have been more pleasing to me to have been recommended to some spot less distant from you all. But as I came abroad, not for pleasure or curiosity, but in order, by God's blessing, to regain the ability of being useful, I am bound to take that course which shall seem to lead most directly to this object." "And after all," he says, in a letter to another friend, "a few thousand miles make no great difference, when one is already so far from home. The great effort was to leave you at all. That being done, every thing else is comparatively easy."

The following letter to his elder brother contains an account of his voyage and arrival at the Cape.

"MY DEAR Brother,

"CAPE TOWN, JAN. 2, 1817.

"I have at length the pleasure of writing to you from the Cape of Good Hope, where we arrived safely two days since. When it came to the point of leaving England, I found it a greater trial of my feelings than I expected. The probability of a long and tedious passage; my entire ignorance of the persons who were to be my companions; the possibility of extreme sickness among total strangers; together with the vague notions of dreariness and barbarism, which were associated in my mind with the idea of Africa; all these things conspired to give me a momentary depression of spirits, to which I had before been a stranger; and when I received the last kind pressure of Mr. Williams' hand, on

leaving London, I found it hard to command my feel

ings.

"But every thing has been better, much better than I expected. My fellow passengers were civil to me from the first, and after a little time became particularly friendly and attentive. Our weather, especially on this side the line, was uncommonly good; and we made the gigantic elevation of the rock which forms Table Mountain, in sixty-five days from the Downs, without a single accident or danger. At the foot of the precipice which terminates the mountain on the south side, lies the little town from which I write to you. It is in the Dutch taste, very regular, very clean, and its whole aspect comfortable as well as pretty. The inhabitants are celebrated for hospitality; but your friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ross, are more than hospitable. They domesticate me in one of the pleasantest families I have ever met with from home, uniting all that is most agreeable in the English and Dutch characters. They remember Boston with great regard, and are always speaking of your kindness. So you see it is; the same good Providence which has protected me so long and so far, raises for me friends in a corner of the world where I could least expect to find them. My continual prayer is for a grateful and confiding spirit.

"As far as I can judge, the improvement of my health promises to compensate me for the toils of so long a voyage. A shortness of breath, which I felt in America, and which followed me to London, disappeared at sea.

G

My cough, if I do not deceive myself, (Dr. Jackson will understand that parenthesis,) is seldom more, and often less, than it was before my last attack. In short, if the climate of this country agree with me as well as it has hitherto, I do not doubt that, with the blessing of God, I may return to you in as good a state of health as I had in 1813 and 14. For myself I ask no more of heaven than to be restored to the ability of once more labouring in that beloved spot where my lot is cast.

"I propose to remove in a few days to Stellenbosch, a village about twenty-five miles distant, which is described as one of the most beautiful residences in the world. If I am prospered, I shall hope to embark for England in April, and thence to turn my face towards my dear native home."

The reason given by Mr. Thacher, in another letter, for not remaining at Cape Town, is, that it is subject to a south-east wind of the most unpleasant kind, which pours over the Table Mountain in hot gusts of such violence, as to fill the streets with dust, and oblige the inhabitants to shut themselves up in their houses. In a few days after his arrival, he removed to the above named village of Stellenbosch, and lived there till his departure for England.

The two following letters, which I have been kindly permitted to publish, will be valued not only as lively descriptions of the place of refuge to which he had fled from the pursuit of winter, and of his own situation and

employments there, but as pleasing specimens of his style of epistolary writing. The first of these is to his only sister.

"STELLENBOSCH, Cape of GOOD HOPE, FEB. 10, 1817. "As I cannot but flatter myself that the most affectionate of sisters sometimes employs herself in thinking of the situation of her exiled brother, I am going to try to give an idea of where he is, what he is doing, how he looks, how he feels, and what are his plans. What would I not give at this moment, for a similar account of yourself and all those dear friends I have left behind

me.

"Send then your imagination across the waters, many thousands of miles, to another hemisphere, a different climate, and a far different race of men. You will see, stretching far into the Southern Ocean, the land where he is; a land, not of any classic or romantic recollections, but always esteemed a land of barbarism and barrenness the fit habitation of the lion, the serpent and the tiger, of the sooty Ethiop, the wild Caffre, and the yellow Hottentot. At first view, it will seem to you to present nothing but bare and bleak mountains of immense height and frightful steepness, or else plains of sand to which the eye sees no limit, and which are forever heated by the rays of a blazing sun. But a nearer view will show you that Providence has prepared even here scenes of comfort and peace, and even of beauty and enjoyment. The vallies between the mountains are

all fertile. Wherever you find a drop of water, there is verdure.

"If, therefore, you cast your eye nearly east from Cape Town about twenty-five miles, you will see, at the foot of the first great chain of mountains, a little village of perhaps two hundred white houses, peeping from among the green trees. Here you will find fruits of the most delicious flavour and in the greatest profusion. The air is the driest and purest you can imagine. The valley is surrounded by mountains of the most singular forms, which are so disposed as to furnish you some very romantic and agreeable rides. If you are in search of peace and solitude, there is not a spot on the globe where you will find them in greater perfection. Here it is that you will discover your wandering brother. You will see him moving about in his grey frock-coat and white underdress, looking very comfortable, it is true, but very little like a minister. His face is beaten and blackened by long exposure; and an African sun bids fair to throw over it that peculiar tinge of yellow, which you may sometimes have seen in a mulatto who is not very dark. He is not over corpulent, though of quite tolerable dimensions. He lodges in an admirable house, where he has every comfort. As the inhabitants are all Dutch, he has not much society; not knowing a word of their melodious and classical language. He is in a fair way therefore to improve his talents for taciturnity. Not however that he is destitute of company; for very happily the clergyman of the place, and all his family, speak