Today a small breeze blew a path through the stifling air and cleared my head to write. I ran out of ink not long after São Sebastião, so I refilled my pen with Mr Reeve’s sepia. I have become rather a good thief, as it happens. I decided that I should write a letter to Michael Kelly, just in case he is still in Sydney.The only respite since Rio came when we dropped anchor off the Cape of Good Hope, but that was weeks ago. Fresh water and new provisions were loaded, including a small herd of goats, but there was little to be seen from the deck but a rocky shoreline and a row of huts.The orlop is noxious and Nora is in such a black mood that no one will go near her. Agnes says it’s Nelly’s baby that’s making Nora irritable. Irritable! Agnes confided that Nora lost three babes in five years, before they were weaned. Two to cholera and the other to the pox. It goes some way to explaining why she is such a harridan. Nelly’s little girl was born in the night more than two weeks ago.
