128 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



manuscript containing ' Descriptive Letters/ written by 

 him to his uncles in the course of the summer. It 

 enables us to trace his course from the moment of his 

 stepping aboard ship until the series abruptly terminates 

 with part of a letter written in the last days of the year. 

 As might have been surmised from the affection and 

 gentleness of his disposition, he thinks more at first of 

 the home he is leaving than of the new w r orld into which 

 he is to enter. 



'Leith, 4th June, 1824. 



' The ship in which I was a passenger left Cromarty 

 upon Sunday forenoon ; and as the day was warm and 

 pleasant, I remained upon deck till evening, with my 

 eyes steadfastly fixed upon the land I had so lately left. 

 Every moment it was lessening and growing more indis- 

 tinct ; but fancy strengthened my powers of vision, and 

 in a half-sad, half-sportive mood, I was marking out 

 every spot which in the bypast had been the scene of 

 my juvenile sports or pleasures. There, thought I, 

 looking toward the hill of Cromarty, will some of my 

 friends be stationed with their eyes fixed upon the 

 departing vessel, and though she appear but a small, an 

 almost imperceptible speck, yet will they deem her an 

 object of greater interest than any of the scenes the eye 

 commands from that eminence. The thought was tender 

 and pleasing. There was something in it that told me 

 of the affection of the friends I was leaving, and of the 

 coldness of those with whom I was soon to mingle. 

 But perhaps 'twill be for the better ; that coldness may 

 rouse the sleeping energies of my character, and when I 

 find myself as if alone in the world, instead of resting 

 upon the exertions of others, I shall learn to depend on 

 my own. Such were the thoughts with which I be- 

 guiled the tune, 



