892 
SOUTH SEA 
touched at Pernambuca on the coast of Brazil, where 
we -witnessed many curious scenes, which, from fear of 
being too tedious I must omit to describe. Pressing 
still homewards, we crossed the equinox for the sixth 
time on the 26th of December ; and on the 23d of 
January 1833, we passed close to the shores of some 
of the Azores, or Western Islands. When, to our great 
delight, on the 3d of February following, we had the 
good fortune to make Beachy Head, although it was 
enveloped in a thick fog, having encountered horrible 
weather in the Channel, in which we were all nearly lost 
on our own shores, and after an absence of the “ Sarah 
and Elizabeth of thirty-two months, and of my own 
of two years and four months ; during which time I had 
passed over the surface of the ocean to the extent of 
fifty thousand miles ! 
But, when we had escaped all our marine dangers, 
and began to feast our eyes upon our own native land, 
a thousand distressing ideas started from their hidden 
recesses in our minds, that had only been obscured 
by the passing events with which we had been sur- 
rounded. Stern disease had been raging during our 
absence, thousands had been swept off in its uncommon 
and devastating course. Traversing the ocean, we knew 
little of the affairs that were progressing in our own 
homes, and among our dearest friends. We therefore, 
as we drew near our kindred hearths, felt doubts spring 
up in our minds of a most painful nature. What was 
the land to us, which we now so ardently gazed upon, 
if it had swallowed up during our absence those whom 
