Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/16

Rh animalculæ in the ocean. But I can now look upon this relative condition without being depressed, without its producing uneasy thoughts. Oersted's treatise on the “Entirety of Reason in the whole Universe,” and the data upon which he founds his argument, have given me the feeling of home in this universe, and made me a citizen of the world. The whole universe is to me now merely the world and home of man. The night was very dark, and the stars, therefore, all the brighter; yet they were not as bright as with us, nor yet did they appear so large. The atmosphere was full of fragrance, and was so calm that the strokes of the oars, and the songs from the negroes' boats on the river, were plainly heard. It was not till half-past twelve that I went to rest.

The following day I took leave of my excellent and beloved home in South Carolina. My good Mrs. W. H. took a sisterly, nay, a motherly, care of me to the last. My little hand-basket was filled with beautiful fruit, oranges and bananas, by her “fruit-woman,” a handsome mulatto, who always wore a handkerchief tied picturesquely on her head, and a sketch of whom I made in my album. Old Romeo gave me flowers. At half-past three in the afternoon I went on board the steamboat, the “Ospry;” the steam company of Philadelphia and Charleston, the proprietors of this vessel, having sent me a free ticket, so that I went to Philadelphia free of cost; it was thus a gift to me of twenty dollars, and could not have been made in a more polite manner.

The first four-and-twenty hours on board were extremely hot. Both the air and the sea were still, as if the wind was dead. And I felt how people might die of heat. A number of Spaniards from Cuba were on board; and it was amusing to watch them from their peculiar physiognomy and demeanour, so unlike that of Americans. The vivacity of their action, their strongly accentuated, melodious language, the peculiarity of feature, seemed to