would make an excursion to Block
Island. This I resolved to join: first, because any change was desirable
which might kill a day; and next, because I knew the place had been a
sort of station whereat our squadron managed to hang on during the war,
although singularly wild and harbourless.

BLOCK ISLAND.

Early in the morning, the steamer employed in this service quitted
Providence with a full live cargo; and at Newport it brought up for
about an hour, during which time several recruits, myself amongst the
number, joined her.

It blew fresh from about east by south; and, in consequence, no sooner
had we cleared the harbour, than we were met by a heavy head-sea, and
nothing was to be seen on all sides but sickness, and the misery
consequent upon the dilapidation of the pretty caps and bonnets of the
fair Providencials. Never was a party of pleasure-seekers in a more
woe-begone plight than was this of ours when we arrived in the open
roadstead of the most inhospitable-looking shores of Block Island.

Before we could bring up, the boats of the natives, apprised of our
purpose, surrounded the ship, offering, for a consideration of about a
quarter dollar per head, to land us upon their territory. The boats were
presently filled; and from the larger ones, after they had grounded on
the beach, we were by degrees landed in shallops.

On terra firma we encountered a few men in no outward way differing from
the fishermen of the main, but with a confirmed craving after coin,
which, however common to all civilized beings, is seldom so openly and
importunately exposed as amongst these simple citizens. Boys of
seventeen and eighteen years of age thought no shame to solicit a cent
from the passing strangers, and were not readily got rid of.

The island, over which I wandered in common with others of the goodly
company of adventurers, presented one uniform view: a rolling surface,
without any considerable elevation; sea-bound, without a single harbour,
or a village in the least attractive; half-a-dozen huts are scattered
here and there in irregular lines, indifferently built, and having no
care bestowed in the way of out-door adornment; not a tree appears on
the place, although in the sheltered situations I should, imagine they
would thrive: in short, a less attractive islet I never remember to have
visited, or one so utterly divested of interest. The only pleasure I
derived was from a view of the open roadstead, where our