The Dutch pilots usually cruise about Dungeness, at the entrance of the Straits, but not happening to run across one, Capt. Streeter was in too much of a hurry to wait, and so kept on. Now he became very anxious to procure one, and being off Antwerp he ordered he me to set the "Jack" at the fore royal-mast-head as a signal for a pilot. I gave the signal halyards to one of the men, and told him to lay aloft and reeve them at the fore. The man slowly climbed up the rigging, but when he got to the royal-mast his courage gave out. The ship was lying over very much and jumping heavily in the sharp sea, so that it was a matter of difficulty to hold on, and much more so to shin up the long mast-head. I cheered the man on, who made two or three unsuccessful attempts to reach the truck, but after ascending a short distance invariably slid back to the eyes of the rigging. Another man was now sent up to help him, or do the work for him, and I travelled aloft also to drive them up. But both men were thoroughly frightened; so much so that I feared they might lose their hold altogether, and I did not like to force them at this risk, so at last I took the halyards myself and soon was at the mast-head. Just at this moment Capt. Streeter came out of the cabin and walked forward to see if his order had been executed. There he beheld his second mate at the fore truck, and two sailors in the cross-trees looking at him performing their work. This was rather opposed to his idea of things, so he armed himself with the long unused cat, which had been out of service since the negro-boys escaped from its tutelage, and when the men reached the deck he gave them each a good flogging; and when I appeared he said to me: "If I ever see you do sailors' work again for them, I'll treat you in the same way." But the flag did not bring the pilot, though the wind moderated enough to quiet the captain's fears of the lee-shore. Laying off and on during the night, in the morning the spires and windmills of Holland appeared rising out of the sea before the land was visible. A pilot boat came along side and a rosy-cheeked little Dutchman clambered over the rail. In his short sailor's jacket he looked like an overgrown boy; but he proved himself a good pilot, by bringing the ship into the Zuyder Zee and then entering her in the canal at New Diep, the port of Amsterdam. Vessels formerly sailed up the Zuyder Zee to Amsterdam, but were often detained two or three weeks for water enough to carry them over a certain bank. The enterprising merchants, to obviate this delay, dug a canal fifty miles long, from Amsterdam to New Diep, making it wide enough for two frigates to pass abreast, and the ships are drawn through this to the city in about eighteen hours; or, if preferred, they can discharge at New Diep into canal-boats, which convey the cargo to the city. Another deeper and shorter canal has been made since then.