As we drew near the Narrows, the
wind increased; and forty sail, working through the pass in close
conjunction, terminated the piece with something like the effect
produced by a _finale_ in an overture. The brightness of the
morning, the placid charms of the scenery, and the propitious
circumstances under which I commenced the voyage, in a commercial
point of view, had all contributed to make me momentarily forget my
private griefs, and to enter cheerfully into the enjoyment of the
hour.
I greatly disliked passengers. They appealed to me to lessen the
dignity of my position, and to reduce me to the level of an
inn-keeper, or one who received boarders. I wished to command a ship,
not to take in lodgers; persons whom you are bound to treat with a
certain degree of consideration, and, in one sense, as your
superiors. Still, it had too much of an appearance of surliness, and a
want of hospitality, to refuse a respectable man a passage across the
ocean, when he might not get another chance in a month, and that, too,
when it was important to himself to proceed immediately. In this
particular instance, I became the dupe of a mistaken kindness on the
part of my former owners. These gentlemen brought to me a
Mr. Brigham--Wallace Mortimer Brigham was his whole name, to be
particular--as a person who was desirous of getting to France with his
wife and wife's sister, in order to proceed to Italy for the health of
the married lady, who was believed to be verging on a decline.
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