Civilized America Author:Thomas Colley Grattan Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NEW YORK HARBOUR. 13 New World the general vivacity increased, bets were made as to the day and hour of arrival, lotteries and raffles set on foot; a piece of... more » plate subscribed for, as a present to our captain, and song and speech were the eternal order of the day and night. Everything in short wore the joyous aspect common to the occasion ; and finally, the cry of " Land !" from the masthead capped the climax of our expectations. For some hours we pushed rapidly forward towards the welcome shore. Land soon became visible to all eyes, the highlands of " Neversink " being the objects first in sight. As night closed in the lights of Sandy Hook were our beacon guides ; and no pilot boat appearing as we had hoped, though we fired gun after gun and threw up several rockets to announce our want of one, the engine was at length stopped, and we lay quietly to till dawn. By sun-rise the next morning, Sunday, July 28th, a pilot having previously come on board, we were bearing up directly for New York. But not being anxious to arrive until the morning was somewhat advanced, so as that a fair proportion of the city population might at once greet us and gratify themselves, we went quietly onwards till we made the quarantine station, three miles from the city. As we sailed up into the harbour, our sensations—I think I may speak for almost all on board—were highly excited ; and ricli associations of enjoyment were lavishly combined for us. The beauty of the scenery at either side, the brilliancy of the day, the many brightly-painted and fanciful steamboats and pleasure barges floating about ; several ships of war at anchor (bands of music in some, joyous cheers from all of them) ; repeated discharges of artillery from the battery as we approached theshore, answered by our own guns in ...« less