The Men
Have Just Been Holystoning Here, Singing Away Lustily In Chorus.
Last Night I Got Leave To Sling My Cot Under The Main Hatchway, As
My Cabin Must Have Killed Me From Suffocation When Shut Up.
Most
of the men stayed on deck, but that is dangerous after sunset on
this African coast, on account of the heavy dew and fever.
They
tell me that the open sea is quite different; certainly, nothing
can look duller and dimmer than this specimen of the tropics. The
few days of trade wind were beautiful and cold, with sparkling sea,
and fresh air and bright sun; and we galloped along merrily.
We are now close to the Cape de Verd Islands, and shall go inside
them. About lat. 4 degrees N. we expect to catch the S.E. trade
wind, when it will be cold again. In lat. 24 degrees, the day
before we entered the tropics, I sat on deck in a coat and cloak;
the heat is quite sudden, and only lasts a week or so. The sea to-
day is littered all round the ship with our floating rubbish, so we
have not moved at all.
I constantly long for you to be here, though I am not sure you
would like the life as well as I do. All your ideas of it are
wrong; the confinement to the poop and the stringent regulations
would bore you. But then, sitting on deck in fine weather is
pleasure enough, without anything else.
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