TILE START. 



half the ships that leave New York. I have been on board a 

 number as they were getting under way, and in every one of 

 them there has been more or less trouble arising from the intoxi- 

 cated condition of the crew. Twice I have seen men fall over- 

 board, when first ordered aloft, in going down the harbor. 



The ship did not go to sea until three days after she was 

 advertised to sail, though she had her crew, stores, and steerage 

 passengers on board all that time. I do not know the cause of 

 her detention ; it seemed unnecessary, as other large ships sailed 

 while we lay idle ; and if unnecessary, it was not honest. The 

 loss of three days' board, and diminution by so much of the stores, 

 calculated to last out the passage, and all the other expenses and 

 inconveniences occasioned by it to the poor steerage passengers, 

 may seem hardly worthy of notice ; and I should not mention it, 

 if such delays, often much more protracted, were not frequent 

 sometimes adding materially to the suffering always attending a 

 long passage. 



At noon on the 3d of May we passed out by the light-ship of 

 the outer bar, and soon after eight o'clock that evening the last 

 gleam of Fire-Island light disappeared behind the dark line of 

 unbroken horizon. 



