1865-66.] FROM ENGLAND TO ZANZIBAR. 367 



We started on the 5th. The ' Thule,' to be a pleasure yacht, is the 

 most incorrigible roller ever known. The whole 2000 miles has 

 been an everlasting see-saw, shuggy-shoo, and enough to tire the 

 patience of even a chemist, who is the most patient of all animals. I 

 am pretty well gifted in that respect myself, though I say it that 



shouldn't say it, but that Sandy B ! The world will never get 



on till we have a few of those instrument-makers hung. I was par- 

 ticular in asking him to get me Scripture slides coloured, and put in 

 with the magic lantern, and he has not put in one ! The very object 

 for which I wanted it is thus frustrated, and I did not oj)en it till we 

 were at sea. Sandy ! Pity Burke and Hare have no successors in 

 Auld Eeekie ! . . . 



" You will hear that I have the prospect of Kirk being out here. 

 I am very glad of it, as I am sure his services will be found invaluable 

 on the east coast." 



To his daughter Agnes he writes, ct propos of the 

 rolling of the ship : — 



"Most of the marine-sepoys were sick. You would have been a 

 victim unless you had tried the new remedy of a bag of pounded ice 

 along the spine, which sounds as hopeful as the old cure for toothache : 

 take a mouthful of cold water, and sit on the fire till it boils, you 

 will suffer no more from toothache. ... A shark took a bite at the 

 revolving vane of the patent log to-day. He left some pieces of the 

 enamel of his teeth in the brass, and probably has the toothache. 

 You will sympathise with him. ... If you ask Mr. Murray to send, 

 by Mr. Conyngham, Buckland's Curiosities of Natural History, and 

 Mr. Gladstone's Address to the Edinburgh Students, it will save me 

 writing to him. When you return home you will be scrutinised to 

 see if you are spoiled. You have only to act naturally and kindly to 

 all your old friends to disarm them of their prejudices. I think you 

 will find the Youngs true friends. Mrs. Williamson of Widdicombe 

 Hill near Bath writes to me that she would like to show you her plans 

 for the benefit of poor orphans. If you thought of going to Bath it 

 might be well to get all the insight you could into that and every 

 other good work. It is well to be able to take a comprehensive view 

 of all benevolent enterprises, and resolve to do our duty in life in 

 some way or other, for we cannot live for ourselves alone. A life of 

 selfishness is one of misery, and it is unlike that of our blessed Saviour, 

 who pleased not Himself. He followed not His own will even, but 

 the will of His Father in heaven. I have read with much pleasure a 

 book called Rose Douglas. It is the life of a minister's daughter — with 

 fictitious names, but all true. She was near Lanark, and came through 

 Hamilton. You had better read it if you come in contact with it." 



Referring to an alarm, arising from the next house 



