eks, when Father Bernard informed the captain
that he and his companions were going to make a novena to St. Joseph
to arrive at New York on or before his feast, March the 19th. "St.
Joseph will have to do his very prettiest to get us in," was the
answer. And when the ship was still far to the east, being off the
banks, and the weather quite unfavorable, and only three days left
before the feast, the captain called out: "St. Joseph can't do
it--give it up, Father Bernard." But the latter would still
persevere; and that night the wind changed. The Yankee ship now flew
along at the rate of fourteen miles an hour. When the eve of St.
Joseph's Day came they were wrapped in a dense fog, and the captain,
dreading the nearness of the coast, hove to. When day dawned the fog
lifted, and the ship was found to be off Long Branch, and a wrecked
ship was seen on the shore; she had been driven there during the
night. The pilot soon came aboard and they sailed through the Narrows
and into the harbor of New York, having spent fifty-two days on the
ocean. As they approached the city a little tug-boat was seen coming
to meet them. It bore George and John Hecker and Mr. McMaster, whose
cordial greetings were the first welcome the young Redemptorists
heard on their return to the New World. They were soon at their home
in the convent in Third Street, and on the sixth of April following
the first mission was opened in St. Joseph's Church, Washington
Place, New York.

Here is Dr. Brownson's greeting, from his home in Chelsea, Mass.,
received by Father Hecker soon after his arrival:

"My very dear friend, you cannot imagine what pleasure it gives me to
learn of your arrival in New York. . . . I want to see you much, very
much. You have much to tell me that it is needful that I should know,
and I beg you to come to see me. Tell your superiors from me that
your visit to me will be more than an act of charity to me
personally, and that it is highly necessary--not merely as a matter
of pleasure to us two--that we should meet; and tell them that I
earnestly beg to have you come and spend a few days with me. I am
sure that they will permit you to do so in furtherance of the work in
which I as well as you are engaged, and I have a special reason for
wishing to see you now. I would willingly visit you at New York or
anywhere in the United States, but there is no place so appropriate
as my own house. . . . I am more indebted to you for having become a