mail was the only public conveyance permitted through
the State of Jersey. I however caution all thin-skinned travellers
against using it any time between the first day of June and the last of
October; for to run the gauntlet at night through the legions of
musquitoes quartered between the Delaware and the Raritan is no laughing
matter, as I found to my cost.

The worst of this journey was, that, on arriving by the railroad car at
Amboy, which we did at midnight, we were compelled to wait unhoused here
until three or four in the morning, the steamer not departing until that
hour for New York. The example those insatiable vermin made of me with
four hours' leisure in which to work their wicked will, I even now sweat
to think on; one of my eyes was hermetically sealed up, and my upper lip
would have matched that of any Guinea negro, whilst my hands were so
swollen that I could not close them without pain and difficulty: in
short, as Roque says, there was not "a sounder-bitten bully in all
Andalusia."

Halting for one day at New York, I proceeded by the morning boat to
West-point with the intention of resting here a few days: but not having
taken the precaution of writing on to secure a chamber, I was
indifferently provided for; this charming spot only possessing one
hotel, which is a concession made by government to the public, as it is
properly only a military post, and the seat of the national Military
College.

Much has been said and sung, well and ill, of the beauty of the place,
but certainly not one word too much, for language can hardly convey any
just notion of the variety of attributes Nature has laid under
contribution, and here combined, for the embellishment of this most
perfect spot.

In the cool hour of twilight I strolled a little way up the western
hill, and thence looked back upon the hotel and the lines of tents
beyond, for at this season the cadets were in camp; excepting the hum of
myriads of busy insects, not a sound was to be heard; the fire-fly was
filling the lower grounds with his dazzling light, and seemed the only
thing that lived or moved there; when suddenly the sharp roll of a drum,
followed by a bugle-call, broke in on this tranquillity, and
disenchanted the scene which I had just decided must have been designed
by Nature as a temple to Solitude.

The next morning I quitted West-point, and in the afternoon landed once
again in Albany, where I took a couple of days' repose, and employed