In the green West I will rejoicing turn,
Wearing thine image on my grateful heart.
Friday, August 21, 1840.
Our Voyage across the Atlantic had been eminently prosperous. From our departure from New York, August 1, 1840, we encountered no obstruction, during the seventeen days, that brought us to the Irish coast. Our good ship, the Europe, Captain Edward G. Marshall, surmounted the waves buoyantly, and often seemed to skim their surface, like a joyous bird. We almost imagined her to be conscious of the happiness she imparted, as seated on the deck, in the glorious summer moonlight, we saw her sweeping through the crested billows, with a pleasant, rushing sound, right onward in the way she ought to go.
Methought, also, the deep bestirred itself, to exhibit its dramatis personæ in good condition for our amusement. Immense families of porpoises rolled and gamboled; other huge creatures, seeming to have hideous ears, leaped and plunged heavily; and a whale, with her cub, glided onward, her huge mass inflated with a mother's pride and pleasure, as she led her promising monster to his ocean-play. The sun came forth from his chambers and returned again in glorious majesty, and the coming phosphorescence, con- trasted with the fleecy crest and the purple base of the waves, was intensely beautiful.
