THE LABRADOR JOURNAL 44 1 



The number of beggarly-looking negroes and negresses 

 would have afforded her ample scope for contemplation 

 and description. We crossed the harbor, in which rode a 

 sixty-four-gun flag-ship, and arrived at the house of one 

 Mr. Paul. This was the best hotel in Halifax, yet with 

 great difficulty we obtained one room with four beds, but 

 no private parlor — which we thought necessary. With a 

 population of eighteen thousand souls, and just now two 

 thousand soldiers added to these, Halifax has not one 

 good hotel, for here the attendance is miserable, and the 

 table far from good. We have walked about to see the 

 town, and all have aching feet and leg-bones in con- 

 sequence of walking on hard ground after tramping only 

 on the softest, deepest mosses for two months. 



August 25. I rose at four and wrote to thee and Dr. 

 Parkman ; ^ Shattuck wrote to his father, and he and I took 

 these letters to an English schooner bound to Boston. I 

 was surprised to find every wharf gated, the gates locked 

 and barred, and sentinels at every point. I searched every- 

 where for a barber; they do not here shave on Sunday; 

 finally, by dint of begging, and assuring the man that I 

 was utterly unacquainted with the laws of Halifax, being a 

 stranger, my long beard was cut at last. Four of us went 

 to church where the Bishop read and preached ; the soldiers 

 are divided up among the different churches and attend in 

 full uniform. This afternoon we saw a military burial ; this 

 was a grand sight. The soldiers walked far apart, with 

 arms reversed ; an excellent band executed the most solemn 

 marches and a fine anthem. I gave my letters from Boston 

 to Mr. Tremaine, an amiable gentleman. 



August 26. This day has been spent in writing letters 

 to thyself, Nicholas Berthoud, John Bachman, and Edward 

 Harris ; to the last I have written a long letter describing 

 all our voyage. I took the letters to the " Cordelia " packet, 



1 Dr. George Parkman, of Boston, who was murdered by Professor J. W. 

 Webster in Boston, November 23, 1849. 



