12 



THE GULF. 



about the goelette ; and whenever the white vapours, in 

 which the horizon was swathed, broke in our vicinity, 

 and the sunlight burst upon us, the air was delicious. 

 The state of inaction, however, was disagreeable, and 

 the constant jar of what our captain, in his piebald lan- 

 guage, called the pumtackle, as the bark rolled on the swell, 

 not the less so. We were drifting slowly on the current 

 to the northward. As the sun sank, however, the sea 

 breeze filled our sails ; and the mist dispersing, we pro- 

 ceeded to the westward ; and, coming in full view of the 

 low, sandy hills on the beach, anchored after sunset in 

 about nine fathoms, in the roads of Tampico, directly 

 opposite the bar at the entrance of the river Panuco, 

 distant about three miles. 



This was not so much amiss. But our pleasant dreams 

 of a speedy termination to the present state of durance 

 vile were, as yet, far from being realized. 



The night was clear and starlight — how bright and 

 brilliant the constellations stood in the heavens, I cannot 

 describe to you. Even after our short voyage, the breath 

 of the land was delicious, and the heavy dull sound of 

 the breakers on the bar that engirdled the land of won- 

 ders before us, was music to our ears, as we lay under 

 our blankets stretched upon the roof of the cabin. We 

 hailed our escape from the arms of winter; from the 

 marshes, quags, mud, and snow of New Orleans, its 

 thick and polluted air, where the worshippers of Mam- 

 mon can alone find delight, to the mountains, the vegeta- 

 tion, the eternal summer of New Spain. 



Still, if I may depict my own feelings, I may confess 

 that there w 7 as a w 7 eight on my spirits, which, though it 

 could not entirely crush these pleasant hopes and reflec- 

 tions, seemed to prevent their soaring and running riot. 

 I would not shut my eyes to some signs of probable dif- 

 ficulty which all might have noticed ; and I could not 

 prevent certain portents of coming troubles from depres- 

 sing my mind. 



Among the former I may mention the knowledge, that 

 as there was only six or seven feet water on the bar, 



