STAGE-COACH VIEWS. 
25 
gotten else. Wlio has not heard of Elder Brewster? 
Who knows who he was ? This appeared to be the 
modern-built town of the Cape, the favorite residence 
of retired sea-captains. It is said that “ there are more 
masters and mates of vessels which sail on foreign voy¬ 
ages belonging to this place than to any other town in 
the country.” There were many of the modern Ameri¬ 
can houses here, such as they turn out at Cambridge- 
port, standing on the sand ; you could almost swear that 
they had been floated down Charles River, and drifted 
across the bay. I call them American, because they 
are paid for by Americans, and “ put up ” by American 
carpenters; but they are little removed from lumber; 
only Eastern stuff disguised with white paint, the least 
interesting kind of drift-wood to me. Perhaps we have 
reason to be proud of our naval architecture, and need 
not go to the Greeks, or the Goths, or the Italians, for 
the models of our vessels. Sea-captains do not employ 
a Cambridgeport carpenter to build their floating houses, 
and for their houses on shore, if they must copy any, 
it would be more agreeable to the imagination to see 
one of their vessels turned bottom upward, in the Numid- 
ian fashion. We read that, at certain seasons, the 
reflection of the sun upon the windows of the houses in 
Wellfleet and Truro (across the inner side of the elbow 
of the Cape) is discernible with the naked eye, at a 
distance of eighteen miles and upward, on the county 
road.” This we were pleased to imagine, as we had not 
seen the sun for twenty-four hours. 
The same author (the Rev. John Simpkins) said of 
the inhabitants, a good while ago: No persons appear 
to have a greater relish for the social circle and domes¬ 
tic pleasures. They are not in the habit of frequenting 
2 
