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We anchored a few days at Hampton Roads and went ashore to shoot birds. Among others, there were a great many cardinal birds, fiery red, and very beautiful. We saw men fishing with a net eight hundred feet long. They had to use many oxen to pull it ashore. There were also many nice oysters. In an hour's time we could rake up a boat full.
We arrived in New York all right, It is the largest town in America. It is very irregular, but now they are straightening it in a strange manner - they just simply move whole buildings by steam. I have seen not more than four men move a two-story brick house ten feet back. The town is built on the island of Manhattan, and the entrances are strongly fortified.
On the other side of the Sound, Brooklyn is situated, also a pretty large town. There are several pretty gardens, among others Castle Gardens, where I saw a balloon ascend. When it was about to go up, the basket, in which a man was riding, hit against a flag-pole and turned over. But the man hung on by his legs. To get free he had to get his knife out of his pocket to cut something loose, and in the meantime, he had to hang on by his teeth. The flagpole broke. He managed to turn his basket and got into it and flew away. But he had to come down on the other side of the river for repairs.
I went to the theatre in New York and saw "Virginia" . They had the most beautiful scenery. We came back all right to Baltimore and I felt like making a longer voyage so I hired out to the ship "Ann McKean" to go to Valparaiso. We sailed from Baltimore in the latter part of January. The whole voyage was made in monotonous sailing, broken only now and then by a storm or a school of fish. The fins of a shark would be seen now and then. The sight of another ship is quite an event after such a long voyage. There were lots of flying fish and it was beautiful to see a flock of them when the sun shone on them. I have often seen dolphins pursue flying fish and it is wonderful how high they can jump after them. They almost always catch them, too.
The first land we sighted after two month's sail was Fire Island, north of Cape Horn. We steered so far south of the cape that we did not see it at all. We saw no more land until we arrived at Valparaiso. We anchored a half mile from the town, as we could not get ashore. The town lies at the end of a bay on a very steep rocky hill, and looks ugly and irregular. Scarcely a tree is to be seen - nothing but rocks. The people look ragged and treacherous like all the Spanish and Portuguese I have seen. They have lovely oranges and grapes. One hears nothing but church bells ringing and they burn fireworks night and day Outside the churches. We loaded with copper 333333and sailed in three weeks.
We arrived in Baltimore after a rare, fine voyage - only south of the Horn it was cold and stormy. The day after we were paid off, three of us hired to the schooner "Robert", starting on a trading trip to Colombia. We had just three days to be ashore and, as we had a good deal of money, we meant to have a good time and get rid of it.
We lived fast, hired cabs, went to the theatre, etc. On the last day we made engagements with four girls, the landlord's daughters, to make a trip to a little town called Ellicott Mills, about ten English miles from Baltimore. So very pretty, especially the gardens, which were the most beautiful I have seen in America. We had a very fine dinner.
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