We are now getting near the latitude for meeting the homeward bound ships, so we are getting letters ready. I do hope we shall meet one, but, of course, it is only a chance; however, I wish a good deal that we had an equal one of hearing from home. I wonder so much how you are all getting on, what you did at Christmas, etc. What we did was to sight Madeira; all the afternoon it was visible, though a long way off; but we were getting on very fast then, and in the morning there was nothing to be seen. I believe so far we have hardly made an average passage, we had such a very bad start. We left Antonie,¹ as you know, after luncheon on Wednesday, December 12th, and got on board just before dark and remained that night in Plymouth Sound, We sailed the next morning at about II, and in six hours the wind came dead against us, and on the next Tuesday morning we were still not thirty miles from Plymouth, and the wretchedness of those days is not a thing to be lightly spoken of. Arthur, Powles² and I were all terrassés at once, and I think I was the least ill of the three, for though Arthur was not so bad at the time and slept a good deal, he has not recovered the effects of it still, and looks so thin and wretched, though he is certainly better this last week, but he feels the motion as much as 1 do, and that is whenever it is the least rough. My husband was very sick for two days, but his throat got perfectly well from the moment he came on board for a fortnight; now it is rather troublesome again, but we have had some hot, heavy weather, and he is not the better for it. Our stern cabin page 2is a great comfort in this weather, as it is always airy; at first it was like sitting with the window open and no fire, and that is pretty cold at sea in December, but it will be a great thing for us now. Please tell Aunt Jane how very acceptable the cloak was, although I cannot think of it with any coolness to-day, within eight degrees of the Line. We have had some lovely sunrises and the stars are very beautiful, but I am sorry to say we have lost the Great Bear now, which seems quite a part of home. No sharks yet, but the lines are out for them to-day. Arthur had a flying fish for his dinner on Saturday, to his great delight. It flew on to the deck, poor little thing, and the Captain made him a present of it. We have had quantities flying about for the last three days and they are beautiful little creatures, but quite small, only about eight inches long. We have seen a few of Mother Carey's chickens, too, and some shoals of porpoises. But the prettiest thing is to sit on the deck at night quite at the stern and watch the track of the vessel; last night it was like three wreaths of pale green smoke (one from each side and one from the rudder) studded with showers of bright stars. The Captain says there will be more of it, too, soon. We like him very much; he is extremely civil to us and almost too good-natured to everyone in the ship. We are also very lucky in our fellow passengers. There is only one lady, Miss Borton, quite young and rather pretty, though neither aristocratic nor very bright; but then, poor thing, she too has had a headache almost ever since she came on board. Then we have Mr. Tollemache, who sits next me in the Cuddie at dinner, and who is going out to see his property in New Zealand, £15,000s worth, and he has in his suite three maids and a family whom he is helping to emigrate, whose name is Bradley, with five very naughty, dirty children, so that when Arthur cries it is the fear of being like Master B. that stops him quickly. Then we have Mr. Bulkeley, cousin to Sir Richard, going out to New Zealand to join his regiment, the 65th; Mr. Nicholson, who has just left Oxford, his father is some rich man near Leeds, and he is our chaplain; Mr. Robinson, who though only about twenty-four, has been a merchant at Calcutta, and tells us Indian stories and experiences of former voyages; page 3and a smart young Mr. Lee, one of many brothers, going out as a settler; Mr. Wakefield, only son, who is "aide de camp" to my husband; and a Mr. Elliot, who knows all about everything but is careless about his h's and is taking out a steam engine. The doctor is unsuccessful, as he gets very tipsy; and that is all, except the first mate, who is also chief cabin, a perfect likeness of Keeley and a very good sea-man. There is a Durham cow on board going out to improve the New Zealand breed, so we get a little good milk morning and evening, but we are very glad of all our stores, beef tea, oranges, etc., not forgetting the eggs, which turned out very well and have been most useful. We have quite determined, if possible, to stop at Port Cooper instead of going on to Wellington and having to come back in three months, perhaps a fortnight's voyage in a wretched little coaster, and we hope to find things a little prepared if the October ship, by which notice of our journey was sent, has made a good passage We are quite agreed that in spite of phosphoric light etc., and flying fish, any place on land will appear charming and luxurious. I can hardly conceive that you can all have a large tub full of water morning and evening if you like it. Salt water is very inferior when you get it alone. We are now in a pretty fair breeze but afraid every moment of its dropping, this is just the place for calms. Five degrees further down and the worst will be passed; in latitude 2, the breezes sometimes begin again. To-day we have opened a lottery for the time that we are to cross the line The thermometer is to-day 78, in our cabin, and it is not so hot as Paris, but then of course the breeze keeps us cool so far. We are not to consider it hot till the seams on the deck begin to melt. We wake every morning before six with the pump for washing the decks and then the gentlemen all go up on deck to have buckets of water thrown over them; then the breakfast at eight-thirty, but I have mine in the cabin; dinner is at three and tea at six, and I have that too in the cabin, and we go to bed pretty early, as between sea air and lying awake when it is rough (which Arthur does not) we get pretty sleepy The worst weather we have had was on the Sunday night after we sailed, which even the Captain page 4said was a perfect hurricane and seemed very frighful to me, our foretop sail was so torn that the sailors have been mending it every calm day since I cannot bear to think how long it really must be before we get any letters and I wonder so what you are doing and how Sara is getting on and whether you all went to Stokesley; perhaps you are there now. We had an arrival on board of a little lady passenger this morning, all very successful and the Doctor very sober. Sara must manage to let us hear by the February ship. If you get this in time would you if you please send us out the Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews for December and January and we should be very glad to have them always sent to us as they come out. Also by the first ship that it is convenient will you send me eight yards of black silk, galon they call it in Paris, something between braid and ribbon, It is half an inch wide at least; and a piece of the narrow black silk braid such as you use for braiding with. I should be very glad too of some new books for Arthur, those he has are in such constant use here as he cannot play about when it is rough; and two new dissecting puzzles, as they call them, would be very valuable, we have got three on board, The Queen's visit to Ireland, Robinson Crusoe, and the life of a Ship, each of which he sets up about three times a day, and he can do them quite alone, unless the ship is rolling very much. I hope everyone will be merciful and write very much to us. We find that we cannot (as we meant to do) write a bit every day, it is only on very smooth ones that our heads can stand it; I thought for a long time that I never should be able to do it at all. William,¹ I must say, has been quite a treasure to us, always well and willing, he is our housemaid, and Arthur's cook, and seems very happy, especially as nearly half the emigrants are Scotch. There is one little German with a Bath pianoforte (or Organ?) which plays on festivals, and the rest of our music is composed of a mild flute and two still much milder violins.

January 9th. The breeze is over. We were woke before four on the morning after I wrote last by a thunderstorm and a squall, and then the wind went all round the page 5compass and disappeared. The lightning was very vivid and such rain, but the rudder and its chains rattled so at our heads we could hardly hear the thunder, and then we had a day's rolling in heavy swell and no wind, which brought us headaches, and a little shark. I have seen dog-fish quite as large, so that I was not much excited, but this morning we had a big one on our hook several times, but not caught, and two smaller ones, not four feet long, caught. This is a beautiful, hot day, but still a little breeze, thermometer about 81, by the aneroid Tom gave my husband, Latitude 5° 13á at noon, and it has been really beautiful, all the day, to see the sharks playing about, with the pilot fishes all around them, down in the deep blue water under our stern windows. Arthur in delight, as you may suppose, and we each tasted a bit of one broiled, and very nasty we thought It. Mr. Tollemache took up one head after it had been off ten minutes and tried to frighten one of the children with it, but instead he got a good bite on his own thumb to the great amusement of the spectators, as he is the mildest and most benevolent of men, though rather eccentric. He never ventured on to the poop deck till two or three days ago as he thought he might go overboard, though it is fenced nearly all round with hen coops. He has shaved his head and lives quite with his three maids and the emigrants. We have five vessels in sight to-day, but all their heads go the same way as our own.