SOUTH-WEST AFRICA 125 



my proposed course justly, whose good opinion if 

 I succeeded would be of far more value to me 

 than the approbation of a multitude of less well- 

 informed persons, however numerous or laudatory they 

 might be. 



I left England on April 5, 1850. My voyage 

 deserves a few words of description, because it was 

 made under conditions that are now obsolete, which 

 had some advantages to counterbalance their many 

 disadvantages. The ship was called the Dalhomie, 

 an old teak-built East Indiaman, quite incapable of 

 beating against a head wind, and occupying nearly 

 eighty days in reaching Cape Town. It was chiefly 

 used on this journey to carry emigrants at cheap rates 

 with rough accommodation, but a few cabin passengers 

 were taken besides, who had the use of the high poop 

 to themselves. In a long voyage like that of ours, 

 the elements count for much, and the manipulation 

 of the ship is of continual interest. The charm of 

 the Northern Trades, of the calms and sudden squalls 

 of the Equatorial Belt, and of the crisp, strong 

 Southern Trades cannot possibly be experienced 

 in an equal degree by those on board a fast steamer, 

 that rushes through all of them at an equal speed and 

 holds its course almost regardless of wind and weather. 

 I was glad, too, of the abundant opportunities of 

 familiarising myself with the sextant, by which I mean 

 a much closer acquaintance with its manipulation and 

 adjustments than nautical persons are usually contented 

 with or require. I had left England without any 

 practical instruction either in obtaining latitudes and 

 longitudes, or in surveying, for I failed to find anybody 

 who would give it, consistently with the limited 



