A first sea-voyage brings with it privations and pleasures peculiar to itself. But whether the influence of the one or of the other shall predominate, depends far less upon the circumstances of the voyage, than upon the character of the voyager. By many minds it is contemplated with anxiety, and associated only with danger and distress; but to others, the broad deep sea, that

presents various scenes and objects of interest, which amply compensate for the temporary privations they sustain, while traversing its bosom. To this class Mr. Williams belonged. The buoyant spirit with which, as we have seen, he commenced the voyage, retained its elastic energy unrelaxed and unimpaired to its termination. His letters clearly prove that all the novelties which met his eye ministered to his enjoyment. The sharks and sea birds, the falling on the deck of a fugitive flying fish, the occasional shipping of a heavy sea, the distant view of Palma and Teneriffe, the crossing of the line with the absurdities of Neptune and his demigods, contributed their full share to his gratification. But he was still more deeply interested in the structure of the vessel in which he sailed.