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- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
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- which is precisely what its name implies; and tolls fast or slow,
according to the agitation of the waves. In a calm, it is dumb; in a
moderate breeze, it tolls gently; but in a gale, it is an alarum like
the tocsin, warning all mariners to flee. But it seemed fuller of
dirges for the past, than of monitions for the future; and no one can
give ear to it, without thinking of the sailors who sleep far beneath
it at the bottom of the deep.
As we sailed ahead the river contracted. The day came, and soon,
passing two lofty land-marks on the Lancashire shore, we rapidly drew
near the town, and at last, came to anchor in the stream.
Looking shoreward, I beheld lofty ranges of dingy warehouses, which
seemed very deficient in the elements of the marvelous; and bore a most
unexpected resemblance to the ware-houses along South-street in New
York. There was nothing strange; nothing extraordinary about them.
There they stood; a row of calm and collected ware-houses; very good
and substantial edifices, doubtless, and admirably adapted to the ends
had in view by the builders; but plain, matter-of-fact ware-houses,
nevertheless, and that was all that could be said of them.
To be sure, I did not expect that every house in Liverpool must be a
Leaning Tower of Pisa, or a Strasbourg Cathedral; but yet, these
edifices I must confess, were a sad and bitter disappointment to me.
But it was different with Larry the whaleman; who to my surprise,
looking about him delighted, exclaimed, “Why, this ’ere is a
considerable place—I’m _dummed if_ it ain’t quite a place.—Why, them
’ere houses is considerable houses. It beats the coast of Afriky, all
hollow; nothing like this in _Madagasky,_ I tell you;—I’m _dummed,_
boys if Liverpool ain’t a city!”
Upon this occasion, indeed, Larry altogether forgot his hostility to
civilization. Having been so long accustomed to associate foreign lands
with the savage places of the Indian Ocean, he had been under the
impression, that Liverpool must be a town of bamboos, situated in some
swamp, and whose inhabitants turned their attention principally to the
cultivation of log-wood and curing of flying-fish. For that any great
commercial city existed three thousand miles from home, was a thing, of
which Larry had never before had a _“realizing sense.”_ He was
accordingly astonished and delighted; and began to feel a sort of
consideration for the country which could boast so extensive a town.
Instead of holding Queen Victoria on a par with the Queen of
Madagascar, as he had been accustomed to do; he ever after alluded to
that lady with feeling and respect.
As for the other seamen, the sight of a foreign country seemed to
kindle no enthusiasm in them at all: no emotion in the least. They
looked around them with great presence of mind, and acted precisely as
you or I would, if, after a morning’s absence round the corner, we
found ourselves returning home. Nearly all of them had made frequent
voyages to Liverpool.
Not long after anchoring, several boats came off; and from one of them
stept a neatly-dressed and very respectable-looking woman, some thirty
years of age, I should think, carrying a bundle. Coming forward among
the sailors, she inquired for Max the Dutchman, who immediately was
forthcoming, and saluted her by the mellifluous appellation of _Sally._
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