"Still bad weather. It blew almost a gale in the night and today we are under closed reefed topsails. A laughable scene occurred on deck this morning - a man whose wife had been sick during the night, came on deck to empty the tin chamber into which she had cast up her accompts, and instead of going to leeward with it, he brought it to one of the ports to windward - the wind being very stiff at the time it blew the whole of the contents back into his face making him spit and splutter all over the place - every time the man makes his appearance on deck, he has shown the wry faces he made at his breakfast. I saw some beautiful little fishes floating by the side of the ship, called Portuguese man of war, they appear to resemble the nautilus fish very much."

On the 10th, William noted that the weather was fine and that the ship passed Madeira.

On the 11th, his diary noted "Passed the Canary Islands, caught the trade winds, child died with whooping cough---very warm."

This simple recording of a second child's death was sadly to be one of many over the next week and it is very interesting over this time to compare the entries of the two very distinctively different diaries. James made another observation about the Cornish on the 12th of November:

"The Cornish people are as bad as ever --- they are continually quarrelling, are dissatisfied with everything and are constantly making the most frivolous complaint to our Captain and Doctor---we also find that our ship's company are no better than they should be--two have already been put on irons for insubordination, and I am afraid more will follow."

I will next quote from William's diary when he consolidated comments for the period 12th to 21st of November.

"N.E. trades, nothing particular occurred except Dr. Ward's child died, (woman confined) --- twins died --- child died. Passed the island St. Antonia."

If William thought that nothing in particular had occurred even though 4 children had died, then James was of a similar mind when he noted in his diary on his next day of record, November 18th:

"Nothing of interest has occurred, till this morning, since the last date. We have had very fine weather, but the trade winds are very light, sometimes failing us altogether. I am generally on deck of a morning between 5 and 6, and this morning I saw the most beautiful sight you can conceive, that of seeing the sun rise with a clear sky in the tropicks (sic), the mornings have been very thick and cloudy ever since we left England, this being the first clear morning we have had, but that was not the only sight --- on our ob. bow we saw high land considered to be 90 miles ahead, it proved to be the Island of San Antonio, one of the Cape de Verd Islands, by 5 in the afternoon we were abreast of it, 18 miles from shore, having run at the rate of 8 to 9 knots an hour all day."

The next entry in the diary of William Richards was the first record by him of an adult's death:

"Mr. Bernard, gentn. passenger died 7a.m.. Committed to the deep 5p.m. The carpenter only bored holes in the foot of the coffin, which when thrown overboard whent off erect, never sank."

His next entry was quite brief: November 23rd, "Appearance of a squall, heavy showers."

Then on the 24th, William noted that:

"Calm, thunder and lightening, heavy rain. Thermometer 80 o.
Caught plenty of water from the awning, filled 10 barrels of 180 gallons each. Very warm, shirt and pantaloons only. Child died."

James also noted a similar record of the day's events:

"Dead calm, 5 degrees North of the line, rain falling incessantly, buckets, tubs & etc. are in constant use for catching water. The ship's butcher has filled 7 casks of 200 gallons each for use of the livestock. This will be a great help towards making the water last out, as our captain does not intend putting into any port if he can possibly avoid it, being so near the Line, the men are beginning to prepare for Neptune coming on board."