Julia Griffiths to Frederick Douglass, July 2, 1855
Ship Yorkshire,1The Yorkshire was a 996-ton sailing packet constructed in 1843 for the New York City-based Black Ball Line by the shipyard of William H. Webb of the same city. Edwin L. Dunbaugh and William D. Thomas, William H. Webb: Shipbuilder (Glen Cove, N.Y., 1989), 34–35, 162. [n.p.] 2 July 1855.
MY DEAR FRIEND :—
As we are now two thousands miles on our way to England, I may ven-
ture to commence the letter to you that I propose mailing when I reach
Liverpool.
Sure I am that you will be desirous to know how it fares with me on
the waters of the wide Atlantic, in the good “ship Yorkshire,”—what man-
ner of people my fellow-passengers are? [A]nd what kind of weather we
have had since leaving New York? We sailed, you will remember, on the
18th of June,2The press reported that the Yorkshire departed New York City on 18 June 1855. Boston Daily Advertiser, 20 June 1855. and, with the exception of the first day, the wind has been
favorable; but so light have been the breezes, and so smooth the sea, that
our ship has been gliding as calmly over the placid waters, as if life were
one entire holiday, and we disciples of the dolce far niente. You know how
thoroughly I enjoy the sea, whether I behold it shimmering in the sun-
light, or darkly heaving in the storm; but I really scarcely realized, until
Saturday last, that I “was once more upon sea waters—yet once more!”3This snippet is a near quotation from Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, canto 3, stanza 2: “Once more upon the waters! Yet once more!” Byron, Complete Poetical Works of Lord Byron, 2:71. for Lake Ontario, on a summer’s day, could not be more tranquil than
this same old ocean was for twelve days—and on we glided, somewhat
monotonously it must be owned, and somewhat slowly, but safely and
surely, encountering only fog and drizzling rain while off the banks of
Newtfoundland—meeting several sailing vessels. [AJnd schooners— see-
ing porpoises in abundance, and a few beautiful nautilasses—and being
followed by a swarm of Mother Carey’s chickens.4Eighteenth-century sailors referred to stormy petrels, small seabirds, as Mother Carey’s chickens. According to legend, the stormy petrel carries the soul of a dead seaman, and its presence is said to be a warning of an approaching storm. Sailors were cautioned against killing petrels for fear that doing so would bring them bad luck. J. C. Cooper, Symbolic and Mythological Animals (London, 1992), 218.
Before I tell you what occurred on Saturday to diversify the scene, I
will give a brief sketch of my fellow-passengers. The first cabin passen-
gers are only twelve in number; so with the Captain5Charles Alonzo Marshall (?–1872) was the nephew of Charles H. Marshall, owner of the Black Ball Line of North Atlantic steamships. He died while captaining a ship named for his uncle on a voyage from Liverpool to London, after which Polish immigrant passengers complained of mistreatment by the ship’s crew. New York Times, 27 May 1869, 31 August 1872; Richard C. McKay, South Street: A Maritime History of New York (Riverside, Conn., 1934), 196–97. and the ship doctor,
we form a snug little party. We are composed of many [illegible] and we
speak several languages; English, Irish, Scotch, Southerners, Yankees,
and Swedes are all here; and for the most part, they are good representa-
tives of their respective countries. In the Swedes I am greatly interested.
The family comprizes a lady and gentleman and a gem of a baby. They are
returning to their father land, after spending a year or two in the States;
they are well acquainted with Miss Bremer,6Fredrika Bremer (1801–65), a Swedish novelist, is best remembered for Hertha, or the Story of a Soul (1856), in which she explores the relationship between an overbearing father and an independent-minded daughter, and the need for women’s liberation. Bremer spent 1849 to 1851 traveling in North America, stopping in Rochester to visit Douglass in October 1850. NS, 3 October 1850; Charlotte Bremer, ed., Life, Letters, and Posthumous Works of Fredrika Bremer (New York, 1868), 1–116; Bruce Murphy, ed., Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, 4th ed. (New York, 1996), 33.
and admire her as a woman,
more than as a writer. Like many others, I am inclined to think they are
disappointed with her American book7During her American tour, Fredrika Bremer wrote extensive letters to her sister Agathe, commenting on matters of everyday life, including slavery. Her letters were published as The Homes of the New World: Impressions of America (New York: 1853). Bremer, Fredrika Bremer, 80–88.—indeed, they say, that [illegible]
as she was, from house to house, and expected and prepared for every
where, and known to be a writer, it is no wonder that all of her impressions
of people and things are couleur de rose.8Rose colored; the phrase implies an effort to see things in a positive light or with romantic embellishments. [A]nd that she appears to take
a wise discrimination in the judgments she passed.—By the way Mr. and
Mrs. Sow gren are well acquainted with your excellent friend, Mr. Chris-
tian Donaldson,9Christian Donaldson (c.1795–?) migrated from England to Clermont County, Ohio, where he farmed. In 1829 he started a successful hardware business in Cincinnati with his younger brother William. Both men became founding members of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in 1835 and served on its executive committee. The Donaldson brothers assisted James G. Birney in the establishment of the abolitionist weekly the Philanthropist. Christian changed his religious affiliation from Congregationalist to Unitarian in protest of the former’s tolerance of slaveholding. After William returned to England in 1844, Christian returned to Clermont County and worked with his brother Thomas on the Underground Railroad. Charles T. Greve, Centennial History of Cincinnati and Representative Citizens, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1904), 1:753, 795–96; Byron Williams, History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, 2 vols. (Milford, Ohio, 1913), 2:266–71.
and were introduced to you in Cincinnati last year; but,
as you have thousands of introductions every season, it is not likely that
you remember them. The young Swedish lady, now accompanying them
to Stockholm, is somewhat of a heroine, altho’ she is far too modest and
unassuming to think herself one. She has travelled through the United
States, for the most part alone; and having a highly cultivated mind, a keen
discrimination, and a sober judgement, she is not carried away by the bril-
liancy of the surface of things, but can reject the dross, while she accepts
the pure gold. In her sweet, pure, unsophisticated nature, her strong good
sense, her self-forgetfulness, and her courage, she reminds me of some of
Miss Bremer’s Swedish portraitures.10Bremer’s early novels and collections of sketches focused on the problems faced by single women striving for independence in early nineteenth-century Swedish society. Bremer, Fredrika Bremer, 77–80, 113–16.
Need I say that such a person as I
have described must prove a remarkably interesting companion? She is in
delicate health, and has been four years absent from her native land, and
her much loved home. By the way, she has just finished reading the Proof
sheets11This is more than likely a reference to My Bondage and My Freedom, which would be published the following month. Given the close relationship, both personally and professionally between Griffiths and Douglass, and the high probability that Griffiths was the anonymous author of that work’s Editor’s Preface, it is quite possible that she would have had a proof copy of the unpublished work available to lend to Rosalie Roos, a Swedish passenger, as they crossed the Atlantic. Douglass Papers, ser. 2, 2:288. of a certain work not unknown to you; and she expects that a great
sensation will be made by the publication of Frederick Douglass “LIFE
AS A SLAVE.” A young Irish lady, returning home after a protracted visit
in the States—and a pleasing intelligent Scotch lady, who is taking her
deaf and dumb, and only little child to Berlin, to consult some eminent
Doctors there, in the hope of obtaining a cure for the malady—two young
Virginian ladies, one beautiful, one witty—both well educated—frank,
natural, and unspoiled—leaving home for the first time, to spend a year or
two with English relative—a rich Louisiana gentleman, a confirmed dys-
peptic travelling with his nephew, (a good-natured indolent young man,)
and his son, (a bright, intelligent, “PAUL DOMBEY”12A character in Charles Dickens’s serialized 1846 novel, Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation. The young Paul Dombey, named for his father, was timid and sickly. He died at an early age while at boarding school. Gilbert A. Pierce, The Dickens Dictionary: A Key to the Plots and Characters in the Tales of Charles Dickens (1914; New York, 1965), 288–89.
kind of boy complete
the number of my fellow passengers. But the most important person in
the ship is omitted; and I must not forget the Captain—Charles Alonzo
Marshall. Although quite young, he is an experienced sailor, having been
at sea from a child. His face is very much the index to his character. He is
upright, downright, and straightforward, often speaking rough words but
really kind-hearted. “His bark is muckle waur than his bite.”13The quoted phrase comes from Sir Walter Scott’s The Antiquary, first published in 1816: “ ‘Monkbarn’s bark,’ said Miss Griselda Oldbuck in confidential intercourse with Miss Rebecca Blattergowl, ‘is muckle waur than his bite.’ ” Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary (1816; London,
1966), 210. He brags
much of being a Yankee; and often seizes occasion for denouncing En-
gland—dear, old England! His sympathies, of course, are pro Russia,14An allusion to divided international sympathies caused by the Crimean War (1854–56). The conflict originated in a diplomatic contest between Russia and France to secure protective powers over Christian holy places and the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire. To force concessions, Tsar Nicholas I sent troops into Turkey’s Danubian provinces in July 1853. Earlier, Nicholas had informed the British that should negotiations fail, he planned to wage war and partition Turkey. Confident that England and France ultimately would intervene to preserve the European balance of power, the sultan declared war on Russia in October 1853. A month later, the Turks suffered a major defeat in the naval battle of Sinope. When further efforts at mediation failed, Britain and France declared war on Russia on 28 March 1854. In September, an Anglo-French army launched an invasion of Russia’s Crimean Peninsula that climaxed in a yearlong siege of the port of Sebastopol. The war, incompetently managed and fought, ended in early 1856 when the new tsar, Alexander II, agreed to withdraw from the Balkans and respect the neutrality of the Black Sea. W. Baring Pemberton, Battles of the Crimean War (New York, 1962), 15–26; Robert C. Binkley, Realism and Nationalism, 1852–1871 (New York, 1935), 157–80. I don’t think he knows his own reason for this sympathy—for he probably
has never taken five minutes’ time to analyze them. But he is a generous,
good natured man—very hospitable at his table—and in manner, so like
some of our English, blunt-spoken sailors, that I am generally, more in-
clined to laugh at what he says, than to quarrel with him for saying it. He
has a beaming smile, and a rich, sonorous bass voice: the latter (strange
as it may seem) often reminds me in tone of H. Ward Beecher.15Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87), fourth son of the Presbyterian clergyman Lyman Beecher and brother of antislavery novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, was the noted pastor of Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church for forty years. After his graduation from Amherst College in 1834, Beecher studied at Lane Theological Seminary and served as pastor of Presbyterian churches in Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis, Indiana, before becoming minister at Plymouth Church in 1847. Committed to making the church an active instrument of social reform, Beecher addressed the major social and political issues of his time in forceful and dramatic sermons that established him as one of the century’s major orators. Though he denounced the evil of slavery, he denied that a constitutional basis existed for interfering with the institution in states where it already existed. Instead, Beecher urged that its exclusion from the territories would achieve abolition gradually and peacefully. His theology, minimizing doctrinal differences, stressed the religious worth of personal loyalty to Christ, and in 1882 he led his church out of the Congregational denomination. In addition to writing extensively for the secular press, Beecher edited two widely read religious journals, the New York Independent (1861–63) and the Christian Union (1870–81). The New York Congregational journalist Theodore Tilton accused Beecher of having an adulterous relation with Tilton’s wife; the allegation was made public in 1872. Beecher’s reputation survived three years of public discussion, a criminal trial, a civil trial, and an examination of the charge by the Congregational council. Caskey, Chariot of Fire, 208–48; NCAB, 3:129–30; DAB, 2:129–35. Captain
Marshall is much liked, and highly respected by the officers and crew of
his ship; and this is the surest test of character.
But the doctor--oh!-the doctor—how can I describe the doctor? I
wished for DICKENS16Charles Dickens. last evening, so much, to sketch (in his own inimita-
ble way) a picture that presented itself.—If I tried every hand at it, I might
not succeed, and should only fill much paper, and occupy much time to no
purpose. Suffice it to say, the doctor is, in every way, a very small speci-
men of a man—great only in his own estimation, and in the amount of
his egotism, and entirely lacking in true magnanimity and generosity.—I
was not long in discovering his contempt and aversion for the “Darkies,”17The first known use of the term “darky” to describe people of African descent appears in a 1775 Revolutionary War song entitled “Trip to Cambridge”: “The women ran, and the darkeys too.” Frank Moore, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution (New York, 1856), 100.
(as he termed;) nor did the manifestations of his desire to cater to South-
ern prejudices, and to applaud Southern institutions, pass unnoticed. He
is ever ready to have a fling at the English. In this he has evinced a sad
want of wisdom, as well as of taste; for a large majority of our country are
strongly attached to the old country, and where he has sought to ingratiate
he has missed the mark as widely, and justly as have some who sought and
sought in vain for the Presidency.
The officers of the ship are extremely civil and obliging. The first
mate (Mr. Williams)18John E. Williams (1816–1901), a sailing officer born in Mystic, Connecticut, was immortalized in a chorus of the sea shanty “Blow the Man Down” as “Kicking Jack Williams commands the Black Ball.” Williams achieved fame in 1860 for commanding the clipper Andrew Jackson of the Black Ball Line on a record-breaking voyage from New York City to San Francisco. Graham Seal, introduction to Ten Shanties Sung on the Australian Run, comp. George H. Haswell (1879; Mt. Hawthorn, Wash., 1992), n.p.; Charles F. Burgess, ed., Historic Groton: Comprising Historic and Descriptive Sketches (Moosup, Conn., 1909), 85. is, universally, liked by the passengers; and we have
an exceedingly kind stewardess.—From all this, you will see that I have
reason to congratulate myself on obtaining a passage in the good ship
“Yorkshire.”
I did not say that the Louisiana gentleman is a large and wealthy
slaveholder; report says he purchased twenty thousand dollars’ worth of
slaves the day before he sailed. He is a thorough gentleman, mild and
gentle in his manners, but in miserable health; and consequently so much
confined to his state room that conversing with him for any length of
time is impossible. One afternoon, he gave me an account of his “black
people,” as he calls them, (he does not say slaves,) and tried to show me
how happy and comfortable they are. He said that, before leaving home
he had himself given every single slave four new suits of clothes; and
he solemnly affirmed that every gentleman in Louisiana would be shut
out of all good society who did not well feed, clothe, and lodge “his ser-
vants.” He said, moreover, that the laws of the State of Louisiana19Passed by France in 1724, Louisiana’s original Code Noir (Black Code) provided some legal protection to slave families. The separation of spouses was prohibited, as was the removal of children under the age of fourteen from their parents. Under Spanish rule (1762–1800), Louisiana’s slaves continued to receive some measure of protection. In the years following the Louisiana Purchase (1803), however, a series of slave codes curtailed all such legal protection offered to families. By 1829 the prohibition against separating husbands and wives was no longer in effect, and the age at which children could be sold away from their mothers had been lowered to under the age of ten. Clayton E. Jewett and John O. Allen, Slavery in the South: A State-by-State History (London, 2004), 129–31; Michael Tadman, Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South (Madison, Wisc., 1989), 142. do
not permit the separation of families; and that slavery there is more like
“serfdom in Russia;”20Making up 80 percent of the population, Russian serfs were not slaves, although they could be bought and sold along with the estates they worked and lived on. In Russia, many serfs were able to exercise considerable freedom of choice in both how they farmed the land set aside for their own use and in determining how best to manage affairs in their villages. Russia’s serfs, nonetheless, lacked full civil and political rights. They were required by law to either pay rents or provide labor to their lords in exchange for access to the land. Most significantly, they were also prohibited from either selling their allotments or moving away from them. Serfdom in Russia was abolished by the Emancipation Edict of February 1861. Edward Acton, “Russia: Tsarism and the West,” in Themes in Modern European History, 1530–90, ed., Bruce Waller (London, Eng., 1990), 164–66, 169; David Christian, Imperial and Soviet Russia: Power, Privilege, and the Challenge of Modernity (New York, 1997), 56–58; Gildea, Barricades and Borders, 17, 155, 158–59, 183–84. and then he asserted that the master, when he is
absent, does not leave his overseer in the possession of unlimited power
over the servants. I must do him the justice to say that he spoke with all
kindness of his servants, and entered into the particulars of his arrange-
ments for their comfort. He expressed himself more in sorrow than in
anger about “the books that have been written to give false impressions
on the subject.” I told him that FREDERICK DOUGLASS was an intimate
friend of mine.—After that announcement we spoke but little—He felt,
doubtless, that though he might gainsay “UNCLE TOM,”21Published in March 1852, Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin had sold 300,000 copies by the end of that year and quickly became an international sensation. Both the novel and the novelist, however, proved to be controversial, and both were subjected to intense criticism. The Southern response was particularly harsh—one critic wrote that Stowe was “much more conversant than the majority of Southern gentlemen with moral corruption,” and another noted that the novel represented “the loathsome raking of a foul fancy.” The charges leveled against Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin included complaints about the style and the accuracy of the writing, and allegations that the author’s conduct was unfeminine and motivated by a combination of malice and greed. In response to her critics, Stowe published A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1853. John R. Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe: Updated Edition (Boston, 1989), 39–40; Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 223, 230–32. as a mere fiction,
FREDERICK DOUGLASS was a fact undeniable. My experience of the last
fortnight convinces me, more than ever, that when the Northerners are
true to their convictions—true to themselves—true to the principles laid
down in their glorious “Declaration of Independence”—when they shall
cease to fawn upon, and to flatter the South—when they shall refuse to
smile smoothly upon its beloved and “most peculiar institution”22Although the origin of the term “peculiar institution” as a euphemism for Southern slavery remains unclear, John C. Calhoun is generally credited with introducing it into public discourse. In December 1828, Calhoun referred to South Carolina’s “peculiar institutions” in what is commonly known as his “Exposition and Protest.” Over the following decade, “peculiar institution” gained wide acceptance as a means of referring to slavery throughout the South. John C. Calhoun, Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun, ed. Ross M. Lence (Indianapolis, Ind., 1992), 364, 461. —when
they shall decline to do the bidding of their Southern taskmasters, and
no longer aid and abet them in their system of iniquity—when the mist
shall roll away from before their eyes, and they shall be enabled to see for
themselves, what every one else now sees for them, that the negroes are
no greater Slaves than they—in a word, when they shall stand up, AS MEN,
and with gallant spirits, and true hearts, re-assert their belief that “all men
are created equal”23rom the preamble to the Declaration of Independence.—when they shall practically carry out this creed of
human brotherhood, by doing to all men as they would be done unto, then
and then only, will they be free from the sin of Slavery, and exempt from
participation in those awful denunciations, which a God of Justice has
pronounced against all oppressors.
But, alas! I am dreaming of a far off millennium, and
“Awakening with a start,
The waters heave around me; and on high
The winds lift up their voices”24—Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, canto 3, stanza 1. Byron, Complete Poetical Works of Lord Byron, 2:77.
[A]nd over this glorious ocean we are flying at the speed of twelve knots
an hour, in delightful compensation for the tediousness of the first part of
our voyage. On Friday evening, after sunset, the hitherto smooth surface
of the sea became disturbed—the night was dark, and we had our first
experience of “the Atlantic roll.”25The “Atlantic roll’ refers to the rocking, pitching, and rolling motion that passengers experienced while sailing the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean. An Atlantic roll could be experienced while crossing a bay, a channel, or the wider ocean. For many passengers, encountering an Atlantic roll was tantamount to the onset of seasickness. Others, however, found the experience exhilarating. Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Eng.) Newcastle Courant, 14 October 1859; Sheffield (Eng.) Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, 20 January 1876; Aberdeen (Scot.) Aberdeen Journal, 18 June 1873; London Daily News, 19 December 1874; London Morning Post, 2 January 1900. When we arose on Saturday morning,
the waters were of ink, and the sky of lead—all looked portentous. By
mid-day the anticipated storm raged in full fury—the maddened waves
dashed around us on every side, in foaming breakers, and with ceaseless
war. Happily the wind was in our favor; so, though our good ship “York-
shire” rolled from side to side, to the terror of some, the discomfort of
others, and the enjoyment of a few, we had the satisfaction of knowing
that we were rushing onward. Rumour says, that, in forty-eight consecu-
tive hours, we went seven hundred miles; but some of us think that five
hundred and fifty are nearer the mark. Saturday, Sunday and Monday
nights have been wakeful ones to most of us, I assure you; and it has been
amusing to hear of the plans devised for fixing us securely in our berths.
I am, in this respect, a lucky wight,26 A Middle English word for a creature or sentient being. for I have the best state-room in the
ship, all to myself, and when I fear being tossed out of the upper berth, I
can use the lower one.—This morning, however, the sea has greatly de-
creased—the sun is shining—we are going at eight knots27A knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, approximately 1.151 mph. Therefore, 8 knots an hour equals 9.208 miles per hour. an hour—and
now speculations are endless as to when we shall arrive in Liverpool? To-
morrow is “Independence day,”284 July 1855. and it will be duly celebrated on board
our patriotic ship, by firing of revolvers, and shooting of crackers! Except
something very unexpected occur, worthy of narration, I shall not resume
this somewhat dull epistle until I have, once more, beheld “Albion’s white
cliffs.”29Albion’s “white cliffs” are on the southern shore of Great Britain. Albion, meaning “white,” was the ancient Celtic name for the British Isles, given on account of the physical characteristics of the chalky white cliffs of the southern shore. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 36. I trust that you and your readers will bear with my tediousness,
and will be kind enough to remember that to be the inmate of a rocking
ship at sea, does not tend very much to promote clearness of vision, origi-
nality of ideas, nor facility of expression.—You and they must be so good
as to take the will for the deed—and, to believe my assurance, that it will
be a sincere pleasure to me to continue, during my temporary absence
from Rochester, my connection with my many kind friends, through the
columns of Frederick Douglass’ Paper.
My interesting Swedish friend (Miss Rosalie Roos)30Rosalie Roos (1823–98) born in Stockholm, Sweden, was a poet, educator, and feminist. Roos came to America to teach at Limestone College, in Gaffney, South Carolina, between the years 1851 and 1855. The diary she kept while there was later published as Travels in America. Upon termination of her teaching position, she returned to Sweden and married Knut Olivecrona, a lawyer and jurist. She is best remembered for her work for women’s rights in her native country. Rosalie Roos, Travels in America, 1851–1855, trans. Carl L. Anderson (Carbondale, Ill., 1982).
has just placed
in my hands some lines, which she has written for my album. They are not
only beautiful, but so appropriate to my surroundings, that I shall take the
liberty of here transcribing them, in the belief that they will serve to grace
my matter-of-fact epistle:
Between the icebergs of the north, and zones
Clad by the sun in ever verdant foliage,
What constant change in climate, nature, tones,
In people, manners, customs, and in language—
Yes! different countries fatherland we call,
One is the ocean—it belongs to all.
Together we’ve been rocked upon its waves,
Admired its mighty beauty and its grandeur,
Have seen it gilt by evening’s brilliant rays,
Have seen it rise and fall in foaming splendour—
Our fatherlands approach eve[r] more and more—
Thou go’st to Albion—I to Swea’s shore.
But trackless is the way we now have made;
Shall thus its mem’ry die without a token,
A misty vision that will sink and fade,
A meteor that shines soon to be broken?
No—faithfully ’tis written in my heart—
Not time, not distance shall it from me part.
July 9th.— I resume briefly. Off Cape Clear.31Cape Clear is the southernmost point in County Cork. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 373. Yesterday, at noon, we
first heard the cry of “land, land,” and soon we dimly discerned (through
the captain’s glass) a thin line of something that was neither sea nor sky.
We had passed Cape Clear early in the morning, but it was not visible.
The wind was light, through the day, but favorable, and the sea, last eve-
ning, had scarcely a ripple on its surface. Last night, we saw the light
house of “Old Kinsale.”32A seaport town on the southern coast of Ireland in Cork County. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 951. We were all in high spirits; and hopes were
entertained that, if the breezes freshened, and the wind continued favor-
able, we might be in Liverpool by to-morrow morning. But, how rapidly
come the changes in life at sea! Our course is suddenly arrested by the
dreaded head wind, which meets us from the Bristol Channel; and from
ten o’clock last night to eight o’clock this morning, we only travelled nine
miles in the wrong direction. I feel thorough confidence in our captain,
who is ever at his post, allowing himself little rest, and, no sleep at this
juncture. Verily ‘tis no small responsibility that rests on the commander
of a ship, freighted with so many human lives; and he who realizes this
responsibility, must lead a life of great anxiety. Now, I must draw largely
on my small stock of patience, and learn to wait, and that almost within
sight of England.
July 13th.—Before five o’clock this morning, I was awakened by
voices shouting, “Holyhead! Holyhead!”33A coastal town on the western side of Wales in the county of Anglesey. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 296. and seldom have I heard more
cheering sounds; for we have had three days’ perfect calm in the Channel,
and very trying have some of us found it. Up I sprung—speedily was I
on deck—and thence beheld the beautiful Welsh mountains, clothed with
verdure, and irradiated by the soft sunshine of early morning. The sea
has great charms for me—nevertheless, it is refreshing to feast one’s eyes
once more on the green, green grass. We have passed the last two days
and nights in much anxiety—for never has our captain known such a fog
in the Channel—and we have been surrounded by vessels of all kinds;
so, bells have been ringing, blue lights burning, and every precaution has
been taken to prevent accident; but, “Except the Lord keep the city, the
watchman waketh but in vain;”34Ps. 127:1. and to Him who has preserved me from
the perils of the deep do I desire to render thanksgiving. We have passed
Point Linus,35Located in North Anglesey, Wales, Point Lynas is the site of the lighthouse in the district of Amlweh. Seltzer, Gazetteer of the World, 62. and the Pilot is on board. Now the steamboat is tugging
us along, and before the “evening shades prevail,”36The phrase “evening shades prevail” is taken from an untitled ode by Joseph Addison published in the 23 August 1712 issue of the London Spectator. The Spectator: Stereotype Edition, 2 vols. (1832; London, 1836), 534. we may hope to be
in sight of Liverpool. I do not expect to set foot on land to-night though,
for there is some difficulty in passing the bar, and then the custom house
visitation is in store for us. So, as the steamer leaves for the United States
to-morrow, I must e’en close this before I reach dry land, or it will miss
the post and be delayed five or eight days.
Scott’s37Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), Scottish poet and novelist, was one of the most prominent British authors of the early nineteenth century. Roderick Dhu, Ellen Douglas, and her father, Lord James of Douglas—a medieval Scottish chieftain—are the principal characters. Sir Walter Scott, The Complete Poetical Works of Scott (Boston, 1900), 152—208; John Lauber, Sir Walter Scott, rev. ed. (Boston, 1989), 1–6; Frank N. Magill, Critical Survey of Poetry: English Language Series, rev. ed., 8 vols. (Pasadena, Calif., 1992), 6:2903–12; Margaret Drabble, ed., The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 5th rev. ed. (New York, 1998), 542, 875–76. beautiful lines have been ringing in my ears all day. Perhaps
I have, for the first time, fully realized their ennobling sentiments con-
tained in them:
“Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself has said,
This is my OWN, my NATIVE land?
Whose heart has ne’er within him burned,
When home his footsteps he has turned,
From wand’ring on a foreign strand?’’38Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto 6, stanza 1. Scott, Complete Poetical Works, 74.
Excuse the too apparent marks of haste.
Very truly yours,
JULIA GRIFFITHS.
PLSr: FDP, 10 August 1855.