“Do you think Spain will sell it?� I asked.
“Our people will take it,� he replied.
“But,� said I, “suppose England and France should interfere.�
“Whip them,� was the laconic reply, and he turned on his heel.
I mention this, because a large portion of the people of the United States, remembering only the successful frigate actions in which, during the last war, they reaped laurels, are ignorant respecting the real strength of their navy at this moment.
As our captain wished to arrive at New York before the opposition boats, all steam was carried that the boilers could bear, and a little more, I suspect. In fact we were to “rush the ship,� and she so trembled fore and aft with the work, that it was almost impossible to read a book in any part of her. The bearings of the engines became so hot that they were pumped upon day and night.
She was a beautiful boat, built for the most part of pine, I believe, and there was no difficulty in placing, under favourable circumstances, three hundred and fifty miles a day on her log board, independent of any favourable current.
Soon, however, we were in the Gulf stream, and were met by signs of a south-easter; first it “clouded up,â€� as a miner remarked, and then it “breezed up considerable,â€� after which night came on and with it the gale. These south-easters have a way of chopping round when at their height, and by this eccentric conduct many vessels are lost. One of the officers informed me that a short time previously a brig called the John Hill, was taken aback in this way, and her cargo of molasses shifted and burst the decks, upon which, “John Hillâ€� became water-logged. Two days after the mate was taken off the wreck with two legs and an arm broken; and, concluded my informant, the captain was found two miles off “in good shapeâ€� floating on a hen-coop—the rest of the crew were lost. Fine weather succeeded the gale, doubly fine by contrast, and as we passed Sandy Hook, and steamed up New York Bay, the shores on either side, white with snow, shone brilliantly in the winter’s sun; and the leafless trees that grew in copses here and there in naked desolation, had more charm for us, being nearer home, than ever had the vivid green of the palms and ferns that ten days back we had seen at Panama.
Thus is our appreciation of the beautiful ever dependant on association; and to me the white cliffs of my own country, whether I am casting the last glance on leaving them, or straining my eyes as I first catch a glimpse of them as I return, these ugly chalky cliffs have more actual charm for my eye than all that I have ever seen elsewhere of nature’s rarest gifts.
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