other ships; but in five everything material was in its place again, and the sails all set.
It was a great triumph to the ship, and says that the midshipmen, who are not given to praise their captains in general, all talk of Captain Grey’s seamanship and readiness with great praise. It was a curious sight altogether, and I made a nice sketch of it, for as the ropes were all out of their places, it was just the time to draw them—nobody can detect any mistakes.
All our hopes of a quick arrival are at an end, we cannot cross that tiresome line; we have been within 100 miles of it for four days without being able to advance a step, but are going tacking about with great trouble and bother, quite contented, after a fashion of content, if we do not lose more by the current than we gain by the wind. We now do not expect to arrive till the 14th, the day that George originally named when we left Portsmouth, so that we shall not have much to complain of; but it would have been better to have had something to boast of.
