[363] monotony of a sea-voyage. Our passengers (of whom I complained) have not improved either in their manners or morals, and most cordially hate me for the burning rebukes which I have faithfully administered to them. Unspeakably happy as I should be to enjoy your society at the present time, I have felt thankful that you did not accompany me; for no virtuous woman could tolerate, for one moment, the language and conduct of such immoral creatures. Not a good thought, not a sensible remark, has fallen from any of their lips since we started; but swearing, drinking and smoking have been the order of the day. . . .1 And O! how my soul yearns to be again by your side! All last night I lay in my berth, unable to obtain the least repose, and thinking of you, your situation, the children, home, and friends. This I have done repeatedly, till my heart has been borne down by the rush of tumultuous emotions and the weight of affectionate longings. . . . Dear Helen, I can truly affirm, that I have never absented myself one hour from you as a matter of choice, but only as duty and friendship imperatively demanded the sacrifice. The strength of my love you will probably never fully know; for I am not accustomed to the use of fond terms, and feel a thousand-fold more than I can express. . . . By this time I conclude that you have passed through the perils of childbed. Would that some carrier-pigeon could bring me swift intelligence of the result! I cannot but hope that all has gone well with you and the new-born babe. The idea of
This text is part of:
1 On this same day, when opposite Cork, fresh haddock and flounders were brought on board by a fishing-boat from off shore; and Mr. Garrison writes to another friend (Lib. 10.123): ‘I have just excited the hot indignation of a medicinal doctor on board (an otherwise intelligent but profligate Englishman), because, on his declaring that every haddock bore the mark of the fingers of Jesus, ever since Peter made his memorable draught of fishes, I pleasantly pronounced it “a fish story” —not supposing, for one moment, that he gave credence to so ridiculous a fable, for he is no Catholic. He instantly took fire at my “ impeachment of his veracity” —said the miracle was as duly authenticated as any other performed by the Saviour —admonished me that we were drawing near his native land, and that it behooved me to be careful how I came across his track—and, with a menacing air, gave me to understand that if I were a non-resistant, he was not! All this would have been quite ludicrous, had he not been in his cups. It is proper to add, that I have excited his animosity, as well as that of others in the cabin, on various occasions, on account of my reprobating the use of brandy, whiskey, wine and every other intoxicating drink—profane language—gambling, etc.’
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.