But one pleasant evening, as we were entering the South Channel, being on soundings south-east of Nantucket, one of the crew, who was leaning over the lee gunwale, was struck with the strange appearance of a star, which shone with unusual brilliancy, and left a long, broad, and crooked wake behind.
His exclamation of surprise caused every eye to be directed to the spot, about fifty-five degrees above the eastern horizon, pointed out by our observing shipmate and there in full view, to the admiration of some and the terror of others, the comet of 1811 stood confessed! The men indulged in wild speculations respecting the character of this mysterious visitor, but all concurred in the belief that it was the messenger of a superior power, announcing the coming of some fearful national evil, such as a terrible earthquake, a devastating pestilence, or a fierce and bloody war.

Our country was engaged in a war with a powerful nation within the following year; but to those who watched the signs of the times, and remembered the capture of the Chesapeake, and were aware of the impressment of our seamen, the confiscation of property belonging to our citizens captured on the high seas without even a decent pretence, and the many indignities heaped on our government and people by Great Britain, it needed no gifted seer or celestial visitant to foretell that an obstinate war with that haughty power was inevitable.
A few days after the discovery of the comet furnished such a liberal scope for conjecture and comment in the forecastle and the cabin, about the middle of October, 1811, we arrived in Salem, having been absent between eight and nine months..