GENTLEMEN: Respecting the goodly Bay State I can say but
little, because since I saw you, I have been only an
occupant of steamboat and railroad cars. I had long supposed
that a three-day trip to Boston was only hereafter to be a
notion and reminiscence of olden time, but alas! I have had
the stern reality of things as they "used to was." I left
New York on Monday, in the Narraganset, at the usual time.
We had a rough trip into the Sound, and at 12 o'clock
Captain Woolsey, with sound discretion, carried us into the
New Haven Bay, where we anchored till Wednesday morning,
when we proceeded to Stonington, and on going over [to?] the
railroad and finding it in the vocative case, owing to the
outbreak of the waters, we retraced our movements and again
took boat, and made a passage around Point Judith.
It is due to Captain Woolsey and his very gentlemanly aid,
Mr. Richmond, to say that everything was done to make a
large body of disappointed passengers feel happy; good and
plentiful meals were gratuitously provided, and it can
hardly be possible that any wayfarer on this occasion left
the Narraganset without a deep conviction that, under the
severe and awkward circumstances of the passage, all had
been done that was possible to obviate the inconveniences
and disagreeables of the passage through the Sound. I would
add that the boat worked well. We had a very pleasant set of
passengers. Among others I may mention the Hon. Robert
Rantoul of Boston. This gentleman is by far the ablest man
of the Democratic party in Massachusetts, and unless I could
see him embarked for Salt River, (which I think must be his
final destination,) I would rather have him embark on the
same boat in which I sail, than any other. He is a very
interesting, affable man, of great research, and will, I
doubt not, yet render good service to the country.