Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/22

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14
LETTERS FROM INDIA.

Of course you never do anything but write to me?

Your ever affectionate
E. Eden.
TO THE HON. AND REV. ROBERT EDEN (LATE LORD AUCKLAND).
Funchal, Thursday, October 15, 1835.

My dearest Robert,—We arrived here on Tuesday, the 13th, exactly ten days after we left Portsmouth, and six days from the Lizard’s Point. The three last days we averaged 240 miles a day, and it is believed a most excellent passage. I have no doubt of it, but may I never know another!

Our captain is more than sailor enough to take us anywhere; he is quite wrapped up in his profession, works the ship himself, and even on shore is occupied the whole day in taking observations, &c. He seems a thoroughly scientific sailor. —— has set his heart on going to Penang, on our way from the Cape, and has coaxed the whole ship’s company into wishing it too; and now Captain Grey is occupied in proving that it will not take us more than seventy miles out of our course. As