With these thoughts, I turned from the beautiful landscape and finding the captain, a noble-hearted sailor, inquired of him how long it would take us to reach the port of New York. “That is New York,” said he, pointing to a dark mass of buildings with here and there a spire towering in the air. “We shall reach there about eight o’clock, but it is Sunday and you will have to stay on board till to-morrow.” With this he turned away, calling his men to weigh anchor, as the physician whose duty it was to inspect the cargo of men, like cattle, had just left in his boat. On we went, my sister still dancing and singing for joy; and Mr. R. and myself sitting somewhat apart, he looking despondently into the water, and I with my head firmly raised in the air, happy in heart, but thoughtful in mind and trusting in my inward strength for the future. I took my breakfast on deck. No one seemed to have any appetite, and I felt somewhat reproved when I heard some one near me say, “She seems to have neither head nor heart--see how tranquilly she can eat at such a time as this!” These words were spoken by one of the cabin passengers, a young man who was exceedingly curious to know why I was going to America and had several times tried to make the rest of the passengers believe that it must be in consequence of an unhappy love. The poor simpleton! he thought that women could enter into life only through the tragedy of a broken heart. A bell sounded. We were opposite Trinity Church whose bell had just tolled eight. On our right were masses of brick houses and tall chimneys surrounded by a forest of masts; on our left were the romantic shores of New Jersey. Islands and projecting points of land, clad in the brilliant green of the fresh spring foliage, greeted the eye; ferryboats, like monstrous white swans, glided to and fro from the shores; rowboats plied everywhere, the white or red shirts of the oarsmen giving a bright touch of color to the ever-changing panorama. Such was the scene which gave us our first impressions of this new country, seeming to proclaim as its welcome freedom and hospitality to all newcomers. This new civilization was utterly different from what we had been taught about the United States. Indeed, I think many of the passengers expected to see a _half-civilized_ community who, under a rather anarchical state of government called a “republic,” did just as each individual pleased, and who would greet every newcomer with an enthusiastic joy, inviting him to come and partake of all the good the country could offer. Such, or similar, were the vague ideas which many passengers of the good ship _Deutschland_ entertained no matter whether in the cabin or steerage. The captain had done his best to rectify these false expectations but with very little success, I am sure.