20 THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 



impression, then, on steaming up the bay, and in my 

 first view of New York, was the same that strengthened 

 on my mind during my stay in the United States. 

 There was around me a magnificent bay filled with 

 traffic, but scant of ships of war, and, as I still think, 

 of forts on which to rely in defensive difficulties. I 

 saw, in fact, in steaming up that bay, the significant 

 sign of a nation whose inordinate desire for " going 

 ahead," as well as necessity for doing so, rendered her 

 dangerously neglectful of the defence in the rear, as well 

 as of the lives of those citizens who, like the pools left 

 by a swollen and headlong river, were to rise as they 

 could, and follow on some other flood. 



The good ship the " Africa" at length steamed up to the 

 quay at New Jersey, on the contrary side the river from 

 New York, and the passengers and the luggage, live or 

 dead, so heavy was the freight, nearly filled the floor of 

 the ample Custom-house shed appropriated to that 

 especial purpose. Before leaving the ship I had arranged 

 that my servant and dogs should remain on board, 

 through the kindness of Capt. Shannon, and thus be 

 safe from American dog-stealers, to restrain whom there 

 is no other law than the private revolver, though you 

 are liable to fine if that revolver is found in your posses 

 sion. My dogs could then take their exercise within 

 the locked gates of the dockyard. My luggage, con 

 sisting of eight or ten packages, was, with a view to 

 anything but hasty collection, thrown broadcast from 

 one end of the building to the other. Having, after 

 vast trouble, and with the kind assistance of the medical 

 officer of the packet, got my things together, I then 

 obtained the agreeable notice of a Custom-house officer, 

 and had to cut the cords of, and break open, every single 



