416
although in point of fact it is to be made a matter of consideration in Executive Council on Tuesday next, according to instructions now issued to Governors. I suppose I would not be allowed to go until the Legislative Councils are over, which may be three weeks or a month yet. After that I hope to go by the first opportunity which may offer.
July 18th.—I do not know how it is that one contracts a kind of liking for a letter so as to be unwilling to part with it, although written for that object. I feel myself lingering over it with a fondness which makes me unwilling to finish so long as there is the least space remaining to write upon, and yet it has often been spun out with but mere words. It is now eight o'clock; the sun shining brightly, and not a cloud in the sky; but there was a sharp frost in the night, so that I slept in the blanket, and my hands are this moment benumbed with cold. How shall I bear your winter? Oh, that I should ever say so of home! Ten years ago would I have believed it.
* * * * * *
Oct. 23rd.—I have been waiting here for some time in the most provoking state of suspense for an opportunity to leave the colony, but any ship that has come here seems determined not to go my way, and I cannot afford, out of my limited leave, the time to go their way. Within these few days past a ship called the Charlotte—belonging, I believe, to the McIntyres, of Derry—touched in here on her way to Calcutta, open for freight, as it turned out afterwards. But though there are 170 tons of oil ready, our merchants could not agree about the terms of chartering her.
H.M.S. Beagle has been here for a short time on her return from exploring the coast a second time on the Nor' West. No discoveries of any importance have been made, though the coast was examined in the vicinity of Depuche Island, which was always considered a promising place. There are still about 200 miles left unexplored, which have never yet been
