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M. Cowperthwaite:

How long do you expect to stay ill America, should you be so fortunate as to arrive there safety?

Answer:

I hope to stay there three years. Then I shall return to France. The time hangs heavy upon me here. I wish much to arrive at New York.

M. Cowperthwaite:

How long have you been studying the English language?

Answer:

I knew almost nothing before my departure from Havre. I had neglected to learn English when I went to London.

M. Cowperthwaite:

I have seen your journal and I think that you make great progress. You have a very good instructor in M. Gallaudet. You should be very thankful for so good a guide and I hope you are.

Answer:

I shall endeaver to make better progress when I shall be on shore. Yes, I have a good instructor in M. Gallaudet and I hope to speak English in a short time.

M. Cowperthwaite:

I hope your labours will be blessed to that poor class of Deaf and Dumb in America. You should pray to God for his blessing upon your exertions for their good.

Answer:

I shall not fail to pray to God for his blessing upon our exertions for their good.

I have prayed to him several times and I hope our wishes have been heard.

M. Cowperthwaite:

It is a great happiness that we may have that privilege to pray to God. He has promised that he hears our prayers if we pray in a proper manner. Do you pray with or without a written form of prayer, or do you use both?

Answer:

I always pray with a book, but mine is in my trunk. I am obliged to pray from memory.

M. Cowperthwaite:

I am afraid that you will get out of patience with me, but these questions and answers will fill up our time which hangs heavy upon us. If you have no objections to it, I will ask some more, or if you please you may put some questions to me.

Answer:

Your conversation gives me much pleasure, I assure you, and the more I converse with you, the more I shall become learned in your language, but I must go to write fair my blotted paper of this morning. I ask your permission to do this, and at the same time I beg you to leave me this paper that I may transcribe in my journal, our conversation of this day.

I descended into the cabin. I had hardly written two pages when the steward came to give me notice that the supper was going to be served. I was then obliged to rise from the table and to defer to the next day, the remainder of my journal. I went to rejoin my companions upon deck and found them in conversation on the anniversary of the independence of their country, which would take place the next day, and on the project which they had of celebrating the day as one of their best days. It was proposed that one should pronounce a discourse on that occasion. We applauded this proposition. We promised to listen with the greatest attention, and to be better understood. We advised the orator to pronounce his discourse upon a place very much raised. There is not, said one, a place more raised than the shrouds. The gentlemen would do well to pronounce his discourse there. No, No, said another. The gentlemen would do much better to pronounce it higher,--up the mast. He would be better heard and understood and he would feel better from above the impressions which his oration might produce upon the minds and in the hearts of his auditors. We amused ourselves with this little raillery because we knew that he had not really any intention of pronouncing any discourse. Afterwards we went to supper; then to walk; then to prayers and then to bed.

Thursday, July the 4th. As I said yesterday, I continued my journal after breakfast, and when I had finished it, having learned that every one of my friends would pronounce in dining, a sentiment applicable to the anniversary of their independence, I prepared one for my own part, for I wished to take my share in the festival and mingle my joy with theirs. The dinner was soon ready, and we all sat at table. We had an extraordinary dinner. At the desert, everyone gave a toast. We began at the eldest and descended to the youngest. We were in number six persons. The eldest was Captain Hall. He spoke then the first and gave this toast:

"The 4th of July-may it be celebrated by patriots and true Republicans while time continues!"

Then Mr. Wilder gave his:

"As we did by true blessings of God and our own valor, secure on this day forty years ago our national independence, so may we by the Grace of God, a strict adherence to the principles and practice of the Religion of our Saviour, and relying on His merits, secure to ourselves a happy reception into that blessed Kingdom, whose law is peace, whose king is love, and whose duration is eternity."

Then Mr. Cowperthwaite gave his:

"May the free-born sons of America on the ocean join in unison with their Brethren this day on shore in ascriptions of praise to God as the author of their independence; may they ever be united in preserving the same to the latest posterity."