Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Sunday, July the 21st. We sanctified this Holy day as the preceding and as well as we could. Our cabin presented the image of a simple chapel, and we prayed there as if we were in a true church. At ten o'clock, we were all assembled and disposed to hear M. Gallaudet preach; but the sailors whom we should have been very glad to have with us, that our prayers might be the more efficacious, not being ready, we confined ourselves to the reading of a chapter of Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and delayed the sermon till noon, an hour which would be more convenient to the sailors. In time, noon arrived, and we all descended into our chapel and sat in our usual places. The sailors soon followed us there. They were more numerous than formerly, and indeed they would all have been there, if the Captain had not been obliged to except some to watch upon deck and to direct the helm.

All being uncovered and seated in circle, and Mr. Gallaudet being in the middle of us, we seemed to present the image of the Disciples themselves, and our preacher that of Jesus Christ himself, and to hear his sermon with the same attention that the Disciples of Jesus Christ gave to his Discourses. While we thus prayed, it was sultry and still more so during our dinner. We perspired, we had not a breath of air, so that we did not eat with a good appetite. The weather, however, was cloudy. This was the presage that the night would be very stormy. Indeed, it was so. It lightened and thundered, and the wind changed very often in different directions, so that our ship being agitated in different manners, we all passed a very bad night.

Monday, July the 22nd; Tuesday, July the 23rd; Wednesday, July the 24th. I discovered nothing new during these three days, neither on the sea, nor in the Heavens, so that I have nothing interesting to announce to the readers. The weather was by turns fair, rainy, cool, moist, foggy, stormy, so that the companions of my voyage were almost all sad and tired, I, myself, was not less so, but I was somewhat relieved, one while in studying and another in sleeping.

Thursday, July the 25th. Though this day and above all, the morning ,was as sad and weary as the preceding, nevertheless it was in the afternoon much more amusing for us. During a long time we had ceased to fish, because we were in the middle of the sea, where it was impossible to take any fish. But this day we arrived on the Banks, and there, so to speak, was the abode of the Cod (Morne) and other kinds of fishes. Being favored with pleasant weather, the Captain first cast his line into the sea and a cod soon came and took the bait. When it was laid upon deck everyone of us was filled with joy and leaped and danced around it. Almost all the sailors then quit their usual business and became fishermen. More than thirty cod, one larger than the other, one halibut also, were taken in a short time, and we should have taken a greater number of them if the Captain seeing that we had more than sufficient had not ordered the fishing to cease. The sailors immediately busied themselves in cleaning the fish. Our deck had the appearance of a real butcher's hall. We tied some of the heads of the fish above the deck as a mark of our triumph. We ate one at our supper and found it very excellent, and so much the more as it was a long time since we have eaten anything equally fresh.

Friday, July the 26th. Whether the sauce which I had taken yesterday at supper with my portion of fish, was too cold, or whether I was in the wrong to mingle it with oil and vinegar, or I do not know from what the cause, when I awoke, I felt myself attacked with a sad colic which made me suffer dreadfully, but thinking that it would be a transient evil, I said nothing to anybody. It was the first time I had suffered since I left France. Thanks to coffee, I drank two bowls of it and it warmed me again and my colic was removed by degrees. I was very well at the hour of dinner, and I dined with a good appetite. As the day was rainy at intervals, we were compelled to stay constantly in our cabin, and for want of air, we were indisposed, one more than the other, and each from time to time went to bed. I, myself, did so likewise.

Saturday, July the 27th. This day was equally divided with regard to weather. The morning was fair and the evening rainy. In the morning the sailors spread their clothes upon deck to dry them by the sun, for they had been all wet the foregoing day, and the deck presented the appearance of a broker's ship. In the evening, the rain having ceased for a moment, I ascended upon deck, and in casting my eyes on the sea, I discovered at a great distance two new vessels, one of which apperared to be a fishing boat, coming from New York, which led me to think that we approached this city, and so much the more as we had this day such a wind as might have been wished for.

Sunday, July the 28th. We passed this day in the most religious manner in thinking of God and Jesus Christ, and in reading pious books, M. Gallaudet preached as he used to do, and he was heard with the same attention. It rained now and then, and from time to time the sun shone. The wind was rather favorable to us in the morning, but in the afternoon it ceased to blow, and we made not the smallest progress. Our ship agitated by the waves balanced about and about, and rocked us nearly as a nurse rocks a child. In the night the wind became favorable again, and we continued on our way.