The Weather Was Bad, The Ship Was Dirty, The
Distance More Than 100 Miles, So That We Had The Pleasant Prospect
Of A Delightful Night On Board The Ship.
There were, moreover, so
many passengers, that we were forced to sit crowded together; so
there we sat with exemplary patience, stared at each other, and
sighed bitterly.
Order was entirely out of the question; no one had
time to think of such a thing. Smoking and card-playing were
perseveringly carried on all day and all night; it can easily be
imagined that things did not go so quietly as at an English whist-
party. The incessant rain rendered it impossible to leave the cabin
even for a short time. The only consolation I had was, that I made
the acquaintance of the amiable composer Lorzing, a circumstance
which delighted me the more, as I had always been an admirer of his
beautiful original music.
CHAPTER II
Morning dawned at length, and in a short time afterwards we reached
the great commercial city, which, half destroyed by the dreadful
conflagration of 1842, had risen grander and more majestic from its
ashes. {11} I took up my quarters with a cousin, who is married to
the Wurtemburg consul, the merchant Schmidt, in whose house I spent
a most agreeable and happy week. My cousin-in-law was polite enough
to escort me every where himself, and to shew me the lions of
Hamburgh.
First of all we visited the Exchange between the hours of one and
two, when it is at the fullest, and therefore best calculated to
impress a stranger with an idea of the extent and importance of the
business transacted there. The building contains a hall of great
size, with arcades and galleries, besides many large rooms, which
are partly used for consultations, partly for the sale of
refreshments. The most interesting thing of all is, however, to sit
in the gallery, and looking downwards, to observe the continually
increasing crowd passing and repassing each other in the immense
hall and through the galleries and chambers, and to listen to the
hubbub and noise of the thousands of eager voices talking at once.
At half-past one o'clock the hall is at its fullest, and the noise
becomes absolutely deafening; for now they are marking up the rates
of exchange, by which the merchants regulate their monetary
transactions.
Leaving the Exchange, we bent our steps towards the great harbour,
and entering a small boat, cruised in and about it in all
directions. I had resolved to count only the three-masted ships;
but soon gave it up, for their number seemed overwhelming, even
without reckoning the splendid steamers, brigs, sloops, and craft.
In short, I could only gaze and wonder, for at least 900 ships lay
before me.
Let any one fancy an excursion amidst 900 ships, great and small,
which lined both shores of the Elbe in tiers of three deep or more;
the passing to and fro of countless boats busily employed in loading
or unloading these vessels; these things, together with the shouting
and singing of the sailors, the rattling of anchors which are being
weighed, and the rush and swell of passing steamers, combine to
constitute a picture not to be surpassed in any city except in that
metropolis of the world, London.
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