he prospect of a quick and
prosperous voyage. The passengers, about seventy in number, were of
various nations, including English, French, German and American.

The very objectionable custom of supplying the passengers with
intoxicating liquors without limit and without any additional charge,
thus compelling the temperate or abstinent passenger to contribute to
the expenses of the intemperate, was done away. Each individual paid for
the wine and spirits he called for, a circumstance which greatly
promoted sobriety in the ship; but I am sorry to say three or four, and
these my own countrymen, were not unfrequently in a state of
intoxication. On one occasion, after dinner, one of these addressed an
intelligent black steward, who was waiting, by the contemptuous
designation of "blackey;" the man replied to him in this manner:--"My
name is Robert; when you want any thing from me please to address me by
my name; there is no gentleman on board who would have addressed me as
you have done; we are all the same flesh and blood; I did not make
myself; God made me." This severe and public rebuke commended itself to
every man's conscience, and my countryman obtained no sympathy even from
the most prejudiced slaveholder on board. Several of my fellow
passengers stood in this relation; and I found I could freely converse
with a native American slaveholder not only with less risk of giving
offence, but that he was more ready to admit the inherent evils of
slavery than the Europeans who had become inured to the system by
residence in the Southern States of America, or than the American
merchants residing in the Northern cities, whose participation in the
commerce of the Slave States had imbued them with pro-slavery views and
feelings. One of them, a French merchant of New Orleans, went so far as
to assure me, that in his opinion it would be as reasonable to class the
negroes with monkeys, as to place them on an equality with the whites.

On the nights of the 14th and 15th the Aurora Borealis was very
beautiful and vivid, which is said to be, in these latitudes, an
indication of stormy weather. Accordingly on the 16th the weather became
less favorable, with an increased swell in the sea, wind more ahead, and
occasional squalls. On the night of the 18th we encountered one of the
most awful hurricanes ever witnessed by the oldest sailor on board; and
from this date to the 24th inst. we experienced a succession of storms
of indescribable