January 15th, 1776
Detached this day upon forage detail to aid in the victualing of the Regiment. ’Twas a relief to remove myself from the Crepuscule for reasons which need not stand on paper. My absence from that ship is most conformable to my desires.
Fourteen of us have been removed to the Plover schooner and, receiving favorable winds, set off up the river, flying no colors. The pilot is a Negro man reputed to know the river well, which circumstance delights us all, and we spent a pleasant hour in hearing his tales of the river and his account of his master’s wrath when he absconded with a boat some months ago — the pilot drifting away from the dock, the white man stranded, shouting after him that the pilot should not steer so clear of shoals, scudding on the burning lakes of Hell.
Bono is not present on the voyage, which is a gratifying circumstance; I have whiled the time in speaking to Pomp and Slant. They asked me for an explanation of reading and writing, Slant saying, “You friend Private Williams, he writes too.” I replied that Private Williams was no friend of mine.
So I have determined to teach Pomp and Slant how to write. I have removed the final pages of this book as a quire, and it is my purpose to use them to demonstrate the arts of literacy. In this way, I hope to spread among others the gifts lavished upon me for my pains in the College of Lucidity; to loose knowledge from its corral and allow it free pasturage. And so today, I wrote the names of my companions upon the first page of that quire — POMP and SLANT — and they traced them after.
Thus we whiled the afternoon.
We grew apprehensive when another sail approached, but met with no resistance, save a dialogue with the schooner Doretta, which vessel stood for us and called out a challenge, by which our captain apprehended that she was for the King, issued a letter of marque or reprisal; and so we greeted her, shouted our commission, and proceeded unmolested. We passed other boats and ships of small draught, but all avoided challenge for fear of tampering with privateers.
At dusk, we hove to and laid down our anchor a bit past Jamestown Island. I take this opportunity to write these lines. Tonight we commence our raiding party.