.
We looked at rope-walks, rigging-lofts, ships in the stocks; and saw the
sailors of the station laughing and sporting with great mirth and
cheerfulness, which the Commodore said was much increased at sea. We
returned to the wharf at Boston in the cutter's boat. Captain Scott, of
the cutter, told me a singular story of what occurred during the action
between the Constitution and Macedonian,--he being powder-monkey aboard
the former ship. A cannon-shot came through the ship's side, and a man's
head was struck off, probably by a splinter, for it was done without
bruising the head or body, as clean as by a razor. Well, the man was
walking pretty briskly at the time of the accident; and Scott seriously
affirmed that he kept walking onward at the same pace, with two jets of
blood gushing from his headless trunk, till, after going about twenty
feet without a head, he sunk down at once, with his legs under him.

* * * * *

[In corroboration of the truth of this, see Lord Bacon, Century IV. of
his Sylva Sylvarum, or Natural History, in Ten Centuries, paragraph
400.]

On Saturday, I called to see E. H----, having previously appointed a
meeting for the purpose of inquiring about our name. He is an old
bachelor, and truly forlorn. The pride of ancestry seems to be his great
hobby. He had a good many papers in his desk at the Custom-House, which
he produced and dissertated upon, and afterwards went with me to his
sister's, and showed me an old book, with a record of the children of
the first emigrant, (who came over two hundred years ago,) in his own
handwriting. E----'s manners are gentlemanly, and he seems to be very
well informed. At a little distance, I think, one would take him to be
not much over thirty; but nearer to hand one finds him to look rather
venerable,--perhaps fifty or more. He is nervous, and his hands shook
while he was looking over the papers, as if he had been startled by my
visit; and when we came to the crossings of streets, he darted across,
cautioning me, as if both were in great danger to be run over.
Nevertheless, being very quick-tempered, he would face the Devil if at
all irritated. He gave a most forlorn description of his life; how, when
he came to Salem, there was nobody except Mr. ---- whom he cared about
seeing; how his position prevented him from accepting of civilities,
because he had no home where he could return them; in short, he seemed
about as miserable a b