neatly adorned and surmounted with a pretty little statue of the Blessed Virgin, garlanded with flowers that some ladies from Holland had removed from their bonnets. On Sunday I said mass in the grand saloon, where more than a hundred persons could conveniently find places; several Protestants asked permission to be present. Hymns were sung, during the sacrifice, in French, Latin, Dutch and German. It was certainly a rare spectacle on the ocean, where one is much more habituated to hearing blasphemies than the praises of God.
On the 2d day of May, when near the Banks of Newfoundland, the sea became covered with a dense fog. It continued thus during four days, so that the captain could not make an observation. We could not distinguish anything a few feet from the boat. The misfortunes of the Lyonnais and of the Arctic' are still recent. We were in continual danger of coming in contact with some sailing vessel pursuing the same route. As a precaution, the great whistle of the steam engine was heard day and night, in its loudest and most piercing tones, in order to give the alarm to vessels which might be in our passage. By means of this manoeuvre we were able to advance with our ordinary rapidity, ten or twelve knots, or four leagues, an hour.
However, as we were rapidly approaching land, and the fog increasing in intensity, it appeared that we were progressing more or less at random; and as the observations of the meridian had become impossible, we were not without anxiety. We, therefore, had recourse to heaven, and we said our beads together, with the litany of our Blessed Mother, and some special prayers to obtain, by the intercession of the souls in purgatory, a serene sky. Our prayers appear to have been heard. Some hours after, the fogs had vanished, and we had one of the most glorious evenings that can be witnessed at sea. The full moon, reflected on the waves, shone in its splendor from the starry and cloudless firmament. The next day the sun rose majestically. We
5 Wrecked on these coasts in 1856 with considerable loss of life.