This little delay has let us get our reports
into tolerable order. We are now at 7 o'clock getting the cable
end again, with the main cable buoy close to us.'
A TELEGRAM OF JULY 20: 'I have received your four welcome letters.
The Americans are charming people.'
VI.
And here to make an end are a few random bits about the cruise to
Pernambuco:-
'PLYMOUTH, JUNE 21, 1873. - I have been down to the sea-shore and
smelt the salt sea and like it; and I have seen the HOOPER pointing
her great bow sea-ward, while light smoke rises from her funnels
telling that the fires are being lighted; and sorry as I am to be
without you, something inside me answers to the call to be off and
doing.
'LALLA ROOKH. PLYMOUTH, JUNE 22. - We have been a little cruise in
the yacht over to the Eddystone lighthouse, and my sea-legs seem
very well on. Strange how alike all these starts are - first on
shore, steaming hot days with a smell of bone-dust and tar and salt
water; then the little puffing, panting steam-launch that bustles
out across a port with green woody sides, little yachts sliding
about, men-of-war training-ships, and then a great big black hulk
of a thing with a mass of smaller vessels sticking to it like
parasites; and that is one's home being coaled.
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