OCR Text |
Show LETTER XIV. RETURN '1'0 AMERICA. Providence, R.I. Seventh-month (July) 3d, 1840. In order to bring our narrative to a satisfactory close, I must make a few remarks respecting our voyage home, which none of our company are in much danger of forgetting. This was a time, generally speaking, of quiet enjoyment; though we could not but watch with some sorrow and anxiety, the apparent descent of our two invalids, one of each sex, towards "the valley of the shadow of death." Our course, for the first day, lay to the eastward, and gave us the opportunity of surveying a considerable part of tlw northern coast of Cuba. We obtained a good view of the entrance of the harbor of Matanzas, about fifty miles east of Havana. 'l'he motmtains which rise behind it, are of greater elevation than any land in Cuba, which we had before seen. One of them, remarkable for its square outline, recalls the idea of a loaf of bread, and is called, "El pan de J\'latanzas." We now took our last leave of Cuba, and turned towards the north-east, our course lying through the channel which separates the dangerous shores of Florida, from the still more fatal rocks of the Bahama Islands. The wind was contrary, and we should have made slow progress, as we beat al~ng from one side of the channel to another, had it not been for the Gulph Stream, which some of us had, more than once, encountered as an enemy, but which now proved an effective friend, in impelling us forward, four ]mots in the hour, in our right course, by the mere force of its current. 'l'his stream, is by the mariners, technically called the "Gulph;" RETURN TO AMERICA. 171 and the following portrait of '. t' w h"J c h served to of our company, is said to be exact. amuse some •Of all the creatures here below Or VIrtuous, or vicious, 0 Gulph of gulphs, full well we know Thou art the most capricious. , WAe hda ve seen thee locked in a ho pe I ess calm, n tossed with waves prodigious, We have felt thy gentle breeze's balm And thy fitful blast litigious. ' We have shuddered n.t thy ugly frown, When all thy soul was spiteful And have_ watched thy malice mc~ting down, To ro.dmnt smiles delightful. One moment-all thy charm is gone, Thy looks are most distressing . The next-thou hast thy dimples 'on Each sailor-boy caressing. ' We have stood nghnst at thy leaden vest, Thy darksome shroud of mourning- In ultra-marine, we have seen thee dressed The heaven and earth o.dor:ting. ' Thy bosom boils with love or hate, As thy restless passions waver. Thy voice is the thunder of regal' state, Or a gentle lady-like quaver. 0 Queen ! of Premier, under thy reign, Some conjurer holds the station . His name, we take it, is Legerdem~in And thine is Transmutation. ' ~uch are the notorious uncertainties of the Gulph Stream . an m the channel through which we were now passing sea~ men .a re often expos ed to d anger. Many a wreck takes ' l on e1the r SJ· de of J· t, and only a few days before our voy p ace vessel of · d . age, a coast of F~~:.;~~-eruble Size, was found, bottom upwards, on the andF ofor tmoudr sel.v es w e passed aI ong, though slowly, yet safely, letsure to reflect, that the shores, on either side, were |