Afghanistan and the Anglo-Russian Dispute | Page 2

necessarily infer an increase of high civilization, it reasonably
leads to the expectation of great melioration in the commoner comforts.
Such has been the result, and to those familiar with facts as they now
exist, the difference will probably be apparent in these pages.
Although the moral changes in American society have not kept even
pace with those that are purely physical, many that are essential have
nevertheless occurred. Of all the British possessions on this continent,

New-York, after its conquest from the Dutch, received most of the
social organization of the mother country. Under the Dutch, even, it
had some of these characteristic peculiarities, in its patroons; the lords
of the manor of the New Netherlands. Some of the southern colonies, it
is true, had their caciques and other semi-feudal, and semi-savage
noblesse, but the system was of short continuance; the peculiarities of
that section of the country, arising principally from the existence of
domestic slavery, on an extended scale. With New-York it was
different. A conquered colony, the mother country left the impression
of its own institutions more deeply engraved than on any of the
settlements that were commenced by grants to proprietors, or under
charters from the crown. It was strictly a royal colony, and so continued
to be, down to the hour of separation. The social consequences of this
state of things were to be traced in her habits unlit the current of
immigration became so strong, as to bring with it those that were
conflicting, if not absolutely antagonist. The influence of these two
sources of thought is still obvious to the reflecting, giving rise to a
double set of social opinions; one of which bears all the characteristics
of its New England and puritanical origin, while the other may be said
to come of the usages and notions of the Middle States, proper.
This is said in anticipation of certain strictures that will be likely to
follow some of the incidents of our story, it not being always deemed
an essential in an American critic, that he should understand his subject.
Too many of them, indeed, justify the retort of the man who derided the
claims to knowledge of life, set up by a neighbour, that "had been to
meetin' and had been to mill." We can all obtain some notions of the
portion of a subject that is placed immediately before our eyes; the
difficulty is to understand that which we have no means of studying.
On the subject of the nautical incidents of this book, we have
endeavoured to be as exact as our authorities will allow. We are fully
aware of the importance of writing what the world thinks, rather than
what is true, and are not conscious of any very palpable errors of this
nature.
It is no more than fair to apprize the reader, that our tale is not
completed in the First Part, or the volumes that are now published. This,
the plan of the book would not permit: but we can promise those who
may feel any interest in the subject, that the season shall not pass away,

so far as it may depend on ourselves, without bringing the narrative to a
close. Poor Captain Wallingford is now in his sixty-fifth year, and is
naturally desirous of not being hung up long on the tenter-hooks of
expectation, so near the close of life. The old gentleman having seen
much and suffered much, is entitled to end his days in peace. In this
mutual frame of mind between the principal, and his editors, the public
shall have no cause to complain of unnecessary delay, whatever may be
its rights of the same nature on other subjects.
The author--perhaps editor would be the better word--does not feel
himself responsible for all the notions advanced by the hero of this tale,
and it may be as well to say as much. That one born in the Revolution
should think differently from the men of the present day, in a hundred
things, is to be expected. It is in just this difference of opinion, that the
lessons of the book are to be found.

AFLOAT AND ASHORE.


CHAPTER I.
"And I--my joy of life is fled, My spirit's power, my bosom's glow; The
raven locks that grac'd my head, Wave in a wreath of snow! And where
the star of youth arose, I deem'd life's lingering ray should close, And
those lov'd trees my tomb o'ershade, Beneath whose arching bowers my
childhood play'd." MRS. HEMANS.
I was born in a valley not very remote from the sea. My father had been
a sailor in youth, and some of my earliest recollections are connected
with the history of his adventures, and the recollections they excited.
He had been a boy in