An Englishman's Travels In America: His Observations Of Life And Manners In The Free And Slave States - 1857 - By J. Benwell.
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I Was Awaked Early In The Morning Of The Twenty-First Day We Had Been At
Sea, By A Cry From The Man At The Helm, Of "Great Ormes Head," And,
Hurrying On My Clothes, I Gained The Deck.
The high hills could be
indistinctly seen through the morning haze, and the sight was
accompanied with joyful feelings to all on board.
This enthusiasm was
even communicated to the captain himself, who, since the affair with the
mate, had been very much disposed to be sullen and unfriendly.
I never could form a correct estimate of this man's character, but it
was very evident he wished to pass for a pious man. He was a native of
the eastern state of Massachusetts, and told me he had a family there.
As to religion, I believe he had none, though he was a Methodist by
profession. I could often hear him praying audibly in his state-room on
board, with much apparent feeling - but so little did these devotional
fits aid him in curbing his wicked temper, that, even when engaged in
this manner, he would, if anything extraordinary occurred on deck to
disturb him, rush up the companion-way, and rate and swear at the
sailors awfully.
Soon after making Ormes Head, a pilot came on board, and, with a fair
wind, we proceeded towards the river Mersey.
After my wanderings in the slave-stricken regions of the south, and my
escapes in Florida, the sight of the hospitable shores of my native
country did more, I think, to renovate my injured health, than all the
drastics of the most eminent physicians in the world; certain it is,
that, from this time, I gradually recovered, and, by the blessing of
the Great Giver of all good, have been fully restored to that greatest
of sublunary benefits - vigorous health; a consummation I at one time
almost despaired of.
FINIS.
End of An Englishman's Travels in America, by John Benwell
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