Travel Diaries and Journals

poop awnings have been taken down & during the middle of the day we cannot get on deck as the sun being vertical then we get no shade from the spanker which is now set. We have gone upwards of a hundred miles since yesterday. the ship is being painted white all over the inside of the Bulwarks & [quarter scored through] & poop can scarcely move out without getting smeared over. wearing my tweed suit even in this hot weather. Yesterday Lt Dadson Capt & I had an inspection of flour for troops pronounced one & 3/4 Casks bad & drew up a report to that affect signed by 3 of us Lt Robinson R.A. being confined to bed did not become a number. there is little change of scene every day. Here is my Cabin nearly as large as I had in the "Candia" but occupied by myself

between 7 & 8 oclock & he & I have a discussion or chat on some subject or another Now & then I get on deck & enjoy a bucket or two of saltwater over me the. General gets on deck about 7 in the Mg. Lt. Robinson used to get on deck to have a bucket of saltwater until he was knocked down by fever. Lt. Dadson being weak & delicate does nothing until he gets his breakfast. After Breakfast I smoke a cheroot & then go down to visit my patients. this occupies 2 hours. I then have tiffin & tody I have begun to post up my medicine Journal which I wrote at from 1/2 past 12 till 3. Our dinner party usually consists of the same number unless some one is sick or has had a disinclination for dinner. The

Far from his own loved native land Far from the friends he loved so well The hope of that once happy land Now sleepeth where, ? no one can tell. V 'Neath oceans ever sounding wave He sleeps, in silent stillness there. The sea flowers father round his grave He once, the brave & good & fair, Perhaps a mother mourns her son Sad greif may in her bosom dwell but humbly says God's will be done My loved, My darling son, farewell ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lt Dadson I have laid up the last 2 or 3 days he has disease of the knee joints so that is one more of our companions shut up. I am often amused with the remarks of the steward who is a german but talks English well with only a foreign accent. his man Joe he calls Choe just come & lay the tinner man he

below. I find to be one of the number who left Edin. for the Crimea in the Golden Fleece. (the 4th regt.) some three or four years ago. he took ill going up country & has been invalided to the Cape The weather is beautiful & much cooler now. We have got into the South East trade winds now. & the ship goes spanking along quite gaily. We expect to reach the Cape (DV) in 3 or 4 weeks The Capt. promised me a copy of the log which I must make use of Sunday. March 14th 1858. Is always Sunday everywhere although there be very little to mark it the detachment of artillery are mustered on deck along with those of the invalids who are able to be on deck. We had no service today as [D scored through] Lt. Dadson is laid up

We came to anchor at 2 o clock. We were near going on shore & the anchor parted by the strain. We however got the other anchor down & all put to right. Gen Salter immediately went on shore Lt Dadson & I went to go on board the "Adelaide". She (Black boatman 'bout ship) steamed off just as we got along. Dadson shouted out to inquire for his brother wounded in China. Next went on board the "Octavia" saw Dr. Taylor whom I had parted with in Calcutta 6 weeks before. he was rather as- tonished to find me down here. asked him to see Fred. when he went down to Edinburgh. Went on board & dined. In the evening Dadson & I called on the Brigade Major & Dr. Summers the P.M.O. at Cape Town & reported our arrival Could not get off at night to the ship slept