6 A PROTESTANT'S INCREDULITY. an agreeable place still. There are parts of the old fortifications entire - such as an embattled gateway, &c.; and the town lies, as it were, huddled up in the lap of the hills. Round the coast, oceanward, the cliffs are very steep. On the top of one of these (called the Calvaire) is a figure of the Saviour crucified, larger than life, and coloured to a hideous similitude of that same; the cross itself being nearly as high as Haman's gibbet. Close to it is the chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Graces, full of votive offerings from devout mariners who have been, or supposed themselves to be, rescued from great perils by her visible interposition; as many most wretched daubs of paintings strongly, I cannot say plainly, testify. The high altar is plentifully garnished with crutches, &c., once serviceable to cripples now no longer so, being made whole by the special kindness of the same beneficent saint: not to mention the various models of parts of the human frame recovered from imperfection and disease in a similar way-Of a truth, there is nothing new under the sun. We find bénitiers for holy (lustration) water still fixed at the temple doors of Pompeii; our museums are filled with many an ex voto of the Pagans: and have we not in Romanism the various and many-functioned saints, that superseded the tutelary deities of the Pagans? There is little change, even in name, if it be true (as the Papists assert) that Jupiter & Co. were succeeded by Jew Peter and the other Popes. On the evening before sailing, went to the theatre at Havre. House handsome outwardly, and the in THE SHIP SETS SAIL. 7 terior respectable; also of considerable extent for the town, perhaps a little too large. Among other pieces the amusing vaudeville of Madame Grégoire, the chief part therein cleverly played by the same actress I saw in it at Paris: other performers not bad. "Now we sail with the gale, from the land of passports O!" So sang one of the crew, as he saw the two gendarmes descend into the boat, booted and spurred, and long sworded, with their buff gauntlets grasping packets of writings. This sailor, an Anglo-American and a merry fellow, was the only joker of the ship's company; and often talked at, if he did not dare talk to, the passengers. As these tall stiff-backed gentlemen took their seats beside the pilot, now conducting them ashore, this man said, loud enough for us all to hear, "I've often heard of horse marines, but I'm blest if I ever saw any afore." The wind was favourable for several days, quite a brisk breeze from the east. While that lasted we made good way; but I, always a wretched being on shipboard, scarce left my berth all the time. It is recorded of Mary Queen of Scots, that in quitting her much regretted France she kept her eyes fixed on its receding shores till they entirely disappeared from her view; which proves that her Scottish Majesty must have been what is called a good sailor: as for me, so soon as we were under weigh, I found that the more speedily I got below it would be the better for my credit. Passage vessels to America are put upon a very different footing from what they were in Franklin's 8 PACKET ACCOMMODATIONS. time; who treats largely on the subject, and gives a long list of “ sea-stores," and things he says it is indispensable for a passenger to take. He observes, too, how hard it is to get a captain who is at once obliging in his manners and skilful in his profession; yet nothing is more common now. Nous avons changé tout cela. The cabin was beautifully fitted up; table supplied with a profusion of every thing: wine, spirits, fruit, &c. furnished at will: and though our fresh meat soon failed us, we had potted meats, and the like, to supply its place; with milk and hot rolls every day. Then we had the pigs and the poultry. Franklin commends the former as being good eating at sea, but cries the other all to nought. I could not much commend the fowls myself, especially those served up towards the end of the affair. The creatures, from neglect and confinement, soon grow diseased, and rapidly lose bulk. They are sadly knocked about. Loss of sleep seems to have as mortal an effect on them as on ourselves. I have stood by their coops in the night, and listened to the murmurs of their unrest. I assured myself that they dream as truly as we do; and on one occasion, I am positive, some of them dreamed of quarrelling with others: this arose no doubt from their diseased condition. Now you, my dear friend, who have no doubt seen cabins of first-rate American packets, are not to suppose that all the silk hangings and fringes, rich table covers and carpets, are allowed to remain as you see them so enticingly set out in port. No: with a wise economy the cabin is shorn of all those splendours, SMALL VARIETY AT SEA. 9 which it is no doubt thought would "dazzle (a sick man) in vain." Yet in real comfort and attention to wants, there is no falling off.-But it is now time to bring my first letter to a close. My second will narrate some incidents of the voyage, with short notices of my fellow passengers. The former, after all, were few. A quatrain, which ran the round of the American papers during my stay, describes laconically, and not very untruly, the whole affair : "Two things break the monotony Sometimes, alas! you ship a sea, 10 A REMEDIABLE GRIEVANCE STATED. LETTER II. THE VOYAGE. OUR fair wind lasted only five days. The ship was a very superior one, the crew numerous, mostly young active men, and the captain a man of great decision and experience; so that in the time stated, short as it was, we had made considerable way. Afterwards we had, for ten days or more, either light baffling winds, or a dead calm. I often thought, during that time, that surely some way of propelling a sailing vessel might be found out, either by paddles similar to those of steam-boats, or other means; it seemed to me a pitiful state of things, in this age of mechanical inventions, that a ship, full of valuable merchandize and impatient passengers, should lie stock-still upon the waters, waiting the chance of a wind springing up. Have men, thought I, during all the time that has passed since first ships were sailed, got no farther on than this? Gladly would I have worked all day on any treadmill apparatus, had it moved the ship but one mile in an hour nearer to port. The sailors even, for whom such times are a season of repose, do not seem altogether to like it; and although they take a kind of spiteful pleasure in the baffled anxiety of |