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cabin, without being sea-sick, so we lay down, out of the way; and to amuse the company, read the only books on board- namely, Tom Jones, The Life of Bolivar, and a nameless tragedy. The captain had begun his repentance, by throwing all the cards overboard, that none might play. The invalid, who was one of the finest young men I ever knew, officiated as chaplain-by reading the Bible; for it had been concluded between us - we two knowing how to read, without stopping to spell to make every thing as pleasant and orderly as possible. This delighted the captain, who evinced his pleasure by discussing religious topics at one moment, and the next cursing the cook.

In this condition we continued nine days and nights, not expecting ever to see land again. Every stroke the vessel received, seemed so to strain her in every joint, that it appeared impossible for her to withstand another blow without going to pieces. One man prayed almost all the time, night and day; and he avowed if ever he should reach shore once more, he would crawl home on his hands and knees, rather than venture out of sight of land again.' The boy I had taken into my berth awoke one morning, and with a very pitiful face showed me his arm, all black-and-blue, and very sore. I could only comfort him, by telling him that in the absence of any thing better, he might at least learn the derivation of the word hardship. His bruises all came from the hard ship. A wretched pun, but it served to amuse him.

I was waiting thus anxiously for better or worse fortune, and almost inclined to shed a tear to think how my friends would mourn that I should be obliged so young and unprepared to leave my bones, etc., in the Gulf-stream, with no coffin but my berth, when I saw the mate go up with trembling knees to the oldest seaman - who by the way was the most respectable man of the ship's company, not excluding its officers and ask him if he had ever seen such a storm before, and if we could possibly live through it? His reply was, that we had a chance, if it should not come any harder. I took comfort at this, for I could not well imagine how it could come harder' — but it did! At about midnight, after the fifth or sixth day, the strokes began to fall faster and more violently, and floods of water more frequently to deluge the cabin floor, when I arose, as I often did, to look out by the side of the old seaman. It was then that a sight met my eyes which I shall never forget. I had read of the sublime and beautiful,' but never before had realized it. Although death seemed inevitable, yet so glorious was the scene, that an inexpressible fluttering sensation of delight was in my breast, and all thought of danger vanished. The stern of the vessel was lifted high on a short wave, while the bow was plunging into a dark chasm; thick, black, broken, fugitive clouds were rapidly chasing each other past the masts and rigging. A few rods astern, a wave had just broken into a mass of living fire; then all was dark again; and presently a glare of light shot from the midst of the cloud in which we were, and revealed all the vast commotion of the elements. Hail and rain were in the clouds, and fell upon us; occasionally we were shrouded in such dense darkness that nothing was visible; and then suddenly the ragged clouds opened, and showed one very bright star, which I took to be Venus. This was like enchantment, and withal was so unexpected, that we could hardly believe it real. All these incidents, happening in quick succession, produced an effect which nei

ther language nor the pencil can convey. Oh how I panted for some means to catch the flying scene, and transfer it to canvass! But it passed. I had my wish, however. I had seen a storm at sea, and was quite satisfied, should I never live to see another.

We reached our place of destination of course, or I should not have been here to tell the story but such a miserable looking set of objects my eyes never before beheld! With beards half an inch long, squalid and thin, we hardly seemed worth piloting into port. But we were strangers, and they took us in. Perhaps at another day I may tell you how foolish it is to believe traveler's tales, by a faithful relation of matters of fact. Until then, gentle reader, if you do not believe my Life at Sea,' go a voyage in winter in a Cape Cod fisherman yourself, and be blown through the Gulf-stream by a nine days' gale. Then I'll talk with you.

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OLLAPODIANA.

NUMBER FOURTEEN.

MOST people travel a leetle every Summer through these United States, in sundry portions and quarters thereof; and yet how very few of those who go down upon the sea in ships, or along the rail-road or the canal, seeing the sublimities and oddities of existence, make any record of them? Therefore, gentle reader, do I propose to enlighten thee, not with sketches of travel, but with beneficial hints, whereby thy omnipresent whereabout, as thou journeyest, may be regaled.

We are passing up the Hudson. The low clouds from a hundred steam-boats are staining the sky in the direction of New-York, which has long since faded in the distance. The peripatetic colored man, who summonses oblivious passengers to the capting's orifice,' to disburse the swindle for their transit, has not yet gone his rounds: there is only the low gurgle of the waves ploughed aside by the bow of the steam-boat; the half-waked company are promenading the deck, and the poetically-disposed are looking at the palisades, whose dark shoulders rise on the west bank of the river, as if those barriers could never be removed, even by the voice of the archangel, and the final trump.

BY-THE-WAY, speaking of the last trumpet, makes me remember the reply of a veteran old charcoal man, of Philadelphia, well known to the citizens thereof for the sonorousness of his tin horn, and the excellence of his commodity. Honest JIMMY CHARCOAL! he is removed from among the quick, and numbered with those who have jumped from the shoal of time into kingdom come. He was a cheerful, good-hearted citizen; and though he certainly did not move in the first circles, yet he spread light and heat wherever he went-not by his person, however; for if ever there was a man who looked like a plenipotentiary fresh from the court of Tophet, Jimmy was that individual. Well, as I have said, he had a most vociferous horn, and unremitting were the blasts which he protruded through the same upon the general ear. At last, some evil-disposed citizens, having no taste for music, went to his honor the Mayor, and lodged grievous complaints againt the distinguished hornist, (I use a musical term,) setting forth that he disturbed the public bosom with his soul-stirring instrument. After such an accusation, he was brought before the great municipal functionary, and received a stern and awful reprimand. Jimmy stood the rebuke as if Satan had not only allowed him his own color, but also his courage. His reply was cogent and conclusive: Look here, your honor,' said he I ha'nt no disposition, by no means, to complain of them 'ere people as has complained of me. Folks in my line can bear upwards of considerable in the way of epithets, without changing color, or gettin' mad. But I do say, that I axes them as charges me with making too much noise in the world,

why they have got up such an antipathy ag'in' my horn? And I should like to know, if my little tin affair troubles them so now, how they will feel when they come to hear the big trumpet, that is to be blew at the day of judgment calling them, just as likely as not, to a coal-hole a mighty sight blacker than the one I come from?'

The Mayor was non-plussed and the coal man went twanging on his ways. The officer could no more stand his logic than his opponent could his horn.

BUT I digress. Let us get back to the Hudson. Stop, ye who travel, one day at West Point. That Cozzens gives noble dinners; his wines are superb; and the man who likes not creature comforts, is a bad member of society. Go thou likewise to the Cattskill Mountain House whence you shall look down beneath the clouds on smiling counties, and towns, and cities, spread forth as on a map, at your feet. There,' said Natty Bumpo, 'you can see — creation! The Hudson like a ribbon · -the boats and sails on its blue and gleaming breast not much larger than buoys and handkerchiefs. Oh, 'tis a noble scene! and when the plains beneath are sweltering in the fervors of Summer-when the snake creeps forth on the rock in the sunshine, and the cattle in a thousand meadows consort together under the trees, to breathe the air that gathers from the sleepy landscape into their branches - then, at the Mountain House, 't is calm and cool. I say, reader, be sure to go there; and if it is somewhat too cold in June, it must be nice in July and August.

MAGNIFICENT are the Cattskills, as seen from the Hudson. How their broad highland regions' swell and roll in sublime and solemn undulations against the sky! How profuse the gushes of glorious sunlight that chase each other along those lordly ridges! As the boat glides along, these peaks are sometimes hid from view; but like great men amid the strifes of parties, or the changes of time, they must almost continually impress us with their presence, and stand like distant guardians of one of the finest rivers in the world, observable, for countless inland leagues, overlooking streams, villages, and the grander Hudson, for hundreds of miles.

ALBANY is a capital city. If you are a quiet person, enamoured of ease and comfort, go to Cruttenden's-mine host of the Eagle. Most delicious is his coffee-neatest of the neat are his rooms his bread is like snow-his viands done to a T-and there is nothing equal to his own personal courtesies. Pleasant things drop continually from his lips, and your ear may drink wisdom and wit from them, as the honey bee drinks from the rose.' He is the best possible sign of the excellence of his own fare. His cheeks are full and healthy, and though his nose is not bedecked with those sumptuous red carbuncles which are usually supposed the insignia of a true Boniface, yet his figure is

portly and commanding, and his belly is as a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor,' as the wise man observes in his Canticles.

LET me not be an out-and-outer, as touching Albany. I would that my praise should be properly modified. The lower, or business parts of the city, except in the region round about the Eagle, are not particularly attractive; but in the upper quarters, near the Capitol Square, and along State-street, few towns in our country can with it compare.' I know of no place to which, in some respects, could be better applied the lines of Byron:

'For whoso entereth within this town,
That sheening far, celestial seems to be,
Disconsolate will wander up and down,
Mid many things unsightly to strange ee.'

But ascend you to the dome of the City Hall, in Capitol Square, and look forth upon the scene! It is beautiful-that's the word. Look at the landscape to the North, heaved up in the glory and grandeur of Summer against the sapphire walls of Heaven - varied with meadows and harvest fields, and rural mansions; observe Troy, with its Mount Ida, and the affluent valley of the Hudson - likewise the distant Cattskills-also the city beneath, with those numerous 'white swellings,' or domes, of the steeple genus, which have broken out ambitiously all over the town; look at these -and at the whole sweep of Capitol Square-and you shall meet with great rejoicing of eye. But beware of a person whom you may observe in the streets, perambulating about with a basket on his arm, vending the sweet-flag root, and barks of prickly ash and slippery-elm. The latter, especially, should you partake of it, will cause you to remain a day beyond your time. Wonderfully slippery is that article, indeed - and you would think, to hear its owner talk, 'in the way of trade,' that his tongue was made of the same material.

THE route to Schenectady is dullish - but I advise the reader, if that personage be a male, to take the outside of the car, (by courtesy from the powers that be,) and survey the country round. He will see the eternal Cattskills bounding the horizon for near two-thirds of the way — rising like pyramids, blue and lofty into Heaven,

'Where clouds like earthly barriers stand,

Or bulwarks of some viewless land.'

I am discoursing now to the traveler on the Niagara route, and therefore I would fling in a word or two of advice to him. When thou comest to Schenectady, thou wilt be grievously athirst, if the weather be warm but I beseech thee, buy no soda water in Old Esopus. One TRUAX has an apology for the article - but drink it not! It is indescribable — tastes like bad champagne, vinegar, and brimstone. A tumbler full of the Dead Sea would taste sweeter. Neither be thou tempted

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