8 ON BOARD THE " AFRICA." 



living freight comprised of people from almost every 

 clime under the sun, with a large sprinkling of the na 

 tives of that nation to whose wide realms I was about to 

 pay this visit ; but having secured a state cabin to my 

 self, free from all intrusion, as well as (through Sir 

 Samuel Cunard's great kindness) comfortable cages for 

 my dogs, whence they could annoy no one, nor be an 

 noyed, I made myself as contented as. a man could be 

 who might be said to have left the dearest and best be 

 hind him, and the site of all his happiest hours. 



However new and fresh the scene, and however much 

 I might delight in adventure, still it was impossible to 

 drive from my soul the knowledge that every revolution 

 of the wheel took me further from those I loved, and 

 shut me out for a time from the graceful enjoyments of 

 life, which can nowhere be found so perfect as in Eng 

 land. Even on the broad bosom of the Atlantic, "the 

 glad waters of the dark blue sea," with the long glitter 

 ing feather the ship left behind her, failed to cheer me, 

 and a thousand recollections by night and day crowded 

 on my mind, to the exclusion of anticipations of plea 

 sure, and at first I found it impossible to fasten observa 

 tion on anything but the lapse of the last English hours. 

 Time, however, that best physician for all human ills, 

 who, differing from the mortal faculty, so frequently 

 cures before he kills, came to my aid, when, though his 

 skill could neither banish remembrance nor stifle regret, 

 nevertheless he called to his aid perhaps the sunbeams 

 glittering on the sea, and through health, strength, and 

 the elasticity of life, he coaxed me to feel that I had only 

 banished myself for a time, and that under the blessing 

 of Heaven I should soon return in full recollection and 

 fondness for all, and to ask if I had been forgotten, and 



