At half-past two in the morning I wended my way in solitude through the deserted streets of Charlottetown in the direction of the wharf where lay the Shediac steamer. The night was dark, and the walk by no means pleasant, but I am in the habit of taking things as I find them, and making the best of my lot; so I did not repine.

When I stepped on board the vessel, I found her, to use strong language, terribly crowded—there being within her upwards of four hundred and fifty passengers. These crowded the decks like flies, so that there was no sitting, and barely standing room ; and when I descended, with considerable difficulty, into the cabin, I beheld an accumulation of legs and arms such as I had never done before in all my travels. The packing was closer than that adopted onboard an African slaver, and the ventilation less perfect. However, I had prepared myself to sail in this steamer, so I endured the “ roughing, ” and stood and sat in a narrow compass, and breathing an unwholesome atmosphere, until the wharf at Shediac was reached, at eleven o'clock. At three in the afternoon I left in the same steamer for Gaspe, the easternmost point of Canada, in order to meet the royal squadron again. She had about one hundred and twenty passengers on board, and sailed in a roundabout route, calling at various places en route.