2 LETTERS FROM MADRAS. [ter. 1,
claimed in despair at the very sight of it, “ Oh, what ¢* all that for? O dear me! ”—** Sure, it’s for you to ate, ma’am.””-—* Mat ! I can’t eat.”-—* Oh, you must ate it all, ma’am: you've no no- tion hew well you weuld be if you would only ate hearty !’ Her cramming was a great bore, but she cured me by it, Frank is nearly mad: he is in such raptures with everything on board, T think he will end by turning ship’s surgeon. The first night his hammock was slung under the doctor’s. The poor dector com- plained to me in the morning how very odd it was he could not keep his cot steady,—he had been swinging about, he said, all night. Frank confided to me privately the reason, vz. that the doctor looked so tempting over his head, he could not resist swinging him at every opportunity. However, next night he was found cut, for the doctor pecped over the top of his cot and caught him in the faet; and when Mr. Darke, the second mate, eame into the cabin, poor Dr. Lowe exelaimed, “Here, Darke! T could not imagine why I could not keep my cot steady all night, and at last I looked over the top, when J found this precious fellow swinging me!”
Our passengers are Mr. and Mrs. Wilde (he is going to St. Helena as Chief Justice: they go with us to the Cape, and there wait for a homeward-bound ship to take them to St. Helena);—the O’Briens ;—Miss Shields, good humoured and lively, poing out as a missionary ;—Miss Knight, siek and solemn ;—several Trish girls apparently on their promotion ;—Mr. Harvey, who plays chess, and takes care of his flawers: he has them in an hermetically sealed glass case, which he is taking to the Cape; a number of hitherto unnamed gentlemen, who sit down to eat and drink, and rise up to play ;~cne or two pretty boys, who saunter about with Lord Byron in hand;—and Mr. Stevens, the missionary, whe is good and gentle, but so sick that we have not yet made much acquaintance: he is getting better, and talks of reading the service next Sunday.
August 23rd, Funxcuat.—Ilere we are on shore again, in this beautiful Madeira, and all excessively thankful and happy to be out of our ship, though it is very hot on shore, compared with the real sea air: it has been quite cold at sea. Our chief employment just now is eating figs and grapes, and planning our excursions for to-morrow. We have been landed about an hour,