Dear Mother,

    Uncle is hoping that I make friends with a girl named Fuegia...I think. I hope that I meet everyone on this ship. It is hard for me to write. I think that staying up on deck helps a bit. I am eager to get on dry land. I am so seasick I have almost refused my dinner today for fear of vomiting. Then again, having the food go to waste isn't a good idea. Perhaps I might go up on deck tonight to breathe the night air. I am always too tired to do that.
   While I was cleaning Mr. Darwin's room, I found papers scattered all over the floor, and pieces of last night's dinner. I cleaned the mess up and gathered the papers up, put them on his desk and left his room. This morning I informed Uncle about the wasted dinner. He said that Mr. Darwin sometimes went too deep into his ideas and forgot to eat! When the problem showed up again, I began to worry. If Mr. Darwin's so attached to his work and puts his health aside as he does he might just die! Well, at the very least get scurvy.
   There are many that are so sea sick. I try my best to give them fresh water—the only thing that helps. I myself had fainted three days ago and woke up down below deck. Nobody was there when it happened, but Lucky the beagle found me, and went barking to the first person in sight. I had fainted, because I had a weak bout of scurvy most probably because alot of the fruit has gone to the sick.
   I saw a weird creature swimming along side the boat and sumberge before I could call Mr. Darwin. I explained the creature as best as I could. It was a creature most like a dolphin with a long nose, and a sail along its backside. Mr. Darwin said that he would show me a few pictures in books that he had, and to draw as best I could a picture of the creature. One book had a picture of a fish called a sailfish, I recognized it at once as the fish I saw. Mr. Darwin remarked that it was too bad he wasn't there to see it.
   Janis Cooper was running and spilled a whole cup of fresh water. He got a severe word from Uncle that if he wasn't going to be more careful he would get a beating.
   Oh, Mother, I am just too tired to finish this letter tonight.