AFTER embarking at Harwich in à post-office packet in the afternoon with a fair wind, we were saluted at day-break the next morning with the agreeable intelligence that the coast of Holland was in sight. The sand-hills of the island of Goree were rapidly approached, and by eleven o’clock, the packet was safely along-side the quay in the harbour of Helvoetsluys. The examination of passports and baggage was effected with but little delay, and no unnecessary trouble; and merely afforded time to view the town, whilst carriages were preparing to convey us to the Brill, a distance of six miles. The for- tifications of Helvoetsluys towards the sea are very strong, and the harbour, formed by artificial walls of admirable masonry, entered by means of sluices, gives a very favourable impression of the patience and industry of the nation by whom it Was constructed; a very fine frigate of 36 guns, equipped for sea, was lying in the basin, with her sides close to the quay. The houses and public buildings have a great air of neatness, but of sameness, and the pavement of the streets had all the Characteristic cleanliness of a Dutch town. Independently

of the consideration of its being the connecting point between A 2