VOYAGE TO BRAZIL. LETTER I. TO MRS. C. S. STEWART. U. S. Ship Guerriere, Hampton Roads, Va. LETTERS from Washington will have apprised you, dear H, of my departure from that city on the 25th ult. I arrived at Norfolk by the way of Baltimore on the 29th, and joined this ship on the 30th. Commodore Thompson having received sailing orders by me from the Navy Department, left his quarters on shore the same morning, and, under a salute of thirteen guns, hoisted his broad pennant on board the Guerriere. An easterly storm prevented the taking of our anchor for the week following; but two days since, in a heavy blow from the southwest, we ran down the river to our present moorings opposite Fortress Monroe, where, with our consort the St. Louis, we are again weather bound. On reporting myself for duty, I was received by Commodore Thompson with the same urbanity and openness of heart that marked his deportment as 16 COMMODORE THOMPSON a travelling companion, on a first introduction, a month ago; and the decided and strong impressions then made in his favor, have been more than confirmed by the intercourse which has taken place in the relation we now hold to each other. To personal advantages of a superior and commanding order, he unites a dignity and polish of manners rarely surpassed; and to an accomplished mind, adds the still higher attraction of warm and elevated piety. The usual accommodations of a chaplain are in the ward-room, adjoining those of his fellow "non-combatants," the purser and surgeon; but the Guerriere, besides her compliment of officers, has several on board as passengers, destined to other vessels in the Brazilian and Pacific squadrons, and a state room in the cabin has been kindly assigned me. The greater advantages of light and air, and the facilities for study, which will thus be afforded, can scarce be appreciated by one ignorant of the darkness by day, and greater or less noise and various inconvenience at all times of a crowded gun-room. In every other respect, however, I am associated with the gentlemen of my own grade precisely as I should be, were my apartment on the same deck with theirs. The Guerriere is a frigate of the first class, and having yourself been a passenger on board a man of war of the same force, a particular description of her is unnecessary. Her size, model, and whole external appearance, as she sits proudly on the water, are so much those of H. B. M. ship Blonde, that were you rowing along side, her dark hull and heavy batteries AND THE GUERRIERE. 17 below, and lofty masts with light spars tapering gracefully to the sky above, would appear the same. On crossing the side too, the spar-deck would present little difference; and it would not be till you had descended to the cabin that you would perceive yourself to be on board another vessel. Here the arrangements in the Guerrière are more tasteful and more pleasant. The after cabin, handsomely fitted as a library and cabinet, has apartments on either side for the accommodation of Commodore Thompson and Captain Smith; immediately forward of which, and opposite to each other, are two others—one appropriated to Andrew Armstrong, Esq., U. S. naval agent at Peru-a passenger, and the other to myself. The forward or dining cabin differs in its construction from every other I have seen. Instead of extending from side to side across the whole deck, it is an octagon, some twenty feet in diameter in the centre, shutting from view the after guns of the main deck battery-usually conspicuous objects in the same cabin in other vessels-with all the array of battle axes and cutlasses, shot boxes and pistols, surrounding them. The upper panels of the partitions, or -more correctly in shipphraseology-the bulk-heads, are glazed sashes so adjusted as to be raised or dropped at pleasure; and thus admitting from the ports all the light and air desirable. Appropriately and elegantly furnished, and supplied at this season of the year with a warm carpet and hangings of moreen, there is as we encircle the centre table in the evening for reading or conver sation, or when the winter's storm whistles boisterously through the masts and rigging, draw more near the cheerful fire of a bright stove-an air of parlor-like and home comfort thrown round us I have never before known on board ship; and which would be delightful but for associations induced by it, too fond for the indulgence of those about to be hurried to the farthest possible distance from all they love best. My man-of-war life is now actually begun: how far I shall be pleased, and how far useful in it, I know not. It is very distinct from every other life, but I see no reason yet to fear, that as the novelty which now interests and amuses me ceases to be such, I shall be less satisfied than I at present am. It has one advantage at least, over many othersthat of unvarying regularity in all its arrangements— an essential in the economy of happiness with me. And it allows in a degree of retirement too, but only to one who can abstract himself from the seeming confusion of a very Babel. Besides the hum and varied din of the talk and occupation of five hundred men thickly crowded together, with the first tap of the révielle at the dawning of the morning, a succession of noisy signals commences in the various trilling of the boatswain's whistle and the hoarse calls of his mates, ceasing only when the blasts of the bugle and firing of musketry on setting the watch at night, proclaim a respite except in the half hourly striking of the time, accompanied by the watchful sentry's cry-" All's well!" Still I trust I shall be enabled at least in a degree, to abstract my mind from them, |