Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. PORTSMOUTH. Sail to Portsmouth in the Navarin—Sensations on Landing —A Stage-coach—Dress and Appearance of the Population—Buildings and Shops—The invisible Dock-yard— Sailors on Shore—English Steamers—A Family Group. On the morning after our arrival at Portsmouth the weather had greatly moderated; but as the distance to the entrance of the Thames was only about one hundred and twenty miles, the captain determined not to sail until the evening, so as to have daylight in passing that part of the coast from Dungeness to Margate, where there are some dangers to be avoided, and where daylight is necessary to procure a pilot. As we had the whole day before us, the captain proposed a visit to the shore; and we straightway embarked in the Navarin, under the guidance of the doughty Sam, whose energies, rising as the gale abated, were now quite equal to the management of his craft. He had shaken out all his reefs, set his largest jib, fielded his topmast, and carried the American ensign with a swagger at the truck, instead of hanging it with a depressed and dish-cloth air in the rigging. The old sailor, to whom he had very willingly abandoned the honour and responsibility of command the day before, as he escaped from the salt spray and the sallies of the main- boom to the protection of the companion-way, was now again degraded to the condition of a foremast hand, and turned upon the forecastle, while the youthful skipper, perched upon his high-heeled boots, grasped the helm with a knowing cock of the eye, and issued his comniands with the authoritative air of a newly- caught midshipman. , A quick and pleasant sail brought us under the fortified point of land which forms the entrance to the beautiful harbour of Portsmouth. Here a number of convicts were at work; m...