16 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
example to avoid all panicking, for he did not want the 
biscuit. 
‘He remarked afterwards to me, apropos to Hooper, 
that it was a curious thing that a number of men, knowing 
that there was nothing they could do, could quietly watcha 
man fighting for his life, and he did not think that any but 
the British temperament could do so. [also found out later 
that he and I had both had a touch of cramp while waiting 
for our turn to swim out through the surf.” 
The following is Bowers’ letter : 
“Sunday, 31st Fuly. 
“’The past week has been so crowded with incident, 
really, that I don’t know where to start. Getting to land 
made me long for the mails from you, which are such a 
feature of getting to port. However, the strange unin- 
habited island which we visited will have to make up for 
my disappointment till we get to Capetown—or rather 
Simon’s Town. Campbell and I sighted S. Trinidad from 
the fore yardarm on 2 5th, and on 26th, at first thing in the 
morning, we crept up to an anchorage in a sea of glass. 
The S.E. Trades, making a considerable sea, were beating 
on the eastern sides, while the western was like a mill-pond. 
The great rocks and hills to over 2000 feet towered above 
us as we went in very close in order to get our anchor down, 
as the water is very deep to quite a short distance from the 
shore. West Bay was our selection, and so clear was the 
water that we could see the anchor at the bottom in 15 
fathoms. A number of sharks and other fish appeared at 
once and several birds. Evans wanted to explore, so Oates, 
Rennick, Atkinson and myself went away with him— 
pulling the boat. We examined the various landings and 
found them all rocky and dangerous. There was a slight 
surf although the sea looked like a mill-pond. We finally 
decided on a previously unused place, which was a little 
inlet among the rocks. 
“There was nothing but rock, but there was a little 
nook where we decided to try and land. We returned to 
breakfast and found that Wilson and Cherry-Garrard had 
