The weather still kept very close and warm, and yesterday and today I experienced a good deal of annoyance from the prickly heat, for the first time; a disagreeable prickling itchy sensation, sometimes leading one to think that insects were creeping over the skin. The temperature indicated by the thermometer at noon was not greater than it had been some days before arriving in Galle, but it was more felt, I suppose from the absence of wind and perhaps greater moisture in the atmosphere. I am doubtful if I have ever mentioned that the Bentinck was fitted with awnings both over the quarterdeck and fore castle, which were usually spread in the morning and kept up till about sunset, except when contrary winds made them objectionable from impeding the progress of the vessel. But during such weather as this, the awnings though a protection from the direct rays of the sun, did not render the deck very agreeable: the forecastle was most agreeable as it got the coolest air from the ocean, while generally on the quarterdeck it had become heated from having passed the hot funnels. The same cause rendered the saloon unpleasant, particularly when there was a gentle breeze ahead of us. Between sunset and bedtime however, was the favourite time for resorting to the deck to enjoy the comparatively cool evening air.
The vessel was making good way and we calculated on reaching Madras about breakfast time tomorrow morning. There we were to lose two passengers from England and one who had joined the ship at Galle. Many of the other passengers busied themselves in preparing letters for England, to be posted at Madras.
The full journal will soon be published by Annet House Museum, Linlithgow. Waldie's journey to India forms a key feature of the museum's Waldie exhibition.
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