At Sea, June 4.--We are many miles out in the Irish Channel. There are
six hundred emigrants on board--men, women, and children. I am told that
most of these are from Ireland, unhappy Ireland! Some are from England,
and are going to seek their fortune in America. As I look on them I
think, My God! what misery there is in this world! And yet what can I do
to alleviate it? I am helpless. Let the world suffer. All will be right
hereafter.
June 10.--Six hundred passengers! They are all crowded together in a
manner that is frightful to me. Comfort is out of the question; the
direst distress is every where present; the poor wretches only try
to escape suffering. During storms they are shut in; there is little
ventilation; and the horror that reigns in that hold will not let me
either eat or sleep. I have remonstrated with the captain, but without
effect. He told me that he could do nothing. The owners of the ship
put them on board, and he was employed to take them to their proper
destination. My God! what will become of them?
June 15.--There have been a few days of fine weather. The wretched
emigrants have all been on deck. Among them I noticed three who, from
their appearance, belonged to a different class. There was a lady with
a young man and a young girl, who were evidently her children. The lady
has once been beautiful, and still bears the traces of that beauty,
though her face indicates the extreme of sadness. The son is a man of
magnificent appearance, though as yet not full-grown. The daughter is
more lovely than any being whom I have ever seen. She is different from
my Bicetta. Bice is Grecian, with a face like that of a marble statue,
and a soul of purely classic mould. Bice is serene. She reminds me of
Artemis. Bice is an artist to her inmost heart. Bice I love as I
love you, my Teresina, and I never expect to meet with one who can
so interpret my ideas with so divine a voice. But this girl is more
spiritual. Bice is classic, this one is medieval. Bice is a goddess,
this one a saint. Bice is Artemis, or one of the Muses; this one is Holy
Agnes or Saint Cecilia. There is in that sweet and holy face the same
depth of devotion which our painters portray on the face of the
Madonna. This little family group stand amidst all the other passengers,
separated by the wide gulf of superior rank, for they are manifestly
from among the upper classes, but still more so by the solemn isolation
of grief. It is touching to see the love of the mother for her children,
and the love of the children for their mother. How can I satisfy the
longings which I feel to express to them my sympathy?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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