458 ARRIVAL IN THE UNITED STATES. [1842. 



onward to the homes and hearts beyond the Atlantic which 

 they well knew would almost leap to welcome them. Find- 

 ing that the Vincennes made more rapid progress than her 

 consorts, Captain Wilkes parted from them on the 7th in- 

 stant, having given orders to their commanders to touch at 

 Rio Janeiro on their homeward route, while he proceeded di- 

 rect to the Cape of Good Hope. 



On the 14th of April, the Vincennes came to anchor in Table 

 Bay, amidst the fleet of boats always moving busily hither 

 and thither in this harbor, and within view of the dark, red- 

 dish battlements, and noble outlines of Table Mountain, upon 

 which the Titans might easily have taken their repast, of the 

 pretty straw colored cottages at its base surrounded by a rich 

 garniture of foliage and flowers, the short and dwarfish houses 

 or "lockers" strung along the beach, the frowning castle 

 with its mud walls and white tower, the long ox teams hitched 

 to the rude wagons with their gipsy tents, and the groups of 

 Malay boys and corlies with their red kerchiefs and funnel- 

 shaped straw hats, that form the materiel and personnel of 

 Cape Town. But few days were spent here ; and on the 17th 

 instant, the Vincennes again got under way. On the 1st nf 

 May, she arrived oft' St. Helena, at which the Porpoise and 

 Oregon had previously touched. Delaying but for a short 

 time at this island, she soon shaped her course for the United 

 States, and on the afternoon of the 10th day of June, 1842, 

 was cozily moored at the Brooklyn navy yard, where the 

 Porpoise and Oregon also arrived within a few days of each 

 other, — thus terminating in safety, though it had been check- 

 ered with divers vicissitudes, their adventurous cruise of four 

 years' duration. 



