, after it had been gone long enough to make several trips, I
discovered it at anchor in the bay. I went and supplied myself with
money, in case it should prove true that the captain had left the
vessel, to pay his men in full before they got ashore, because the
vessel was liable for their wages, whoever might have employed them; so
I hired a boat to row me out to it. I met a man on the deck that seemed
to be in command. I inquired of him where the captain was. He said he
had run away. I spoke to him in a sharp tone of voice and said, how do
you know that? He said, because I saw him on the back of a mule going
over the plain. Then he asked me, are you the owner? I said, yes. Then I
said, you have all got your pay before he went; I did not employ you. He
said, some of them have got some.

As you seem to be in command, I suppose you have kept an account of how
it stands. He said, "Come down in the cabin and I will show it to you."