habituated to a seafaring life, and in a like manner reconciled to its disgusting circumstances, as custom leads us to admire, those tastes which the unsophisticated palate cannot tolerate.
Our friendly commodore has been at Helvoetsluys, to confer with the admiral, his commanding officer, respecting us, and we are offered a cartel to return immediately to England; but we cannot go on shore until permission is obtained from the higher authorities. It is told me, that application to the French minister at the Hague, as we were captured by a privateer of his nation, would be the readiest method to procure passports, but I should submit with pleasure to the mortification of a longer detention than it is probable we shall have, rather than wound, in the slightest degree, the feelings of those under whose generous protection we are. The exercise of few of the prerogatives which belong to an independent nation is permitted to the Dutch; and I believe we should immediately be released, were it not apprehended that such a measure might be offensive to the persons
