The following is Bowers' letter:

"_Sunday, 31st July._

"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 uninhabited 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 25th, 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 shot several Frigate and other
birds from the ship, the little Norwegian boat--called a