The World of Waters, Or, A Peaceful Progress O'er the Unpathed SeaOsborne, David, Mrs. (Fanny)
General
The World of Waters, Or, A Peaceful Progress O'er the Unpathed Sea
Osborne, David, Mrs. (Fanny)
Geography -- Juvenile literature; Voyages and travels -- Juvenile literature
CHARLES. "I have been to Jersey, madam, and shall be happy to afford
you the trifling information I have gained respecting its
peculiarities. Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, is
situated in a deep bay of the French coast, from which it is distant
twenty miles. Its extreme length from east to west is twelve miles,
its breadth six. The island is fertile and beautiful, it enjoys a
mild and salubrious climate; the coast is studded with granite
rocks, and indented by small bays, which add greatly to the beauty
of the scenery. The chief town is St. Helier's,--its principal trade
is with Newfoundland: ship-building is carried on extensively. The
natives are kind, but thrifty and parsimonious."
MRS. WILTON. "Thank you, Charles; your description is short, and
very much to the purpose. The Channel Islands, I believe, were
attached to England, as the private property of William the
Conqueror: the French have made several unsuccessful attempts to
gain possession of them. The natives are Norman, and the language
Norman-French. These islands enjoy a political constitution of their
own; exemption from all duties, and various privileges granted them
by Royal Charter; they are much attached to the English government,
but entirely averse to the French. We will now pass over the other
islands, and, 'putting our ship about,' we will stop to view the
Eddystone lighthouse."
MR. WILTON. "Before we quit the shores of France, I wish to read you
an extract from Leigh Ritchie's Travelling Sketches. You remember in
our conversations on the Rivers last winter, that we mentioned the
stain that would ever remain on Havre from the prominent part taken
by the inhabitants in the dreadful traffic in slaves. The extract I
am about to read is from the journal of a youth named Romaine, on
board the 'Rodeur,' a vessel of 200 tons, which cleared out of Havre
for Guadaloupe, on the 15th January, 1819. The boy writes to his
mother, while the vessel lay at Bony in the river Calabar, on the
coast of Africa:--'Since we have been at this place, I have become
more accustomed to the howling of these negroes. At first it alarmed
me, and I could not sleep. The captain says if they behave well they
will be much better off at Guadaloupe; and I am sure I wish the
ignorant creatures would come quietly, and have it over. To-day, one
of the blacks, whom they were forcing into the hold, suddenly
knocked down a sailor, and attempted to leap overboard. He was
caught, however, by the leg, by another of the crew; and the sailor,
rising in a passion, hamstrung him with his cutlass. The captain,
seeing this, knocked the butcher flat upon the deck with a
handspike. "I will teach you to keep your temper," said he; "he was
the best slave of the lot!"' The boy then runs to the chains, and
sees the slave who was found to be 'useless,' dropped into the sea,
where he continued to swim after he had sunk under the water, making
a red track, which broke, widened, faded, and was seen no more. At
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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