CHAPTER VII. 



SIR JOHN HERSCHEL AT THE CAPE. 



CAPE TOWN, Jan. 21, 1834. 

 MY DEAR AUNT, 



Here we are safely landed and comfortably housed at 

 the far end of Africa, and having secured the landing and 

 final stowage of all the telescopes and other matters, as far 

 as I can see, without the slightest injury, I lose no time in 

 reporting to you our good success so far. M. and the 

 children are, thank God, quite well; though, for fear you 

 should think her too good a sailor, I ought to add that she 

 continued sea-sick, at intervals, during the whole passage. 

 We were nine weeks and two days at sea, during which 

 period we experienced only one day of contrary wind. We 

 had a brisk breeze " right aft " all the way from the Bay of 

 Biscay (which we never entered) to the " calm latitudes," 

 that is to say, to the space about five or six degrees broad 

 near the equator, where the trade winds cease, and where it 

 is no unusual thing for a ship to lie becalmed for a month 

 or six weeks, frying under a vertical sun. Such, however, 

 was not our fate. We were detained only three or four days 

 by the calms usual in that zone, but never quite still, or 

 driven out of our course, and immediately on crossing "the 

 line," got a good breeze (the south-east trade wind), which 

 carried us round Trinidad, then exchanged it for a north- 

 west wind, which, with the exception of one day's squall 

 from the south-east, carried us straight into Table Bay. 

 On the night of the 14th we were told to prepare to see the 

 Table Mountain. Next morning (N.B., we had not seen 



