One must have experienced it one’s self, to be able to conceive the melancholy which takes possession of the soul of a man of sensibility, at the instant that he leaves his country and the civilized world, to go to inhabit with strangers in wild and unknown lands.  I should in vain endeavor to give my readers an idea, even faintly correct, of the painful sinking of heart that I suddenly felt, and of the sad glance which I involuntarily cast toward a future so much the more frightful to me, as it offered nothing but what was perfectly confused and uncertain.  A new scene of life was unfolded before me, but how monotonous, and ill suited to diminish the dejection with which my mind was overwhelmed!  For the first time in my life, I found myself under way upon the main sea, with nothing to fix my regards and arrest my attention but the frail machine which bore me between the abyss of waters and the immensity of the skies.  I remained for a long time with my eyes fixed in the direction of that land which I no longer saw, and almost despaired of ever seeing again; I made serious reflections on the nature and consequences of the enterprise in which I had so rashly embarked; and I confess that if at that moment the offer had been made to release me from my engagement, I should have accepted the proposal with all my heart.  It is true that the hopeless confusion and incumberment of the vessel’s deck, the great number of strangers among whom I found myself, the brutal style which the captain and his subalterns used toward our young Canadians; all, in a word, conspired to make me augur a vexatious and disagreeable voyage.  The sequel will show that I did not deceive myself in that.

We perceived very soon in the S.W., which was our weather-side, a vessel that bore directly toward us; she made a signal that was understood by our captain; we hove to, and stood on her bow.  It turned out to be the American frigate Constitution.  We sent our boat on board of her, and sailed in company till toward five o’clock, when, our papers having been sent back to us, we separated.

The wind having increased, the motion of the vessel made us sea-sick, those of us, I mean, who were for the first time at sea.  The weather was fine, however; the vessel, which at first sailing was lumbered in such a manner that we could hardly get in or out of our berths, and scarcely work ship, by little and little got into order, so that we soon found ourselves more at ease.

On the 14th we commenced to take flying fish.  The 24th, we saw a great quantity of dolphins.  We prepared lines and took two of the latter, which we cooked.  The flesh of this fish appeared to me excellent.

After leaving New York, till the 4th of October, we headed southeast.  On that day we struck the trade winds, and bore S.S.E.; being, according to our observations, in latitude 17 deg. 43” and longitude 22 deg. 39”.