It was maintained, and with sufficient freedom on the part of the
inferior, until they reached the shore, and came in full view of the
pennant of the Queen; when, with the tact of an old man-of-war's man, he
threw into his manner all the respect that was usually required by the
difference of rank.
Half an hour later, the Coquette was rolling at a single anchor, as the
puffs of wind came off the hills on her three top-sails; and shortly
after, she was seen standing through the Narrows, with a fresh
southwesterly breeze. In all these movements, there was nothing to attract
attention. Notwithstanding the sarcastic allusions of Alderman Van
Beverout, the cruiser was far from being idle; and her passage outward
was a circumstance of so common occurrence, that it excited no comment
among the boatmen of the bay, and the coasters, who alone witnessed her
departure.
Chapter VII.
"--I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far
As that vast shore wash'd with the furthest sea,
I would adventure for such merchandise."
Romeo And Juliet.
A happy mixture of land and water, seen by a bright moon, and beneath the
sky of the fortieth degree of latitude, cannot fail to make a pleasing
picture. Such was the landscape which the reader must now endeavor to
present to his mind.
The wide estuary of Raritan is shut in from the winds and billows of the
open sea, by a long, low, and narrow cape, or point, which, by a medley of
the Dutch and English languages, that is by no means rare in the names of
places that lie within the former territories of the United Provinces of
Holland, is known by the name of Sandy-Hook.
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