JOURNAL
[PART I]
Having, through the medium of the public prints, advertized my intended departure, and made the necessary preparations, I bade farewell to my good and venerable father, whom I never expected to see more, and tore myself from the embraces of my wife, and of one dear and only child. On the following day, being the
27th November, 1818, I reached London, on the Defiance coach, after riding all day in the rain. On the next day, I boarded, in the King's Dock, the good ship Washington, which carried out Mr. Fearon and Mr. Lancaster. The former gentleman was, I found, disliked by the captain, and, indeed by all Americans, on account of the fidelity of his Sketches. I called on him and thought him an interesting and intelligent man. I requested of the tourist, letters to his friends; "No," said he, "my book has destroyed them: you will confirm my reports."[1]
December 16th.—I, this day, boarded the good ship Ruthy, and paid 15l. in part of passage, to [2] Captain Wise of Boston, to Charleston bound: "We are," said he, "short of money in America; but sure of living."
21st.—Insured 120l. on my luggage with Butler and Wade, and tried in vain at several offices to effect a life-insurance, the climate to which I was destined being doubly hazardous. Received from my physician a prescription, costing and really worth three guineas, and fit
- ↑ For a brief note on Fearon, see Flint's Letters, volume ix of our series, note 119.—Ed.
