When the gates were opened and the lucky ones said good-bye, those left behind felt hopeless of ever seeing the gates open for them.

It was both pleasant and painful, for the strangers grew to be fast friends in a day, and really rejoiced in each other's fortune; but the regretful envy could not be helped either.
Our turn came at last.

We were conducted through the gate of departure, and after some hours of bewildering manoeuvres, described in great detail in the report to my uncle, we found ourselves--we five frightened pilgrims from Polotzk--on the deck of a great big steamship afloat on the strange big waters of the ocean.
For sixteen days the ship was our world.

My letter dwells solemnly on the details of the life at sea, as if afraid to cheat my uncle of the smallest circumstance.

It does not shrink from describing the torments of seasickness; it notes every change in the weather.