Before his trial, about April the 29th , Dupuy was sent for to chapel; he came up when prayers were ended, and without asking him any questions which could embarrass him, he was reminded seriously to reflect and repent of those courses of folly and vice, which had misled and betrayed him into his present danger, which to all appearance must soon terminate in a final farewel to this world, and an entrance on eternity; that he had often been call'd and warn'd by chastisements, but had hitherto been deaf to them all, particularly by being apprehended, confined, and brought to trial at Kingston, for a robbery committed in Surry. He heard this with silence, and as serious an air as he could put on, for he appeared giddy, trifling, and boyish. A proper book was lent to him, with a charge to read it, and lend it to Morgan, who was then said to be confined to his bed by illness. Dupuy being desired, promised to come up to prayers daily, but I heard no more of him on the like occasion, till after conviction, when he was brought up loaded with double irons, and the sentence of death. At this time, a proper exhortation was used to him, and the other six convicts, with psalms and lessons applied to them, to which they all seemed seriously to give heed; and to employ and assist them in their cells, bibles, prayer-books, and other tracts, were put into their hands, with directions to the portions of scripture proper for their condition.

Notwithstanding all which, and the daily instructions closely applied to their case, Dupuy when call'd to acknowledge the justice of his sentence, and confess his several crimes, for the satisfaction of the injured, the clearing of the innocent, the peace of his own conscience, and the warning of others; he rejected all this, and would hear no reasons for it; said, in the common cant, he would confess his sins to God, and would have no account of him in a halfpenny paper: this was about the 21st of May .

A day or two after, when more humbled and softened by finding himself included in the death-warrant, an opportunity was taken to reason with him, and shew him that he was quite mistaken in supposing that (by suppressing his confession, and so essentially hurting himself, or by any other means) he could prevent the publishing those false and spurious halfpenny accounts, or other catch-penny inventions, and piracies of a better price, equally injurious to him and me; which yet usually attended the unhappy lot he had brought on himself. That the design of my account when publish'd, was to obviate such lies and slanders, to shew, if it could be done with truth, that the sufferer was a true penitent, that the reproach of his crime and punishment already recorded, might be blotted out by the account of his repentance. By such discourse his mistakes began to give way. He had before told me, that he was a native of Hampshire , but of a French descent, as he believed; was under 24 years of age; that his father was a gentleman; but both his parents were dead. He was enter'd a volunteer on board the Fougueux man-of-war, when eight years of age, at 17s. 6d. a month, and walk'd the quarterdeck; he was afterwards midshipman aboard the Bristol, three years; then in the Antigua sloop, two years and upwards; then in the Nassau, six months; in which he returned from the West-Indies , and was paid off at Chatham . It appears on the trial, from his own witness, William Steward< no role > , that he was purser of a man-of-war , though he never mentioned this to me.