English prison, has learned enough of the language to be a
proficient in swearing."

With these human scrapings for a ship's company, the cutter
Caroline was three months on her solitary way as far as the Cape
of Good Hope, where the inhabitants "could not disguise their
astonishment at the size of the vessel, the boyish appearance of
the master and mate, and the queer and unique characters of the
two men and boy who composed the crew." The English officials
thought it strange indeed, suspecting some scheme of French spies
or smuggled dispatches, but Richard Cleveland's petition to the
Governor, Lord McCartney, ingenuously patterned after certain
letters addressed to noblemen as found in an old magazine aboard
his vessel, won the day for him and he was permitted to sell the
cutter and her cargo, having changed his mind about proceeding
farther.

Taking passage to Batavia, he looked about for another venture
but found nothing to his liking and wandered on to Canton, where
he was attracted by the prospect of a voyage to the northwest
coast of America to buy furs from the Indians. In a cutter no
larger than the Caroline he risked all his cash and credit,
stocking her with $20,000 worth of assorted merchandise for
barter, and put out across the Pacific, "having on board
twenty-one persons, consisting, except two Americans, of English,
Irish, Swedes and French, but principally the first, who were
runaways from the men-of-war and Indiamen, and two from a Botany
Bay ship who had made their escape, for we were obliged to take
such as we could get, served to complete a list of as
accomplished villains as ever disgraced any country."