antly refuse the invitation. He therefore accepted it, and
passed an hour with him, from whom he learnt that Melissa had been sent
to her uncle's at Charleston, for the recovery of her health, where she
died. "Her premature death, said her cousin, has borne so heavily upon
her aged father, that it is feared he will not long survive."----"Well
may it wring his bosom, thought Alonzo;----his conscience can never be
at peace." Whether Melissa's cousin had been informed of the particulars
of Alonzo's unfortunate attachment, was not known, as he instituted no
conversation on the subject. Neither did he enquire into Alonzo's
prospects; he only invited him to call again. Alonzo thanked him, but
replied it would be doubtful, as he should shortly leave town. He made
no one acquainted with his intentions.

The day at length arrived when the ship was to sail, and Alonzo to leave
the shores of America. They spread their canvass to propitious gales;
the breezes rushed from their woody coverts, and majestically wafted
them from the harbour.

Slowly the land receded; fields, forests, hills, mountains, towns and
villages leisurely withdrew, until they were mingled in one common mass.
The ocean opening, expanded and widened, presenting to the astonished
eyes of the untried mariner its wilderness of waters. Near sunset,
Alonzo ascended the mast to take a last view of a country once so dear,
but whose charms were now lost forever. The land still appeared like a
simicircular border of dark green velvet on the edge of a convex mirror.
The sun sunk in fleecy golden vapours behind it. It now dwindled to
discoloured and irregular spots, which appeared like objects floating,
amidst the blue mists of distance, on the verge of the main, and
immediately all was lost beneath the spherical, watery surface.

Alonzo had fixed his eyes, as near as his judgment could direct, towards
Melissa's favourite rock, till nothing but sea was discoverable. With a
heart-parting sigh he then descended. They had now launched into the
illimitable world of billows, and the sable wings of night brooded over
the boundless deep.

* * * * *

A new scene was now opened to Alonzo in the wonders of the mighty deep.
The sun rising from and setting in the ocean; the wide-spread region of
watery waste, now smooth as polished glass, now urged into irregular
rolling hillocks, then swelled to

"Blue trembling billows, topp'd with foam,"

or