portunities of observing the diseases which most frequently occur in this climate and country, and which he will have occasion most frequently to meet with in practice, than in any other similar institution in the United States. Even the infirmary of Edinburgh, the Hotel Dieu of Paris, or the hospitals of London, do not afford to their students more advantages than can be obtained by the American pupil at this well regulated asylum.

In this excellent institution, you also have access to an extensive medical library, consisting of the most respectable writings both of ancient and modern times.

I cannot pass by this circumstance without bearing testimoBy to the liberality of the gentlemen who compose the board of governors of that institution. Entertaining a due sense of the importance of that establishment, as a place of instruction to the student of medicine, they have not only embraced every opportunity, but they have eagerly sought for occasions by which they could render it most profitable to the pupils who attended the practice of the house, as well as a comfortable asylum to the sick, who are the objects of its charity.

Upon the advantages which the liberality and paternal care of the regents of the university, aided by the munificence of an enlightened legislature, have thus secured to our professsion, I congratulate you with the utmost sincerity. Let us now by our exertions demonstrate to the world, that the zeal and public spirit which those respective bodies have manifested for the general interests of learning, have been no less honorable to themselves than beneficial to this community. Although the city of Newyork by its geographical position in the union, the continued intercourse which it holds with the different states, as well as with most of the commercial cities of Europe, is thereby entitled to many preeminent advantages, it must be acknowledged, that it has not hitherto sustained that high literary character that has distinguished the metropolis of Pennsylvania. But we trust the time is at hand, when the state of Newyork, and this otherwise flourishing city, will be rendered the literary as it is now the commercial emporium of our country. Shall the state whose commerce renders her first in wealth; whose population amounts to nearly a million of inhabitants, and whose annual revenue to the union has exceeded five millions of dollars, not contribute her

quota in wealth, talents and exertions to the promotion of science? Shall her literature only consist in the means of multiplying her number of dollars. Shall the Tontine Coffee House be her only university? and the receipts of customs, and insurance companies, her colleges? Our patriotism, our pride of character, our love of life, or what is still stronger, our love of gain, forbid such apathy. No, we will not consent that such negligence shall continue to mark the character of our state. And I see in this auditory, gentlemen whose talents and literary attainments have enabled them to appreciate the importance of this subject, and whose patriotism and merited influence in our public councils, have given us every assurance that our exertions will continue to receive that support, which a liberal and enlightened government has it in its power to bestow. Let us then be animated by these prospects, and redouble our efforts. With these impressions, I enter upon the duties assigned me in this university.

TRAVELS.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

OUR readers will recollect, that some time since we anticipated the pleasure of gratifying them with a perusal of the unpublished letters of Mr. Sansom, the Pennsylvania tourist, but it subsequently appeared that we had misapprehended the extent of that gentleman's views in his proposed communication; we have, however, now the pleasure of presenting to the public, the account of his voyage to Europe; which will, we flatter ourselves, be only preliminary to other and more detailed extracts from the materials originally intended for a continuation of the published travels. Those interesting volumes, which are familiar to our readers, have been recently republished in London; and we have no doubt, that the same habits of strong and original observation, and the same perspicuity of style, which distinguish the published works of Mr. Sansom, will be easily recognized in those with which he may enrich our miscellany.

NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE FROM PHILADELPHIA TO LONDON,

IN THE GOOD SHIP DISPATCH, CAPTAIN BS.

London, May 2, 1799..

As day-light shut in [March 17] we passed rapidly by the light-house on Cape Henlopen with a brisk North-Wester, in

.

company with twenty or thirty sail; that, like ourselves, had been impatiently waiting the favourable moment to put to sea. Its twinkling flame seemed just lighted up to cast a livid gleam over the impending horrors of that dreadful night; for by ten o'clock the air thickened, and a head gale springing up, sent us all sick to bed. But bed was no longer a place of refuge from fatigue and terror. It was impossible to sleep for the creaking of the masts, the rattling of the cordage, the occasional clanking of the pumps, and the melancholy chorus of the crew tugging at the ropes in laborious concert, oh! he! yo! to take in sail and make all snug as the wind was now north-east, and we were obliged to lay too, though scarcely clear enough of the coast to avoid the terrible apprehensions of being driven on shore.

We lay in the starboard state-room, [a name one might suppose ironically applied to a little nook of six feet square] in which it is impossible to turn round at one's ease. My birth was next the ship's side, against which the sea often rushed with a crash that seemed to be tearing away the bows. My B had her's fitted up opposite to mine, and frequently sat up to catch the fresh air, at a little window that we had cut into the companion way.

A bottle of Schuylkill water was our only refreshment for two days and nights, and such was the inertia produced by sickness and despair, that when the water dropped upon our faces as it rushed over the deck, we scarcely thought it worth while to wipe it off again, much less to complain of so trifling an inconvenience, while the poor souls on deck ran the risk of being washed overboard every moment.

In this dismal situation, not a ship in sight the next morning of all those which sailed with us the evening before, we were tossed about all the next day and night; the raging blasts only dying away at intervals, as if to gather strength at a little distance; and then approaching with a hollow roar to fasten upon the ship again, with the fury of ravening wolves.

The sea sometimes broke clear over us, and rolled the ship sideways, as if every creen would turn her bottom upwards.

All this time we kept close to our sleepless beds; for had we not been too sick and sorry to stir, or even to speak, much more to think of eating and drinking, or any other terrestrial comforts, we could not have found room to have set our feet among the loose heaps of trunks, chairs, &c. that strewed the cabin, and rendered it dangerous to stir.

The dead-lights being in all the time, it seemed to us like one long and dismal night, only relieved every four hours by the captain and mate changing the watch, and exclaiming as they threw themselves down on their chests, "It blows a heavy gale I'll promise you."—"I never knew it blow harder in my life."

"It was just such a time when the Ville de Paris was lost.""Well we've got a good ship under us."—" It's well for us we've got such a good offing."-and such like terrifying consolations.

About day-break, however, the second morning, the wind began to abate, and we had the satisfaction to learn that the vessel had suffered no other damage than the shivering of a stay-sail, though the wind had been sharpened by sleet, and every part of our tackling was stiff with ice.

When I first crawled out of my birth, and cast an eye over the wet floor, and quenched fire, by the gloomy light that came in at the cabin door, what a fool thought I to myself have I been, to exchange all the comforts of life for this miserable vault; and, although the image of death no longer stared me in the face, I would gladly have been thrown without a farthing to help myself with, upon e'er a sand hill among the pines of Jersey.

Next day the sea ran lower, and the sun shone out warm, with favourable winds, a sail in sight, supposed to be the India. This drew us all upon deck, and inspired a sense of gratitude to him that "holdeth the winds in his fist; whose voice is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of

the sea."

On the ninth day we reached the banks of Newfoundland, which seems to have been providentially designed for a baiting place between the two continents; but we were disappointed of fish, as the wind continued high from the west, excepting for an hour or two, when we first got soundings; during which the sea was perfectly smooth on the surface, though gently swelling.

We crossed the banks in latitude 44 to 46, and on the 14th day quitted them; then first seeming to begin crossing the Atlantic, as we had never yet been more than a hundred leagues distant from land upon our left, and frequently saw gannets, gulls, and other sea fowl, of whom it is remarkable, that they never alight on a ship; though land birds will perch on the rigging, and often suffer themselves to be taken by the sailors, who let them go again, under an idea that it is unlucky to do them. any harm.

This day we saw several islands of ice at a distance, apparently as motionless as fast land; they being anchored as it were, by the solid mass below the surface, which is supposed to be at least equal to that above. In the afternoon a small one appeared ahead like the spire of a steeple. The captain ordered the helmsman to steer for it, and about four o'clock we passed it a hundred yards distant, under the brilliant reflection of sun beams playing upon its glossy surface. It was about fifty yards square, irregularly indented, particularly on one side, which formed a small bay, through and over which the sea broke and fell in showers of spray; but the angles next us were perpendicular, and as the waves rose against their white sides, the water showed its transparent blue. The greatest part was not more than ten or fifteen yards above the surf, though the cliff next us was supposed to rise fifty or sixty feet in the shape of a ruined tower, of which a flock of sea-fowl had taken undisturbed possession, perhaps from the time of its being torn by some convulsion of nature, from the eternal frosts of Hudson's bay.

In the dusk of the evening we saw a small whale brushing along close by us, without seeming to notice us in the least.

That night I paid dearly for the sight of the ice mountains, (rather unusual so early in the year,) with continual apprehensions, whether sleeping or waking, that we should run foul of some of them-a Danish brig having struck one sometime since in a fog, without a moment's notice; the first report being that of the tremendous fall of loose fragments from a height of a hundred feet, which killed the man at helm, broke through the quarter deck, and so filled the vessel with ice, that they had enough to