obes. In order to
detect any smuggling that might be attempted, they will examine every
trunk or chest, &c., from top to bottom. They did not search our pockets,
however, but short of that they are required to do most anything
disagreeable to the traveler. As it was Sunday, all the shipping was
tessellated with the colors of every nation. It is a grand sight to see
acres upon acres of ships so profusely decorated with flags that it seems
as if the sky was ablaze with their brilliant colors. Our own "Manhattan"
sailed proudly into port with twenty-six flags streaming from her
mast-head and rigging.

After we had passed muster, we passed over a kind of bridge or gangway
from the "Manhattan" into a little steamer that had come down the river to
fetch us. How glad we were to leave the good old ship, and bound into the
arms of another that promised to take us ashore in a very few minutes! It
was a glorious time! We had come to regard the "Manhattan" as a
prison-house, from which we had long desired to take our leave, if we only
could. But now that the parting hour had come, how changed our feelings!
As the little boat sailed away, we felt sorry to leave her, and commenced
to call her by pet names. "Good-by dear 'Manhattan,' many thanks to you
for carrying us so safely across the deep wide sea," cried many of us;
while others gave the customary _three cheers_ and waved their hats.
Though we left her empty behind--no friends, and no acquaintances
remaining there, still we continued to wave our handkerchiefs at her so
long as we could see her, and have ever since remembered her as the
noblest of all the ships that was in harbor that day. Her, colors seemed
the brightest, and a hundred happy passengers separated that hour that
will never cease to sing her praises. Permit me, kind reader, to add one
line more, and in that line make mention of

Life-Boat, No. 5.

You may not be able to understand it, or to appreciate how a small party
of our passengers came to regard her as almost a sacred thing, but there
are a few that know the spell, and who will ever bless the page that tells
the tale! Thither we went when the winds blew harder and the waves rolled
higher, when our heads became heavier and our steps unsteady! She hung at
or near the center of the ship, where there was the least rocking or
swinging of all places in the whole vessel. During day-time we lay down
beneath her shade, and at night, we would sit by her side re