Morse's letters to his daughter give a detailed account of his journey, but I shall give only a few extracts from them:-- "_Hamburg, September 27, 1845._ Everything being ready on the morning of the 17th instant, we left Brompton Square in very rainy and stormy weather, and drove down to the Custom-house wharf and went on board our destined steamer, the William Joliffe, a dirty, black-looking, tub-like thing, about as large but not half so neat as a North River wood-sloop.
The wind was full from the Southwest, blowing a gale with rain, and I confess I did not much fancy leaving land in so unpromising a craft and in such weather; yet our vessel proved an excellent seaboat, and, although all were sick on board but Mr.Ellsworth and myself, we had a safe but rough passage across the boisterous North Sea." Stopping but a short time in Rotterdam, the party proceeded through the Hague and Haarlem to Amsterdam, and from the latter place they visited the village of Broek:-- "The inn at Broek was another example of the same neatness.

Here we took a little refreshment before going into the village.

We walked of course, for no carriage, not even a wheelbarrow, appeared to be allowed any more than in a gentleman's parlor.

Everything about the exterior of the houses and gardens was as carefully cared for as the furniture and embellishments of the interior.

The streets (or rather alleys, like those of a garden) were narrow and paved with small variously colored bricks forming every variety of ornamental figures.