any other light than that emitted by a little fire of sea coal, I would
attempt to drive away melancholy by amusing my son with an account of
my native country, and of the many blessings there enjoyed by even
the poorest class of people--of their fair fields producing a regular
supply of bread--their convenient houses, to which they could repair
after the toils of the day, to partake of the fruits of their labour,
safe from the storms and the cold, and where they could lay down their
heads to rest without any to molest them or to make them afraid.
Nothing could have been better calculated to excite animation in the
mind of the poor child, than an account so flattering of a country
which had given birth to his father, and to which he had received my
repeated assurances he should accompany me as soon as an opportunity
should present--after expressing his fears that the happy day was yet
far distant, with a deep sigh he would exclaim “would to God it was
to-morrow!”
About a year after the decease of my wife, I was taken extremely ill,
insomuch that at one time my life was despaired of, and had it not been
for the friendless and lonely situation in which such an event would
have placed my son, I should have welcomed the hour of my dissolution
and viewed it as a consummation rather to be wished than dreaded; for
so great had been my sufferings of mind and body, and the miseries to
which I was still exposed, that life had really become a burden to
me--indeed I think it would have been difficult to have found on the
face of the earth a being more wretched than I had been for the three
years past.
During my illness my only friend on earth was my son Thomas, who did
every thing to alleviate my wants within the power of his age to
do--sometimes by crying for old chairs to mend (for he had become
as expert a workman at this business as his father) and sometimes
by sweeping the cause-ways, and by making and selling matches, he
succeeded in earning each day a trifle sufficient to procure for me and
himself a humble sustenance. When I had so far recovered as to be able
to creep abroad, and the youth had been so fortunate as to obtain a
good job, I would accompany him, although very feeble, and assist him
in conveying the chairs home--it was on such occasions that my dear
child would manifest his tenderness and affection for me, by insisting
(if there were four chairs) that I should carry but one, and he would
carry the remaining three, or in that proportion if a greater or less
number.
From the moment that I had informed him of the many blessings enjoyed
by my countrymen of every class, I was almost constantly urged by my
son to apply to the American Consul for a passage--it was in vain that
I represented to him, that if such an application was attended with
success and the opportunity should be improved by me, it must cause our
separation, perhaps forever; as he would not be permitted to accompany
me at the expense of government--“never mind me (he would reply) do
not father suffer any more on my account; if you can only succeed in
obtaining a passage to a country where you can enjoy the blessings that
you have described to me, I may hereafter be so fortunate as to meet
with an opportunity to join you--and if not, it will be a consolation
to me, whatever my afflictions may be, to think that yours have
ceased!” My ardent wish to return to America, was not less than that
of my son, but could not bear the thoughts of a separation; of leaving
him behind exposed to all the miseries peculiar to the friendless
poor of that country;--he was a child of my old age, and from whom I
had received too many proofs of his love and regard for me, not to
feel that parental affection for him to which his amiable disposition
entitled him.
I was indeed unacquainted with the place of residence of the American
Consul--I had made frequent enquiries, but found no one that could
inform me correctly where he might be found; but so anxious was my son
that I should spend the remnant of my days in that country where I
should receive (if nothing more) a christian burial at my decease, and
bid adieu forever to a land where I had spent so great a portion of my
life in sorrow, and many years had endured the lingering tortures of
protracted famine; that he ceased not to enquire of everyone with whom
he was acquainted, until he obtained the wished for information. Having
learned the place of residence of the American Consul, and fearful of
the consequences of delay, he would give me no peace until I promised
that I would accompany him there the succeeding day, if my strength
would admit of it; for although I had partially recovered from a severe
fit of sickness, yet I was still so weak and feeble as to be scarcely
able to walk.
My son did not forget to remind me early the next morning of my
promise, and to gratify him more than with an expectation of meeting
with much success I set out with him, feeble as I was, for the
Consul’s. The distance was about two miles, and before I had succeeded
in reaching half the way, I had wished myself a dozen times safe home
again, and had it not been for the strong persuasions of my son to
the contrary, I certainly should have returned.--I was never before
so sensible of the effects of my long sufferings--which had produced
that degree of bodily weakness and debility, as to leave me scarcely
strength sufficient to move without the assistance of my son; who, when
he found me reeling or halting through weakness, would support me until
I had gained sufficient strength to proceed.
Although the distance was but two miles, yet such was the state of my
weakness, that although we started early in the morning, it was half
past 3 o’clock P.M. when we reached the Consul’s office, when I was so
much exhausted as to be obliged to ascend the steps on my hands and
knees. Fortunately we found the Consul in, and on my addressing him
and acquainting him with the object of my visit, he seemed at first
unwilling to credit the fact that I was an American born--but after
interrogating me sometime, as to the place of my nativity, the cause
which first brought me to England, &c. he seemed to be more satisfied;
he however observed (on being informed that the lad who accompanied me
was my son) that he could procure a passage for me, but not for him,
as being born in England, the American government would consider him a
British subject, and under no obligation to defray the expence of his
passage--and as regarded myself, he observed, that he had his doubts,
so aged and infirm as I appeared to be, whether I should live to reach
America, if I should attempt it.
I cannot say that I was much surprised at the observations of the
Consul, as they exactly agreed with what I had anticipated--and as
anxious as I then felt to visit once more my native country, I felt
determined not to attempt it, unless I could be accompanied by my
son, and expressed myself to this effect to the Consul--the poor
lad appeared nearly overcome with grief when he saw me preparing to
return without being able to effect my object; indeed so greatly was
he affected, and such the sorrow that he exhibited, that he attracted
the notice (and I believe I may add the pity) of the Consul--who,
after making some few enquiries as regarded his disposition, age,
&c. observed that he could furnish the lad with a passage at his own
expense, which he should have no objection to do if I would consent
to his living with a connection of his (the Consul,) on his arrival
in America--“but (continued he,) in such a case you must be a while
separated, for it would be imprudent for you to attempt the passage
until you have gained more strength--I will pay your board, where by
better living than you have been latterly accustomed to, you may have a
chance to recruit--but your son must take passage on board the London
Packet, which sails for Boston the day after to-morrow.”
Although but a few moments previous, my son would have thought no
sacrifice too great, that would have enabled us to effect our object
in obtaining passages to America; yet, when he found that instead of
himself, I was to be left for a while behind, he appeared at some loss
how to determine--but on being assured by the Consul that if my life
was spared I should soon join him, he consented; and being furnished
by the Consul with a few necessary articles of cloathing, I the next
day accompanied him on board the packet which was to convey him to
America--and after giving him the best advice that I was capable of as
regarded his behaviour and deportment while on his passage, and on his
arrival in America, I took my leave of him and saw him not again until
I met him on the wharf on my arrival at Boston.
When I parted with the Consul he presented me with half a crown, and
directions where to apply for board--it was at a public Inn where I
found many American seamen, who, like myself, were boarded there at
the Consul’s expence, until passages could be obtained for them to
America--I was treated by them with much civility, and by hearing them
daily recount their various and remarkable adventures, as well as by
relating my own, I passed my time more agreeably than what I probably
should have done in other society.
In eight weeks I was so far recruited by good living, as in the
opinion of the Consul, to be able to endure the fatigues of a passage
to my native country, and which was procured for me on board the ship
Carterian, bound to New-York. We set sail on the 5th April, 1823, and
after a passage of 42 days, arrived safe at our port of destination.
After having experienced in a foreign land so much ill-treatment from
those from whom I could expect no mercy, and for no other fault than
that of being an American, I could not but flatter myself that when
I bid adieu to that country, I should no longer be the subject of
unjust persecution, or have occasion to complain of ill treatment from
those whose duty it was to afford me protection. But the sad reverse
which I experienced while on board the Carterian, convinced me of the
incorrectness of my conclusions. For my country’s sake, I am happy
that I have it in my power to say that the crew of this ship, was not
composed altogether of Americans--there was a mixture of all nations;
and among them some so vile, and destitute of every humane principle,
as to delight in nothing so much as to sport with the infirmities of
one, whose grey locks ought at least to have protected him. By these
unfeeling wretches (who deserve not the name of sailors) I was not
only most shamefully ill-used on the passage, but was robbed of some
necessary articles of cloathing, which had been charitably bestowed on
me by the American Consul.
We arrived in the harbour of New-York about midnight, and such were the
pleasing sensations produced by the reflection that on the morrow I
should be indulged with the priviledge of walking once more on American
ground after an absence of almost 50 years, and that but a short
distance now separated me from my dear son, that it was in vain that I
attempted to close my eyes to sleep. Never was the morning’s dawn so
cheerfully welcomed by me. I solicited and obtained the permission of
the captain to be early set on shore, and on reaching which, I did not
forget to offer up my unfeigned thanks to that Almighty Being, who
had not only sustained me during my heavy afflictions abroad, but had
finally restored me to my native country. The pleasure that I enjoyed
in viewing the streets thronged by those, who, although I could not
claim as acquaintances, I could greet as my countrymen, was unbounded,
I felt a regard for almost every object that met my eyes, because it
was American.
Great as was my joy on finding myself once more among my countrymen, I
felt not a little impatient for the arrival of the happy moment when I
should be able to meet my son. Agreeable to the orders which I received
from the American Consul, I applied to the Custom House in New-York
for a passage from thence to Boston, and with which I was provided on
board a regular packet which sailed the morning ensuing--in justice to
the captain, I must say that I was treated by him as well as by all
on board, with much civility. We arrived at the Long Wharf in Boston
after a short and pleasant passage. I had been informed by the Consul,
previous to leaving London, of the name of the gentleman with whom my
son probably lived, and a fellow passenger on board the packet was so
good as to call on and inform him of my arrival--in less than fifteen
minutes after receiving the information my son met me on the wharf!
Reader, you will not believe it possible for me to describe my feelings
correctly at this joyful moment! if you are a parent, you may have some
conception of them; but a faint one however unless you and an only and
beloved child have been placed in a similar situation.
After acquainting myself with the state of my boy’s health, &c. my
next enquiry was whether he found the country as it had been described
by me, and how he esteemed it--“well, extremely well (was his reply)
since my arrival I have fared like a Prince, I have meat every day, and
have feasted on American puddings and pies (such as you used to tell
me about) until I have become almost sick of them!” I was immediately
conducted by him to the house of the gentleman with whom he lived, and
by whom I was treated with much hospitality--in the afternoon of the
day succeeding (by the earnest request of my son) I visited Bunker
Hill, which he had a curiosity to view, having heard it so frequently
spoken of by me while in London, as the place where the memorable
battle was fought and in which I received my wounds.
I continued in Boston about a fortnight, and then set out on foot
to visit once more my native State. My son accompanied me as far as
Roxbury, when I was obliged reluctantly to part with him, and proceeded
myself no farther on my journey that day than Jamaica plains, where at
a public house I tarried all night--from thence I started early the
next morning and reached Providence about 5 o’-clock in the afternoon,
and obtained lodgings at a public Inn in High-Street.
It may not be improper here to acquaint my readers that as I had left
my father possessed of very considerable property, and of which at his
decease I thought myself entitled to a portion equal to that of other
children, which (as my father was very economical in the management
of his affairs) I knew could not amount to a very inconsiderable sum,
it was to obtain this if possible, that I became extremely anxious to
visit immediately the place of my nativity--accordingly the day after
I arrived in Providence, I hastened to Cranston, to seek my connexions
if any were to be found; and if not to seek among the most aged of
the inhabitants, some one who had not forgotten me, and who might be
able to furnish me with the sought for information. But, alas, too
soon were blasted my hopeful expectations of finding something in
reserve for me, that might have afforded me a humble support, the few
remaining years of my life. It was by a distant connection that I was
informed that my brothers had many years since removed to a distant
part of the country--that having credited a rumour in circulation of
my death, at the decease of my father had disposed of the real estate
of which he died possessed, and had divided the proceeds equally among
themselves! This was another instance of adverse fortune that I had
not anticipated!--it was indeed a circumstance so foreign from my mind
that I felt myself for the first time, unhappy, since my return to my
native country, and even believed myself now doomed to endure, among my
own countrymen (for whose liberties I had fought and bled) miseries
similar to those that had attended me for many years in Europe. With
these gloomy forebodings I returned to Providence, and contracted for
board with the gentleman at whose house I had lodged the first night
of my arrival in town, and to whom for the kind treatment that I have
received from him and his family, I shall feel till death under the
deepest obligations that gratitude can dictate; for I can truly say of
him, that I was a stranger and he took me in, I was hungry and naked,
and he fed and cloathed me.
As I had never received any remuneration for services rendered, and
hardships endured in the cause of my country, I was now obliged, as
my last resort, to petition Congress to be included in that number
of the few surviving soldiers of the Revolution, for whose services
they had been pleased to grant pensions--and I would to God that I
could add, for the honour of my country, that the application met with
its deserving success--but, although accompanied by the deposition
of a respectable gentleman (which deposition I have thought proper
to annex to my narrative) satisfactorily confirming every fact as
therein stated--yet, on no other principle, than that _I was absent
from the country when the pension law passed_--my Petition was
REJECTED!!! Reader, I have been for 30 years (as you will perceive by
what I have stated in the foregoing pages) subject, in a _foreign_
country, to almost all the miseries with which poor human nature is
capable of being inflicted--yet, in no one instance did I ever feel
so great degree of a depression of spirits, as when the fate of my
Petition was announced to me! I love too well the country which gave
me birth, and entertain too high a respect for those employed in its
government, to reproach them with ingratitude; yet, it is my sincere
prayer that this strange and unprecedented circumstance, of withholding
from me that reward which they have so generally bestowed on others,
may never be told in Europe, or published in the streets of London,
least it reach the ears of some who had the effrontery to declare
to me personally, that for the active part that I had taken in the
“rebellious war” misery and starvation would ultimately be my reward!
To conclude--although I may be again unfortunate in a renewal of my
application to government, for that reward to which my services so
justly entitle me--yet I feel thankful that I am priviledged (after
enduring so much) to spend the remainder of my days, among those who
I am confident are possessed of too much humanity, to see me suffer;
and which I am sensible I owe to the divine goodness, which graciously
condescended to support me under my numerous afflictions, and finally
enabled me to return to my native country in the 79th year of my
age--for this I return unfeigned thanks to the Almighty; and hope to
give during the remainder of my life, convincing testimonies of the
strong impression which those afflictions made on my mind, by devoting
myself sincerely to the duties of religion.
DEPOSITION OF JOHN VIAL
I JOHN VIAL of North Providence, in the county of Providence,
in the State of Rhode Island, on oath certify and say, that sometime in
the latter part of November or the beginning of December A.D.
1775, I entered as gunner’s mate on board the Washington, a public
armed vessel in the service of the United States, and under the command
of S. Martindale, Esq.--said vessel was sent out by order of General
WASHINGTON, from Plymouth (Mass.) to cruise in Boston harbour
to intercept supplies going to Boston, then in the possession of the
British troops. After we had been out a short time, we were captured by
a British 20 gun ship, called the “Foy,” and were carried to Boston,
where we remained about a week and were then put on board the frigate
Tartar, and sent to England as prisoners--and I the said John further
testify and say, that I well remember Israel R. Potter, now residing in
Cranston, who was a mariner on board the Washington also--said Potter
entered about the time I did and was captured and carried to England
with me. We arrived in England in January 1776, we were then put into
the Hospital, the greater part of the crew being sick in consequence
of the confinement during the voyage, where many died--I remained in
imprisonment about sixteen months when I made my escape--what became
of said Potter afterwards I do not know but I have not the least
doubt he remained a prisoner until the peace 1783 as he stated in his
application for a pension--I have no doubt he suffered a great deal
during his captivity. According to my best recollection nearly one
third of the crew died in the hospital--I do remember an affair which
took place during our voyage to England which caused Potter to suffer a
great deal more than perhaps he otherwise would--a number of the crew
of the Washington formed a plan to rise and take the Frigate but was
defeated in their purpose, among whom I believe Potter was one, and in
consequence, put in irons for the remaining part of the voyage with a
number of others. And I the said John do further testify that I do not
know of any of the said crew of the Washington now being alive except
said Potter and myself--and that I do not believe it to be in the power
of said Potter to procure any other testimony of the above mentioned
facts except mine.
JOHN VIAL.
Rhode Island District--Providence Aug. 6, 1823.
* * * * *
The said John Vial, who is well known to me and is a creditable
witness, made solemn oath to the truth of the foregoing deposition by
him subscribed in my presence.
DAVID HOWELL.
DISTRICT JUDGE.
APPENDIX
Herman Melville first conceived of retelling the tale of Israel Potter,
the “Revolutionary beggar,” in 1849 after coming upon a tattered copy
of the original book. When he finally wrote his own account in 1854, he
drew as well on the narratives of Ethan Allen and Nathaniel Fanning,
who had served under John Paul Jones, and he had himself visited London.
While the real Israel Potter devoted half of his personal history to
his years in London following the Revolutionary War, Melville retold
these events in a few brief concluding chapters to his own volume,
_Israel Potter, His Fifty Years of Exile_. Melville’s chapters are
reproduced from the 1855 first edition to give a comparative view of
the tragedy of Potter’s life as seen by himself and by Herman Melville,
a quarter of a century later.
ISRAEL POTTER:
His Fifty Years of Exile.
By
HERMAN MELVILLE,
AUTHOR OF “TYPEE,” “OMOO,” ETC.
New York:
G. P. PUTNAM & CO., 10 PARK PLACE.
1855.
TO
HIS HIGHNESS
THE
Bunker-Hill Monument.
Biography, in its purer form, confined to the ended lives of the true
and brave, may be held the fairest meed of human virtue--one given and
received in entire disinterestedness--since neither can the biographer
hope for acknowledgment from the subject, nor the subject at all avail
himself of the biographical distinction conferred.
Israel Potter well merits the present tribute--a private of Bunker
Hill, who for his faithful services was years ago promoted to a still
deeper privacy under the ground, with a posthumous pension, in default
of any during life, annually paid him by the spring in ever-new mosses
and sward.
I am the more encouraged to lay this performance at the feet of
your Highness, because, with a change in the grammatical person, it
preserves, almost as in a reprint, Israel Potter’s autobiographical
story. Shortly after his return in infirm old age to his native land, a
little narrative of his adventures, forlornly published on sleazy gray
paper, appeared among the peddlers, written, probably, not by himself,
but taken down from his lips by another. But like the crutch-marks
of the cripple by the Beautiful Gate, this blurred record is now out
of print. From a tattered copy, rescued by the merest chance from
the rag-pickers, the present account has been drawn, which, with the
exception of some expansions, and additions of historic and personal
details, and one or two shiftings of scene, may, perhaps, be not
unfitly regarded something in the light of a dilapidated old tombstone
retouched.
Well aware that in your Highness’ eyes the merit of the story must be
in its general fidelity to the main drift of the original narrative,
I forbore anywhere to mitigate the hard fortunes of my hero; and
particularly towards the end, though sorely tempted, durst not
substitute for the allotment of Providence any artistic recompense
of poetical justice; so that no one can complain of the gloom of my
closing chapters more profoundly than myself.
Such is the work, and such the man, that I have the honor to present
to your Highness. That the name here noted should not have appeared
in the volumes of Sparks, may or may not be a matter for astonishment;
but Israel Potter seems purposely to have waited to make his popular
advent under the present exalted patronage, seeing that your Highness,
according to the definition above, may, in the loftiest sense, be
deemed the Great Biographer: the national commemorator of such of the
anonymous privates of June 17, 1775, who may never have received other
requital than the solid reward of your granite.