Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/45

Rh beef and porter (bought for good) good for nothing, the former having been a voyage to the East Indies! Navigators up the Mississipi river, frequently steal from 10 to 20 sheep at once from the farmers, and think it no crime; it being more convenient to steal than to buy. Captain Wise, when there, acknowledges he saw his crew dressing several sheep so stolen, but forbid them not; only telling them they should not let him know of such [9] thefts. Alas! poor honesty, how art thou discarded!

February 2nd.—Fine day. Wind none. Eleven sail in view: a dead calm. Lat. 48°.

3rd.—Almost a gale, and right a-head all day. I perceive my fears lessen as I proceed. Huge mountainous waves of a mile in length, but as they do not break, as in the Channel, the ship gallantly rides over them. Saw a fine mast afloat, recently fallen from some ill-fated ship. Lat. 47°, and on the skirts of the Bay of Biscay. A large shoal of sea-hogs, alias porpoises, played round our ship; we harpooned one, which instantly became a prey to its fellows. Its blood invites them to destroy and devour it.

4th.—Bad weather, wind west, right a-head; lat. 47° 30' at noon. At a recent anniversary in Boston of Free Blacks, met to celebrate the abolition, or as they term it the Boblition of the slave-trade; the chairman rose after dinner, and said, "Gemmen, I be Massa Peter Guss, and give you this toast, That President Madison be no more like General Washington than puté finger in the fire, and haul it out again!" great applause. And another toast was, "Mr. Wilberforce be the blacky-man's friend, and may he never want polish to his boots." I give this anecdote, as I heard it from an American; but contempt of the poor blacks, or niggers, as they are there called, seems the national sin of America.