At three, Messrs. Liddell, &c.,
came on board in good spirits, having found two wires good or in
such a state as permitted messages to be transmitted freely. The
boat now went to grapple for the cable some way from shore while
the ELBA towed a small lateen craft which was to take back the
consul to Cagliari some distance on its way. On our return we
found the boat had been unsuccessful; she was allowed to drop
astern, while we grappled for the cable in the ELBA [without more
success]. The coast is a low mountain range covered with brushwood
or heather - pools of water and a sandy beach at their feet. I
have not yet been ashore, my hands having been very full all day.
'June 9.
'Grappling for the cable outside the bank had been voted too
uncertain; [and the day was spent in] efforts to pull the cable off
through the sand which has accumulated over it. By getting the
cable tight on to the boat, and letting the swell pitch her about
till it got slack, and then tightening again with blocks and
pulleys, we managed to get out from the beach towards the ship at
the rate of about twenty yards an hour.
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