May.] 



ARRIVAL AT SALEM. 



shores have never been disturbed by the agitation of the seas breaking 

 against the beach. 



We continued on our passage, making all the easting that was ne- 

 cessary before we took the south-east trades. Variable winds and 

 occasional foul weather attended us, until Monday, the 12th of April ; 

 when, being in lat. 23° S., long. 28° W., we took the north-east trade- 

 wind ; and on the following day passed between Trinidad and Mar- 

 tin Vas Rocks. Trinidad Island lies in lat. 20° 32' S., long. 29° 14' 

 W. Large Martin Vas Rock is in lat. 20° 29' S., long. 28° 50' W. 

 Variation, 3° 17' W. 



April 20tk. — We now shaped our course for Pernambuco, with a 

 fine breeze from east-south-east, and fair weather. This continued 

 until the 20th of April, when we arrived at Pernambuco ; and at 4, 

 P. M., we went in with the boat to the guard-ship, lying in the inner har- 

 bour, to obtain permission to land. Our application was unsuccessful, 

 however, and we were obliged to return to our ship again. On the 

 following day we again set sail, steering for the north, with a fine 

 breeze from east-south-east. Salem, in the state of Massachusetts, 

 being our port of destination, we made no unnecessary delay in the 

 passage, which was attended with variable winds, calms, storms, rain, 

 and sunshine, and terminated on Tuesday, the eighteenth day of May, 

 being only twenty-seven days from Pernambuco. 



May 18th. — The sight of one's native land, after a long absence in 

 a foreign clime, is generally calculated to exhilarate the mind, and fill 

 it with a thousand agreeable images and associations. Such was the 

 effect produced on the present occasion with every individual on board 

 the Endeavour, myself alone excepted. For the last four-and-twenty 

 hours, my spirits had been unusually depressed. A vague indefinite 

 idea of some impending calamity hung about me like the nightmare, and 

 the more I strove to shake it off the heavier it became. The cheerful 

 animated faces around me only tended to deepen the gloom of my own 

 sickening fancy, which was teeming with forebodings of the most sombre 

 character. On entering the harbour of Salem, the same feeling contin- 

 ued ; and neither the raillery of my companions, the bustle of mooring, 

 nor the welcome and congratulations of former acquaintances, could 

 throw a gleam of sunshine through the thick cloud that depressed me. 



It was about 9, P. M., when 1 landed, and was met on the pier by the 

 owners of the ship, Messrs. Silsbee, Pickman, and Stone, who appeared 

 to be in excellent spirits, and were very inquisitive to learn the cause 

 of my dejection, on returning in health and safety from a long and 

 lucrative voyage. I told them that I was as much at a loss to account 

 for it as themselves ; and could only attribute it to solicitude respecting 

 my family, from whom I had not heard a single word during the whole 

 period of my absence, which was nearly two years ; and that I should 

 await with extreme anxiety the arrival of letters from Stonington. 



In due time a letter came. I was pacing my room alone, lost in 

 deep reflection, when a servant entered, and put it in mv hand. The 

 post-mark was Stonington — the handwriting was my father's. I 

 hastily turned it, and a large black seal almost blasted my eye- 

 sight. The servant had departed, and for some moments I stood 



