will not readily

degree of satisfaction which you conceive. The Bank, which lies perhaps 50 miles to the south of the island, is about 380 miles long, and 75 or 80 broad, and of a very irregular shape. The depth is from 30 to 40 fathoms, and the fish lie at the bottom. The water on the Bank is usually several degrees colder than at the distance of a few miles from the edge, and I found, indeed, that our captain depended much on his thermometer to indicate our approach to any shoals. After crossing the banks, we had two severe gales, in which we were very near losing our masts, the vessel at one time being in imminent danger from being taken aback; but they were of short continuance, and succeeded by beautiful autumnal days, on which the sea was like a mirror. Occasionally the vessel scarcely moved during the whole day; but the extreme beauty of the sea and sky reconciled me to our slow progress. One day, when I was sitting reading in the boat, which hung a-stern, a little bird perched upon my knee, exhausted by its long flight. We were about 120 miles from Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and were visited the same day by a hawk, which perched upon our mast. Once, previous to reaching the Banks, and once afterwards, we were gratified

with an excellent view of the whales and grampuses which frequent those seas. The former were said to be 50 to 60 feet long, and came close to the vessel, following us for half a mile, heaving their gigantic bulk out of the water, and forming fountains, apparently 15 or 20 feet high, with the breath of their nostrils. Their path was often visible when they could not be seen, reminding me forcibly of the passage in Job, "He maketh the deep "to boil like a pot; he maketh a path to shine

66

after him; one would think the deep to be "hoary." One day we saw a sword-fish glide past the vessel; and porpoises became too common to disturb our reading or working parties on deck. These parties would often have amused you, if you could have seen them at their various pursuits on deck or in the cabin. Reading was the general resource in the morning, and cards, chess, and back-gammon in the evening. We had not many fine star-light or moonlight nights, though a few very beautiful ones. I was at first struck to see the great bear so little above the horizon, which reminded me rather unexpectedly how far I was receding from you to the southward. Our chronometer of the gentlemen's watches were kept by London time; and towards the conclusion

and many

of our voyage, a difference of four or five hours in the time of our meridian and yours, led us to fancy our English friends as retiring to bed as we were sitting down to tea. On Sunday, we had always part of the Church service and a sermon; at which many of the crew were present.

On Monday night, 1st November, we retired to bed at 12 o'clock, confident of seeing land the next morning; and the next morning, at 6 o'clock, we dropped anchor off Sandy Hook, 22 or 23 miles from New York. I could hardly believe that I was really in that hemisphere,

"Where first his drooping sails Columbus furl'd, "And sweetly rested in another world.”

We were enveloped in a thick fog, and I walked the deck impatiently for an hour or two before the sun partially dispersed the mist. The Jersey shore, about half a mile distant, was the only land we saw during the day, and that but at intervals; it appeared low and brown, but it was land, and it was America, and for the moment that was sufficient.

To our great disappointment, we found the tide would not allow us to reach New York that night, but a few of us went up in a pilotboat, as it was dusk. I must not attempt to

describe this magnificent harbour, nor our sensations on finding ourselves really in the New World, blessed once more with the sight of the abodes of men, of trees which still retained their leaves, and houses and churches similar to those we had left behind us in Europe. To enter into our feelings, it would be necessary to be cut off for a time from all intercourse with any other world than the little vessel which is carrying you across the trackless deep, and to rise morning after morning with no other objects before you than the sea and sky; and I imagine such sensations as we experienced can be felt only once.

Letter H.

Washington, 24th January, 1820.

My letters from New York and Philadelphia will have given you a general idea how I have been passing my time, and will have conveyed to you a more favourable impression of American society than you have been accustomed to receive.

Since my arrival here I have been almost constantly engaged; and owing to the kindness of my excellent friend, with whose name and character you are already acquainted, I now feel very much at home in this singular metropolis. He has been so kind as to take me to call on the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Secretary at War, whom I have since met in society, either at his house or their own, and whom I will describe to you particularly when we meet. A few evenings since, he also took me, with Mr. Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, with whom I had been dining at his house, to the President's, who resides in a large handsome house, very pleasantly situated on the banks of the