This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LETTER TWENTY-FIVE
107

into the bright and level waters. During a short calm on the line we counted one morning seventeen other vessels, none of them near us. From about the Cape of Good Hope to our journey's end we were surrounded every day by albatross and other sea birds. This is all! A poor account truly, but such as it is you must be pleased to be satisfied with it, for I can remember nothing to make me wish to think of the subject again. I will send you all the information concerning Australia which I think worth your attention in future letters, and I will write much more frequently. I will also often send some newspapers. I send about fifty by the Robert Newton. I see many London papers, but very seldom country papers. I have dined several times lately on board ship with a young gentleman from Birmingham, a son of Mr. Price, silversmith, at the bottom of Bull-street. It is not often I meet with anyone from that part of the country.

When you write after receiving this be pleased to let us know how Thomas is getting on in his education. I hope you will be sure to let him obtain a competent knowledge of arithmetic and the substantial branches of learning, to enable him to fill a respectable mercantile situation, in