440 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC, 



her sons, and whom we glory to call our friends and country- 

 men. We remember them with pride and affection, when we 

 recur to the many happy hours spent together, either beneath 

 their hospitable roofs, or on board our own little ship. To 

 many of us, the past cruise rests upon the heart like the me- 

 mory of a bright dream of fairy land, which Hope whispers 

 we shall visit, and find the reality superior to the anticipations 

 of imagination. 



We may never again meet, — 



" May they sometimes recall, what I cannot forget, 

 That communion of heart and that parley of soul 

 Which has lengthen'cl our nights, and illumin'd our bowl !" 



On the fifth of October 1S33, we got underway, and after 

 saluting the town, and exchanging cheers and salutes with H. 

 M. Frigate Dublin, we filled away, and bade a long farewell 

 to the shores of Chile. We passed the Cape, and gazed upon 

 the snowy peaks of the " Land of Fire,"* with the thermome- 

 ter at 33° F. 



On the ninth of November, we anchored in the mouth of 

 the broad expanding Rio de la Plata, and the next evening at 

 Montevideo. Having visited Buenos Ayres, and the town of 

 Maldonado, we stood to sea on the evening of the twentieth, 

 but did not reach Rio de Janeiro until the eighth of Decem- 

 ber. 



On the fifteenth, the ship having been watered, and our sup- 

 plies filled up, we got underway, and felt that we were really 

 " homeward bound." On the sixth of January 1834, we crossed 

 the equator into our own hemisphere, and soon gained a sight 

 of the North Star, which had been so long a stranger to our 

 eyes. On the thirty-first of January, we made the shores of 

 New Jersey, and the next day, our ship was secured at the 

 navy yard New York, having been absent two years and eight 

 months, in which time we sailed 50,132 miles, in 401 days. 



Those only who have been absent on a distant station, can 

 appreciate the feelings that fill the heart after so long an ab- 



* Terra del Fuego. 



