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and besides attempting to be useful to others, shall, by reading and study, make the voyage highly profitable to myself.

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It is long since I learned to love the character of the sailor: not the vulgarity and low vice too often found under the name, but the nobler traits which belong more distinctively to him than to any other order of men. I mean the warm heart and generous soul, the clan-like tie which leads him to hail every round jacket and tarpaulin hat, as if they were the features of a brother; the recklessness of danger and disregard of self; the humor, gay spirit, and credulity, tinctured with superstition, which are characteristically his own.

They have long been a neglected race, and most unjustly so for there are none to whom the world stands more indebted-none to whom every class of society are under stronger obligations of good will. Though too generally the victims of vice they are far from being invariably such. Among them I have met individuals of as correct principles, pure habits, and refined feelings, as any I have known elsewhere; and more than once, have myself proved such worthy of receiving and capable of appreciating the best affections of our nature. Even to true piety of heart they are not altogether strangers; and here and there at least, one may be found who fears God and keeps his commandments.

I have already ascertained, that two or three of our crew are professedly and decidedly religious. In this I greatly rejoice; not only in view of the blessing to themselves, but of its probable happy influence

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upon others. One bright and living example of piety, in the midst of those wandering from God, is worth a thousand speculative illustrations of the benefit and happiness of religion, in persuading others to return. May this happily prove true in the present case; and may many here speedily be added to the little number who have already chosen "that good part which shall never be taken from them."

Let your prayers, dear H, be with me in this behalf; and let all who love me pray not only for my own safety and prosperity, but for the rich gift of the spirit of grace upon our ship, and the crew with which I sail.

LETTER II.

DEPARTURE FROM THE CHESAPEAKE.

U. S. Ship Guerriere, off the Capes of Virginia,
February 14th, 1829.

YESTERDAY, while Captain Smith and myself were dining with General North and family at Fortress Monroe, the wind suddenly became fair, and signals for sailing were made from the Guerriere. A boat was at the same time despatched for us, and we were obliged to take a hasty leave of our friends and their hospitality. When we gained the frigate, she was already under way; and, followed by the St. Louis, dropped down to Lynn Haven for the night. At daybreak this

AND DISMISS THE PILOT.

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morning we again weighed anchor, and had scarce time to scribble a note to send on shore by the pilot, before our topsails were aback, and a cutter lowering to set him on board his little craft, tossing gaily on the billows under our lee.

Delays in the time of sailing had been so frequent that, though the light-house on Cape Henry was already behind us and we on the open sea, I then first began to feel that we were actually off. The hurried manner in which many, from the Commodore to the roughest of the crew, pressed round the honest man to thrust into his letter-bag "last lines" to many a loved one-and the agitation of lip and eye here and there betrayed by one and another, as they added to a hasty farewell, "take good care of my packet,"-made us sensible that the hour had indeed come, when we must bid adieu to our country and our homes, till the circuit of the globe should be measured by our keel.

I watched the well manned barge, as it plunged and buffeted its way to the little schooner, fluttering like a gay bird on the crestings of the sea, in seeming eagerness to welcome its master. Our noble ship, looked like some "living thing," conscious of the power and majesty with which she rested on her wings, in this act of condescension and kindness. The St. Louis, a bright and beautiful vessel close in our wake, was in a similar manner discharging her temporary guide; while the white sand bluff forming Cape Henry, surmounted with its light-house, and flanked on either side by a stretch of low, cedar covered shore-with the bellying sails of a coaster

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CLEAR CAPE HENRY

here and there gleaming brightly in the morning sun, made up the sketch. There was scarce time, however, for the eye to glance on its different objects, before the landsmen in their bark, with kind tossings of the hat and hand, were hastening to their homes, and the frigate and her consort with squared yards, were heaping sail upon sail to catch all the freshness of the breeze now bearing us far away.

At 11 o'clock, with a strong northwester and an unclouded sky, we took our departure from Cape Henry, the light-house due west twelve miles. Shortly afterwards we lost sight of it, the few stretches of coast still looming here and there in the distance, appearing only like lines of haze on the horizon, and quickly becoming-as the ship rose and fell with the swellings of the deep-entirely indistinguishable from the distant heavings of the sea.

I have, more than once, known what it is to see a friend of the heart hurried away upon the ocean to distant and uncertain scenes; but now, for the first time, felt what it was to be myself the wanderer, lanching forth comparatively alone, while all most dear were far behind. I recollect in one of the former instances, to have watched the receding sail till reduced to a wavering and almost invisible speck on the horizon; in another, I lost sight of her, while yet a tall spire on the water, in the haze of approaching night; and in a third, beheld her, still seemingly within hail, suddenly cut from the view by the scud and blackness of a driving storm: and in each case, as the eager eye failed in again securing its object, and I was compelled to exclaim, "She is

AND PUT TO SEA.

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gone!" I found relief from the oppression within only by fervent prayer to that Being, who not only "commands the winds and the waves and they obey," but who guards and sanctifies by his grace all who put their trust in him. The rapid and involuntary ejaculation has been,-" Almighty and most merciful God, let thy Spirit be with him! preserve him from the power of the tempest and from the destruction of the deep! Keep him, O keep him from the evil there is in the world, and in the world to come crown him with life everlasting !" while "God bless him !” "God bless him!" were the long echoings of the heart. And now, as I stood, gazing still on the west, while nothing but the undulating line of a watery horizon was marked against its clear blue sky, I insensibly looked at thoughts of those I love best→→→ to the same consolatory and sure refuge; and in prayer and in tears left for them a memorial before God.

It is at times such as this, that the imagination delights to be busy, and at which she often plays the tyrant over the affections, by throwing the charm of a double fascination around the objects and scenes from which we are torn. As with rapid pencil she sketches in vivid coloring all I have left behind, I keenly feel the reality of my departure, and am almost ready to wonder that I could voluntarily have undertaken, at such a sacrifice, a voyage attended with much uncertainty, and necessarily involving many a hazard. But in my better judgment I cannot, and do not regret it. The duty has been pointed out too plainly by the dispensations of Him who di+

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