wonder at or admire. The sea is truly beautiful, and
has many charms, notwithstanding a fresh-water poet, affecting to be
disgusted with its monotony, has ill naturedly vented his spleen by
describing the vanities of a sea life in two short lines:

"Where sometimes you ship a sea,
And sometimes see a ship."

Yet in spite of its attractions, there are few persons, other than a
young enthusiast on his first voyage, who, after passing several weeks
on the ocean, are not ready to greet with gladness the sight of land,
although it may be a desolate shore or a barren island. Its very aspect
fills the heart with joy, and excites feelings of gratitude to Him,
whose protecting hand has led you safely through the dangers to which
those who frequent the waste of waters are exposed.

The gratification of every man on board the Dolphin may therefore
be conceived, when, after a passage of FIFTY-THREE DAYS, in a very
uncomfortable and leaky vessel, a man, sent one morning by the captain
to the fore-top-gallant yard, after taking a bird's eye view from his
elevated position, called out, in a triumphant voice, LAND, HO!

The coast of Guiana was in sight.

Guiana is an extensive tract of country, extending along the sea
coast from the Orinoco to the Amazon. When discovered in 1504, it was
inhabited by the Caribs. Settlements, however, were soon made on the
shore by the Dutch, the French, and the Portuguese; and the country was
divided into several provinces. It was called by the discoverers "the
wild coast," and is accessible only by the mouths of its rivers the
shores being every where lined with dangerous banks, or covered with
impenetrable forests. Its appearance from the sea is singularly wild and
uncultivated, and it is so low and flat that, as it is approached, the
trees along the beach are the first objects visible. The soil, however,
is fertile, and adapted to every variety of tropical production, sugar,
rum, molasses, coffee, and cacao being its staple commodities.

To the distance of thirty or forty miles from the sea coast the land
continues level, and in the rainy season some districts are covered with
water. Indeed, the whole country bordering on the coast is intersected
with swamps, marshes, rivers, artificial canals, and extensive
intervals. This renders it unhealthy; and many natives of a more genial
clime have perished in the provinces of Guiana by pestilential fevers.

These marshes and forests are nurs