TO MISS VIRGINIA ELIZABETH SOUTHARD,
Packet-ship York, at Sea,
May 28th, 1832.
WHEN 1 made the half sportive promise, a few months since, of addressing the next letters 1 should write from abroad to you, 1 did not imagine that my sincerity in the case would so soon be put to the test; or, if I did, that I should commence scribbling on board a packet ship bound to England, in place of a man of war, destined to some foreign naval station.
Such, however, is the fact. It is now already twenty days since we bade our
"Native land, good night,"
and with the coming morrow we confidently expect to welcome the shores of the European world.
The lively joy diffused through the ship's company