This much they did effect, and I was
compelled to submit to their power. We are all of us, more or less,
the dupes of knaves and fools.
All this, however, was the fruits of several weeks' intercourse, and I
have anticipated events a little, in order to make the statements in
connection. Meeting a breeze, as has been said already, the Dawn got
over the bar, about two o'clock, and stood off the land, on an easy
bowline, in company with the little fleet of square-rigged vessels
that went out at the same time. By sunset, Navesink again dipped, and
I was once more fairly at sea.
This was at the period when the commerce of America was at its
height. The spirit shown by the young Republic in the French affair
had commanded a little respect, though the supposed tendencies of the
new administration was causing anything but a cordial feeling towards
the country to exist in England. That powerful nation, however, had
made a hollow peace with France the previous March, and the highway of
nations was temporarily open to all ships alike; a state of things
that existed for some ten months after we sailed. Nothing to be
apprehended, consequently, lay before me, beyond the ordinary dangers
of the ocean. For these last, I was now prepared by the experience of
several years passed almost entirely on board ship, during which time
I had encircled the earth itself in my peregrinations.
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