is a wonder how those passengers that were saved
managed to exist so long without food. The only reasonable
explanation that has been offered is, that as they were continually
wet, from the sea breaking over them, a large quantity of moisture
must have been absorbed by the skin, otherwise they could never
have lived so long without fresh water. It must have been an
awkward situation to be in. I fancy I would rather have been
drowned at once; but it is not easy to judge how we should feel
under the circumstances, unless we had tried it. As Pope says,
'Hope springs eternal in the human breast; man never is,' etc. (of
course you know the rest). It strikes me that the height of
happiness is, to hope everything and expect nothing, because you
have all the satisfaction of hope, and if you get nothing you are
not disappointed; but if you obtain what you want, you are
agreeably surprised.

Your affectionate son,

WILLIAM J. WILLS.

. . .

Flagstaff Observatory, Melbourne, August 15th, 1859.

MY DEAR MOTHER,

I am glad to be able to acknowledge the receipt by this mail of
the first letter that you have sent to me direct since I have been
in Melbourne. It is satisfactory to know that you are pleased with
the News Letters; I must endeavour to send them regularly. I had a
letter from my father to-day. He has received yours, which we
feared was lost, as he saw nothing of it for some days after the
mail was in; but he found it at Bath's Hotel. One must make some
little allowance for a mother's partiality in your account of B.
and H.; I hope your prejudice against novels does not prevent their
reading those of Thackeray and Dickens, every one of whose works,
especially the former, should be read by them, for they contain
some of the best things, both in a moral and literary point of
view, that we have in the English language. I shall be more careful
in future about the postage; and now, my dear mother, with love to
yourself and all,

I remain,

Your affectionate son,

WILLIAM J. WILLS.

. . .

Flagstaff Observatory, Melbourne, September 15th, 1859.

MY DEAR MOTHER,

I was rather disappointed at not receiving a letter from any one
by the last mail. I have not heard from my father since it arrived.
I conclude he has not sent me your letters to him, thinking that I
have received some myself. I suppose you are all glad that the war
has ended so unexpectedly. It is to be hoped that the peace will be
a permanent one, a