* * * * * From the _New York Spectator_, Wednesday evening, April 5, 1843. CRUISING IN THE SOUND. GENTLEMEN: Respecting the goodly Bay State I can say but little, because since I saw you, I have been only an occupant of steamboat and railroad cars. I had long supposed that a three-day trip to Boston was only hereafter to be a notion and reminiscence of olden time, but alas! I have had the stern reality of things as they "used to was." I left New York on Monday, in the Narraganset, at the usual time. We had a rough trip into the Sound, and at 12 o'clock Captain Woolsey, with sound discretion, carried us into the New Haven Bay, where we anchored till Wednesday morning, when we proceeded to Stonington, and on going over [to?] the railroad and finding it in the vocative case, owing to the outbreak of the waters, we retraced our movements and again took boat, and made a passage around Point Judith. It is due to Captain Woolsey and his very gentlemanly aid, Mr. Richmond, to say that everything was done to make a large body of disappointed passengers feel happy; good and plentiful meals were gratuitously provided, and it can hardly be possible that any wayfarer on this occasion left the Narraganset without a deep conviction that, under the severe and awkward circumstances of the passage, all had been done that was possible to obviate the inconveniences and disagreeables of the passage through the Sound. I would add that the boat worked well. We had a very pleasant set of passengers. Among others I may mention the Hon. Robert Rantoul of Boston. This gentleman is by far the ablest man of the Democratic party in Massachusetts, and unless I could see him embarked for Salt River, (which I think must be his final destination,) I would rather have him embark on the same boat in which I sail, than any other. He is a very interesting, affable man, of great research, and will, I doubt not, yet render good service to the country. THE REV. DR. WHITMAN FROM OREGON.