Letters from India

Ee declares his sea-sickness is quite as bad as mike only it has taken the contrary and more alarming line of extreme hunger ; so that it is quite meritorious of him to struggle against the complaint as he does by going to dine in the cockpit at twelve then to come and taste my macaroni at one then to luncheon with Captain Grey at two ; and he thinks he ought to pick a bit with the officers at [...] To-morrow we are to dine with the Portuguese governor who sent in a guard of honour and an aide-de-camp every half-hour to know if we wanted anything ; and Madame came to see Fanny and me in the only carriage that grows at Madeira for the streets are so narrow and the hills so perpendicular that a carriage is of no use. [...] Neptune made a speech to George and begged to introduce his wife to us with the two babies the precious pledges.of our' affection ; ' and he gave a letter to Fanny and me:saying the weather had been so bad he could not catch us any fish but he begged to present us with a couple of snow-birds—tirvo white pigeons ; and we all said our say and made our little jokes and then got out of the way as [...] MY DEAREST they say we are to arrive at Rio on Tuesday or Wednesday I was inclined not to write till then ; but it is a horrid business to survey and sketch a new quarter of the globe completely in a few days and leaves little time for writing.' Besides I have vague notions of the dignity of crowing ffom one's own dunghill ' so I write lying on a hard couch in a close cabin of a rolling ship [...] Then the squall began and the wind howls as if it were the bitterest English winter's night when we all pity the poor souls at sea ' and yet the ship is flying on and as steady as a church and the poor souls ab sea are able to fetch out their portfolios ancl.begin their letters to their poor bodies of friends on shore.