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now out of the tropics, and already begin to find it much cooler; every day will now make a difference. As we reach the Cape it will be toward the middle of winter, so that we may expect to find it cold. The sea air continues to agree with me, although I very much miss being able to take exercise that is suitable. And I find it rather injurious to sleep in a cabin where the air is quite close, and the heat like an oven, even with the door and window open. Still I hope to more than make up for it in the cold weather. As it is, I am enjoying very good health, and have a good appetite, so that I ought to be thankful for them.
Our fowls are beginning to get fewer every day. Yet we have I should think nearly half a hundred. Directly there is an egg laid they all begin to peck at it, and in a minute it is gone. So we watch and directly we hear the cackle we run to save the egg from being destroyed.
The poor third mate is in for it today, and has had nothing but bullying. The officers and men seem to get a day of it in turn. The captain's son, George Edward, gets it all day long. Every few moments he has a good smacking, so that if his heart does not grow tender, there is something else that does. It is disgusting to see a child, that would be quite an A 1 if properly managed, made quite a fool of, and treated worse than a dog. Captain Moate and I often have a laugh to ourselves to see their goings on. He does not forget to ridicule the way the men are managed and how things are carried on. But now I am growing quite hardened to such things and hardly notice them.
Wednesday, May 8th
After a good deal of knocking and blowing about we are now a little quieter, so I take advantage thereof to add to my journal. "We are now about a week's sail from the Cape, and probably about half the voyage is over. We had three days of very stormy weather, so that the captain says he does not remember a storm lasting so long before. During the night it was worse by far. Of course sleep was an impossibility, and long before the weather was over I was nearly used up. The ship rolled very much, and all I could do was to roll about in my berth, first to one side and then the other. But now we are all right again and going on tolerably smoothly, which I hope may continue.
The wind now blows from the south, which is the cold quarter for this part of the world. It is now as cold as it was hot a few days ago.