By some odd chance a TIMES of June the 7th has found
its way on board through the agency of a wretched old peasant who
watches the end of the line here. A long account of breakages in
the Atlantic trial trip. To-night we grapple for the heavy cable,
eight tons to the mile. I long to have a tug at him; he may puzzle
me, and though misfortunes or rather difficulties are a bore at the
time, life when working with cables is tame without them.
'2 P.M. - Hurrah, he is hooked, the big fellow, almost at the first
cast. He hangs under our bows looking so huge and imposing that I
could find it in my heart to be afraid of him.
'June 17.
'We went to a little bay called Chia, where a fresh-water stream
falls into the sea, and took in water. This is rather a long
operation, so I went a walk up the valley with Mr. Liddell. The
coast here consists of rocky mountains 800 to 1,000 feet high
covered with shrubs of a brilliant green. On landing our first
amusement was watching the hundreds of large fish who lazily swam
in shoals about the river; the big canes on the further side hold
numberless tortoises, we are told, but see none, for just now they
prefer taking a siesta.
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