Five days later he wrote to his aunt as
follows:--
"Here we are safely lauded and comfortably housed at the far
end of Africa; and having secured the landing and final storage
of all the telescopes and other matters, as far as I can see,
without the slightest injury, I lose no time in reporting to
you our good success _so far_. M----[1] and the children are,
thank God, quite well; though, for fear you should think her
too good a sailor, I ought to add that she continued sea-sick,
at intervals, during the whole passage. We were nine weeks and
two days at sea, during which period we experienced only one
day of contrary wind. We had a brisk breeze 'right aft' all the
way from the Bay of Biscay (which we never entered) to the
'calm latitudes;' that is to say, to the space about five or
six degrees broad near the equator, where the trade-winds
cease, and where it is no unusual thing for a ship to lie
becalmed for a month or six weeks, frying under a vertical sun.
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