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TRAVELS OF A SUGAR PLANTER.

LETTER NO. I.

QUEEN'S HOTEL, LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND,
July 16, 1859.

EDITORS ADVOCATE :

I arrived at this place last evening at sundown, and have availed myself of this earliest opportunity to write you. I find that I shall not be able to write you as often as you requested, but shall from time to time drop you a line, which I trust will at least amuse if not instruct your numerous readers. We left New York on the 6th instant, at 12 o'clock M., on board the royal steamer Persia, and arrived here in nine days and four hours. The trip would have been made in nine days, but we were detained fully four hours in consequence of icebergs off Newfoundland, where we got into quite a nest of these terrors to navigators. While among these dangers of the deep, there was great excitement on board.

There was but little sleeping that night, for we all remembered the melancholy fate of the President, and the very recent terrible accident to the Edinburgh; but the good ship Persia carried us through safe, running at the rate of twenty-four miles an hour! Icebergs are certainly most magnificent-looking objects. They assume every imaginable shape. Some resemble splendid cathedrals, a mile long, while others, like huge square towers, rise many hundred feet above the sea, and seem as solid as if they rested upon the very bottom of the "vasty deep." If they could be divested of their terrors, they certainly would be delightful objects with which to while away the monotony of a sea-voyage.

On shipboard I found many friends and acquaintances from Louisiana. Among them our Senator, Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Gov. P. O. Hebert and lady, C. D. Stewart, Esq., and family, of Point Coupée, Dr. S. A. Smith, of Rapides, Mr. Norton and daughter, of New Orleans, and Hon. George Eustis and lady. We had quite a number of distinguished strangers on board, among whom were Ex-President Comonfort, of Mexico, John Van Buren, and Mr. O'Gorman, the Irish patriot. To all of these I had the honor to be introduced; with two of them I talked politics—the other I entertained, in true West Baton Rouge style, with a small game of draw poker.

My friend, the Ex-President, is down upon his native country, and says that the United States will be doing God's service to go at once and take pos

session of the whole of Mexico. I am decidedly of his opinion; for unless something is done, and that quickly, like the Kilkenny cats, they will eat up one another, and leave the Anglo-Saxon land-robber nothing but the tail end of a once beautiful and rich country. I have spent this day in sight-seeing and giving coppers to beggars; for I must say there are more beggars in Liverpool than in our whole country put together. This being the great commercial emporium of Great Britain, her merchants have paid great attention to shipping, warehouses, docks, wharves, &c., which latter are among the wonders of the world. It well pays one a trip across the Atlantic, simply to see the docks of this great city. They are built of solid masonry, of immense thickness, and will take in vessels drawing twenty-seven feet of water. They extend for eight miles!

Every thing in Liverpool seems to have been built to stand as long as time shall last, with the view of bordering on eternity; for nearly every house is built of fire-bricks and cast-iron! being the very same materials with which we set our sugar kettles, and build our bagasse furnaces. They boast here of the finest concert-hall in all Europe. It is called the St. George, and is a very magnificent affair, far ahead of any thing in our country. The hotels here are all very small, but well kept, having no general eating room, but simply a saloon or coffee-room, where you order your meals as at our restaurants. The roast beef of old England is her pride and her glory, and accounts in a great

measure for the bravery of her soldiers on so many well-fought battle-fields. It gives them "a stomach for the fight." Then only think of fresh salmon every morning for breakfast, and cherries as large as walnuts! I visited the fish-market this morning, and found many kinds of rare and delicious fish, mostly from the Irish coast. Prince's Park is the favorite promenade for the denizens of this great commercial metropolis. It is a delightful place, and here I first saw that species of green velvet sward, so common in "merrie England," on which the bold bands of Robin Hood were accustomed to sleep. Strange to say, there is no ice here. Although the climate in winter is cold and disagreeable, still, the fogs are so heavy that they seem to prevent that intense cold which is required to make good ice. Even in the coffee-houses or bar-rooms, you can't get any ice. As to a mint-julep, I don't think such a thing was ever seen in Liverpool. The cry is, mug of (h)ale, 'alf and 'alf, 'ot whiskey punch. I find that the English are generally violently opposed to the recent treaty. The press here is unanimous, and without any exception denounces Napoleon and Villa Franca. They abuse him, and even ridicule him; but a passing stranger can easily see that there is an all-pervading secret dread that the Frenchman will some day cross the Channel. I forgot to tell you, that during my voyage I became very sea-sick. After getting well, I composed the following verses, which I send you in order that you may know that you have "a poet among you."

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Believe it not, but rather think

The best of ways to ease the heart
Is-go to sea, and take one drink

Of Neptune's beverage: then you're smart.

I am here now, but how to get back home without crossing the ocean I cannot tell. I wish I could. Oh, those terrible waves! that eternal rocking of the ship, that "dd compound of villainous smells"-bah! I feel like Mr. John Routh of Texas once did. It was his first trip to Havana. He was very sea-sick the whole voyage, and suffered much. On his arrival he went up to the hotel, and immediately ordered his landlord to send out and buy him a horse. The horse was bought, saddled and bridled; Mr. Routh stood in front of his hotel, looking at his prize with great satisfaction and delight, when a party of friends came up, and wanted, in the name of Heaven, to know what he wanted with a horse. "Why," said he, "I am tired of

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