Our captain was in
such good humour with us, on account of the success of the
outward-bound passage, that he proved very indulgent. This disposition
was probably increased by the circumstance that a ship arrived in a
very short passage from New York, which spoke our prize; all well,
with a smacking southerly breeze, a clear coast, and a run of only a
few hundred miles to make. This left the almost moral certainty that
_la Dame de Nantes_ had arrived safe, no Frenchman being likely
to trust herself on that distant coast, which was now alive with our
own cruisers, going to or returning from the West Indies.
I had a laughable time in showing Marble the sights of London. We
began with the wild beasts in the Tower, as in duty bound; but of
these our mate spoke very disparagingly. He had been too often in the
East "to be taken in by such animals;" and, to own the truth, the
cockneys were easily satisfied on the score of their _menagerie_.
We next went to the Monument; but this did not please him. He had
seen a shot-tower in America--there was but one in that day--that beat
it out and out as to height, and he thought in beauty, too. There was
no reasoning against this. St. Paul's rather confounded him. He
frankly admitted there was no such church at Kennebunk; though he did
not know but Trinity, New York, "might stand up alongside of it.
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