It was about the middle of December when we set sail. This is considered the best season for a voyage such as we were bound upon. The oranges are ripe in January and February, so that when the vessel arrives out, the fruit is all freshly gathered and ready for shipping. A great deal of care is necessary in the importation of this sort of fruit; for if the weather be too warm, or the oranges have been too long taken from the trees, they will be spoiled on the passage. It very often happens that a vessel arrives at Boston from Sicily in the summer with a load of oranges and lemons, and having had a long passage, the whole cargo is found to be spoiled, and must be thrown away. This most commonly happens in the Italian vessels, which do not sail so fast as the Americans’, and have not crews so expert in navigation. Well, I was now fairly on board. We hoisted sail; the wind blew fresh from the northwest; we scudded by the castle, we were soon outside of Boston lighthouse. The pilot jumped into his boat and bade us good-by. I looked after him as his little wherry kept bobbing up and down between the waves, till he was too far off to be seen any longer. The steeples of Boston and the neighboring hills gradually sunk in the horizon; night came on, and I could see no more of my native land. We carried all sail through the night, in order to get well off the coast while the wind was fair, as the weather is very variable near the land, and it is highly dangerous to be near the coast in winter. By-and-by we had furious squalls of wind, which tore our sails, and put us in great danger. In a day or two more we crossed the Gulf Stream, which is a long and wide current of water running through the Atlantic, from the Gulf of Mexico nearly across the ocean. I was astonished to find the water in this current blood-warm, although it was the middle of winter; but Captain Scudder informed me that this is always the case, as the water comes from a warm climate. Dreadful thunder-storms also happen here, and a great many ships have been struck and burnt up by lightning in the Gulf Stream. We were all very glad when we had crossed this remarkable current, for we had nothing but squalls of wind and showers of rain while we were in it. At length we got fairly out into blue water, the sky grew clear, we had a bright sun and a fair wind, and although the sea continued to roll and dash pretty turbulently, yet it was a pleasure to stand on the deck and look at the glorious broad ocean, with its blue waves, crested with white foam, sparkling in the sun. Two or three ships had kept us company off the coast, and for some days we could discern their white sails on the verge of the horizon; but they presently sunk out of sight, and we found ourselves with nothing but sea around and sky above us.