HIS THREE CRUISES 11 



ant David Farragut, who was to become one of the very 

 greatest American naval leaders. 



On the 8th of September the Brandywine set sail from 

 the mouth of the Potomac, where Lafayette had been 

 received on board the ship. She passed down the 

 Chesapeake through a brilliant rainbow which was 

 apparently supported on the Virginia and Maryland 

 shores, as if Nature had reserved to herself the honor of 

 erecting the last of the numerous triumphal arches that 

 had been dedicated to the great Frenchman during his 

 extraordinary visit. As the ship made her way to sea, 

 almost the last glimpse which Lafayette had of America 

 was the bluffs of the York River where he had so materi- 

 ally aided the American cause at the Battle of Yorktown. 



The voyage turned out to be not a very pleasant one, 

 for the ship had hardly gotten under way when she began 

 to leak and for a time it was thought that she v/ould have 

 to return to port. But as it was reported that the leak 

 was under control, Lafayette advised the captain to con- 

 tinue the voyage, and when the planks of the vessel 

 swelled from immersion in the water the leak grad- 

 ually diminished. The weather, however, then became 

 stormy, and during most of the passage the distinguished 

 passenger suffered so severely from sea-sickness and gout 

 that he was unable to join the officers at dinner or to 

 visit the deck. They were thus deprived, much to their 

 regret, from listening as jnuch as they desired to the 

 reminiscences of the great general's interesting and 

 eventful life. There was another unpleasantness that 

 affected the midshipmen in particular. This was caused 

 by a steward who, in cleaning an officer's uniform, upset 

 a bottle of turpentine, the contents of which ran into a 

 barrel of sugar belonging to the midshipmen's mess. 



