Monday 26th September, 1836

Well, I am going to say here and now I am taking my life in my hands.

I am going to stand up to my wife.

Yesterday, being Sunday, I attended Divine Service, where Charlie Howard outdid himself by preaching on Dueteronomy 14:1 Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. for more than an hour. The snoring could be heard above the wind.

After this I was heading back to my cabin when one of the emigrants approached me. She had with her her little child, perhaps about one year old.

"Look at my baby Governor," she said. "Look at his little face. How could you make my little baby suffer with not enough to eat, not enough to drink?"

"My dear woman," I said. "The decision has been made. There is nothing I can do."

But she was not to be put off.

"Yes there is Governor. You can change your mind."

And then her little child smiled at me. I realised what I must do.

"Madam," I said, "When your baby smiles at me we go to Rio!"

And then, as if as a sign, this morning one of the pigs gave birth to twelve piglets. The runt of the litter, whom I have named Wilbur, will not survive the voyage to the Cape. We must go to Rio to save Wilbur.

I will inform Mrs Hindmarsh this evening of my decision and expect the resulting storms to drive us back to the Isle of Wight.