handkerchiefs were waved in salute to the frigate, until she reached the Hudson, at the point of the long peninsula on which stands the town of New York.
The frigate coasting the New Jersey side, on which so many pleasant villas are erected, passed the forts, which saluted. The Abraham Lincoln replied, dipping and hoisting the American flag three times, whose thirty-nine stars shone at the peak; then slackened speed, so as to make the buoyed channel which leads into the inner bay, formed by the point of Sandy Hook, where many thousands of spectators gave the frigate a parting cheer.
The procession of boats still followed the Abraham Lincoln, and did not quit her until they reached the light-ship at the entrance of the channel.
It was then three o'clock. The pilot got into his boat and was pulled on board his little schooner, which lay hove-to awaiting him. The frigate's fires were coaled up, the screw revolved quicker than before, the frigate passed the yellow low coast of Long Island, and at eight o’clock p.m., having lost sight of Fire Island, she proceeded at full speed across the Atlantic.
