1800.] 
the boundaries of the gay, the opulent 
city, and fled to the peafant’s lonely cot- 
tage, thy timely aid is not now folicited in 
vain.* And affuredly thou fhait never 
have any caufe to regret thy having con- 
tributed to throw, at leaft, a temporary 
luftre over the declining. years of this 
humble votary of the Mutes. 
London. D. fi 
Se 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTERS FROM MR. TOULMIN OF KEN- 
TUCKY CONTINUED. 
HRE# days after this, at 9 o’clock 
in the evening, lat. 45° 22’, lone. 
24° 31’, we found ourfelves in the centre 
of a fleet, which feemed to enrich the 
whole of our horizon. We foan received 
the fignal to hoift our. flag, and were pre- 
fently boarded by the Affiftance, a fifty. 
gun fhip,which, with another veffel or two 
was convoy to a fleet of merchantmen from 
Cadiz to England. They were, I believe, 
very glad to meet with us; for, having been 
detained by contrary winds, they were 
greatly an want of neceffaries, and wifh- 
ed to afcertain their longitude. They 
were in fo feeble a condition, that they 
would have fallen an eafy prey toa very 
inconfiderable force. We gladly embra- 
ced the opportunity to convey to you the 
intelligence of our profperous, and then 
fpeedy, progrefs. It was not in our power 
to afford them much affiftance. We part- 
ed, however, with fome fugar and pota- 
toes: the want of both of which we after- 
wards experienced. Some of our fellow- 
paflengers furnifhed them, likewife, with 
falfe and exaggerated accounts of the 
French veflel; fo, that I fhould not won- 
der if long ere this you had read in the 
Englifh papers, that the American fhip, 
Sifters, had fallen in with the republican 
privateer, Captain Hern, who boarded her 
with a fet of French cut-throats, fword in 
hand, but without fhoes or breeches ; and, 
after threatening to carry the paflengers 
prifoners tod France, sanfacking ‘their 
trunks, and devouring their provifions, by 
cutward force or private theft ftripped the 
‘Sifters of a great proportion of her ftores. 
The fa&, however, is, that theywere good- 
looking men, and decently dreffed. Their 
behaviour f have already defcribed. 
On Sunday, May 26th, we fpokewith the 
Sally of Salem, from Bofton to Portugal. 
I have already informed you, that the 
“want of a fair wind obliged us to come 
South of the tropic of cancer. Upon crof- 
_ ETAL LES CG ER A 
* This alludes to a private fubfcription 
which is now fet on foot, Luks 
Letters from Mr. Toulmin of Kentucky. 
1i3 
fing that line, the failors have always a 
cultom of initiating thofe feamen who have 
never been there before into the myfteries 
of Neptune, by fhaving them with tar, and 
dipping them in the fea, For this purs 
efe, an hideous figure is dreffed up, re# 
prefenting the god of the ocean, who pre- 
tended to come out of the fea, and knows, 
by looking round upon the crew, whether 
there be any among them who have tot 
before entered the torrid zone. Our black 
failor played the part of Neptune, and 
did it with much humour and propriety. 
The principal thing he did was to {wear 
the new failors, much in the ftyle of the 
Highgate oath, that they would not eat 
brown bread when they could get white, 
unlefs they liked the brown better, &c. 
But when he fwore the boys, he introduced 
feveral things relative to their good beha- 
viour, which they folemnly attended to, as 
coming from the lip of a fuperior being. 
In the courfe of the afternoon of Satur- 
day, June 22d, our attention was called to 
an object floating at a diftance. What it 
was no one could difcern : but fome 
thought that they faw two men ftanding in 
a boat, and making a fignal ; but others 
were apprehenfive it was nozhing but a 
large log of timber, which would have 
been a very acceptable prefent, as we were 
much in want of firewood. Accordingly 
we ftood for this fingular appearance, and 
in the fpace of two or three hours ape 
proached it. Our conjectures were all this 
time exereifed upon it; for it fometimes 
feemed white and another time black, and 
by and by it looked red. Some of us 
thought it was a rock, others a cafk, 
others a boat turned upfide down, and our 
furgeon’s Jady took it tor a medicine cheft. 
And indeed, fanciful as the thought feem- 
ed to be, it proved neareft to truth. For, 
upon taking up this wonderful object, re~ - 
fpecting which we had felt fo much ank- 
iety, it proved to be nothing more than an 
empty cheft, fuch as teais ufually packed 
in. Our labour, however, was not loft s 
for whilft we were making for the cheft, a 
number of fifh came round us, and our 
biack man harpooned a dozen old-wives 
and a dolphin, a moft beautiful fifh, which 
afforded a delicious Sunday’s dinner to all 
on board our fkip. 
One of the moft agreeable events which 
happened to us during our paflage, was 
that of the appearance of a New England 
fhip, from North Carolina to the Tile of 
St. Bartholomew, on Sunday, the 30th of 
June, when in fat. 23°57’, long. 63° 24. 
‘The captain was glad for the fake of ac- 
commodating the paflengers to opie 
: our 

















