Walked the deck last night till about eight o'clock; then made up a whist party & played till one of the number had to visit his room from sickness. Retired early & had a sound sleep. Was up betimes, & aloft, to recall the old emotions of being at the mast-head. Found that the ocean looked the same as ever. Have tried to read, but found it hard work. However, there are some very plasant passengers on board, with whom to converse. Chief among these is a Mr Adler, a German scholar, to whom Duyckinck introduced me. He is author of a formidable lexicon, (German & English), in compiling which he almost ruined his health. He was almost crazy, he tells me, for a time. He is full of the German metaphysics, & discourses of Kant, Swedenborg &c. He has been my principal companion thus far. There is also a Mr Taylor among the passengers, cousin to James Bayard Taylor the pedestrian traveller. He is full of fun--or rather was full of it.--Just at this moment I hear his mysterious noises from the state-room next to mine. Poor fellow! he is sea-sick. As yet there have been but few thus troubled, owing to pleasant weather. There is a Scotch artist on board, a painter, with a most unpoetical looking only child, a young-one all cheeks & forhead, the former preponderating. Young McCurdy I find to be a lisping youth of genteel capacity, but quite disposed to be sociable. We have several Frenchmen & Englishmen. One of the latter has been hunting, & carries over with him two glorious pairs of antlers (moose) as trophies of his prowess in the woods of Maine. We have also, a middleaged English woman, who sturdily walks the deck, & prides herself upon her sea-legs, & being an old tar.
Herman Melville (1819-1891) was een Amerikaanse schrijver. Hij schreef onder meer drie reisdagboeken.
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