1834.] 
ARRIVAL AT BOSTON. 
51d 
suppressed voices — the incessant tramp of the lonely watch- 
officer — and the call through the trumpet to the look-out aloft — 
we repeat, to be free from all these, with a thousand other annoy- 
ances — and to find one's self alone in a peaceful, paradisiacal re- 
treat — why, what luxury of solitude ! — what a heaven of rest ! 
To sleep in. quiet — dream in peace — and wake at pleasure ; un- 
disturbed by the sudden and tremendous burst of the reveille — this 
is what we experienced at the sweet little Island of Paqueta ! 
On the morning of Wednesday, the ninth of April, at an early 
hour, we got under way, and, by the aid of boats and a landbreeze, 
soon cleared the harbour. Our passage to the line was tedious, 
nor was there aught of interest until Thursday, the twenty-second 
of May, when we made the land at the entrance of Boston harbour, 
and with a fine breeze ran in, and came to anchor off Boston light- 
house. On the following morning, the tide serving, we stood up 
the isle-speckled bay, and soon came to anchor off the navy-yard, 
at Charlestown. It was a joyous morning — for the hardships and 
perils of the cruise were over. 
In his official despatch to the secretary of the navy of this 
date. May twenty-third, the commodore says : " During the cruise 
of the Potomac, she has touched at Rio de Janeiro twice ; Cape 
of Good Hope, Africa ; Quallah-Battoo and Soo-soo, coast of Su- 
matra; Bantam Bay and Batavia, Island of Java; Macao and 
Lintin, China ; Sandwich and Society Islands ; Valparaiso, three 
times, Callao, the same; Coquimbo, Payta, Galapagos Islands, 
and Puna, Bay of Guayaquil; has sailed over sixty-one thousand 
miles, and been at sea five hundred and fourteen days, crossing 
the equator sixtimes, and varying from 40" north to 57° south 
latitude, while circumnavigating the globe ; and during this time, 
she has not had a spar carried away, or lost a man by casualty, or 
had one seriously injured." 
During the interval which elapsed in waiting the return of 
despatches from Washington, a party was given by the commo- 
dore and his lady, on board the Potomac, to the circle of their 
numerous friends. It was allowed on all hands to be a beautiful 
and brilliant affair ; every circumstance combined to render it in- 
teresting and delightful, — the frigate had just returned from a long 
voyage, of which it formed the closing scene-;= the season was that 
