"_Seven o'clock._ All the ships are under way from the Cove of Cork. The
Leopard left first, then the Agamemnon, then the Susquehanna and the
Niagara last; and at this moment we are off the Head of Kinsale in the
following order: Niagara, Leopard, Agamemnon, Susquehanna. The Cyclops
and another vessel, the Advice, left for Valencia on Saturday evening,
and, with a beautiful night before us, we hope to be there also by noon
to-morrow.

"This day three hundred and sixty-five years ago Columbus sailed on his
first voyage of discovery and discovered America."

"_August 4._ Off the Skelligs light, of which I send you a sketch. A
beautiful morning with head wind and heavy sea, making many seasick. We
are about fifteen miles from our point of destination. Our companion
ships are out of sight astern, except the Susquehanna, which is behind us
only about a mile. In a few hours we hope to reach our expectant friends
in Valencia and to commence the great work in earnest.

"Our ship is crowded with engineers, and operators, and delegates from
the Governments of Russia and France, and the deck is a bewildering mass
of machinery, steam-engines, cog-wheels, breaks, boilers, ropes of hemp
and ropes of wire, buoys and boys, pulleys and sheaves of wood and iron,
cylinders of wood and cylinders of iron, meters of all kinds,--
anemometers, thermometers, barometers, electrometers,--steam-gauges,
ships' logs--from the common log to Massey's log and Friend's log, to our
friend Whitehouse's electro-magnetic log, which I think will prove to be
the best of all, with a modification I have suggested. Thus freighted we
expect to disgorge most of our solid cargo before reaching mid-ocean.