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[Page 19]
Monday, 21st:
Wrote "Boys of Australia's Clime" as a sally to the ship's song "Boys of the Aberdeen Line", and put it in the hands of the ship's printer.
6 a.m. Land in sight, but so faint as to be hardly discernible from the horizoned clouds.
9 a.m. Great jagged mountains of rock jutting out clear from the sea. Nothing but pink brown except where the dentations are marked with shadowy mauve. Tried my hand at sketching---I have almost forgotten how to hold a pencil---and managed to get a bit "Gulf of Aden." But the best thing was the great pile of rock that hides the town. It rose sheer, a big massive thing like a giant of the Flinders on a burning day---a king of mountains raising his jagged crown above all else around him, as though he would take first of the homage of everything---even of the great blazing King of the blue above.
Seven or eight vessels passed us including one transport (empty) going home for troops, and three British loaded transports on the way to Mesopotamia.
The great peaks seem to grow more and more cruel looking. But in all their cruelty and fireceness and barren harshness there is a pride and magnificence that seems almost conscious.
Passed the Island of Perim towards dark. Just enough light to see the settlement and lighthouse.
Signal came from the gunboat in harbour (Morse lamp). What ship? Are you transport? Where from?