Travels in the United States, etc.,: during 1849 and 1850./ By the Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley.

TRAVELS IN AMERICA.
could take the command) assumed the responsibility of navigating
the ship herself. Every one knows how difficult the navigation
in going round Cape Horn is, yet this skillful and strong-minded
lady succeeded in bringing the ship safely to Lima, assisted only
by a very youthful nephew.
It might be imagined a person who could act thus would be
masculine, and rough, perhaps, in deportment and manner. Nothing of the kind. This lady is eminently feminine, has a very
mild and sweet expression of countenance, and is particularly gentle and pleasing. She never alludes to the subject herself; but I
could not resist one day asking her a little about it, though fearful
of awakening melancholy recollections in her mind.
She spoke with the utmost modesty of her own wonderful performance; and said, in speaking of her arrival at Lima (where
she came to rejoin her husband, who had left England previously),
that, though deeply grateful to a merciful Providence for having
so graciously protected her and her children, yet this was, perhaps,
the most painful moment of her life.
I mentioned that at the time she took the command of the ship
she was in deep grief: she had just lost an adored child, a little
daughter, who had gradually faded and sunk from the time of
their quitting the English shores. On their arrival at Callao, she
and her children were on deck, anxiously looking for the husband
and the father; but she knew he would miss the one lost treasure;
and when she saw him earnestly gazing with growing anxiety,
deepening fast into sorrow and terror, as he scanned the diminished
group, she felt her heart oppressed almost to breaking within her.
The sweet simplicity and tenderness with which she related
these touching circumstances were most winning-most interesting: how evident was it that that noble heart, undaunted amid
terrible dangers, was one of the softest and warmest that ever beat
in a woman's bosom! This affecting tale has made a deep impression in Lima. No wonder! How often has conduct not half
as extraordinary and sublime been lauded to the skies! What
true courage was that she displayed in conduct which demanded
so much energy, so much promptitude, decision, and self-reliance,
and self-forgetfulness, too!
As we sit in our claraboya'd drawing-room here, we hear frequently a bell ringing in the court-yard just below, which is a
thoroughfare. It is the Host being carried to some sick person.
The sound of the bell is usually accompanied by a lugubrious and
rather monotonous chant. If in the evening, a number of attend
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