July 16th, 1887

Suez Canal, near Port Said

We are this far in safety through mercy and a very few days will bring us together once more when I shall be able to tell you all about the voyage from Singapore and the various places we have called at. I quite expected to have had a letter from you on arrival at Aden last Sunday and again at Suez yesterday but none have reached me. We go straight to Marseilles from Port Said, not calling at either Malta or Gibraltar and expect to reach Plymouth on Friday the 29th inst. This note will reach you 5 or 6 days earlier than that as it goes overland via Brindisi - can hardly realise that I am so near home again, but in a few hours we shall be in the Mediterranean and that sounds more in home latitudes. Through mercy my health has continued good except prickly heat from which I have and am suffering greatly.

You had better be in Plymouth by Thursday the 20th and the P.& O. Agent will let you know when the "Verona" is in sight and what time the steam tender will leave for the ship. I shall look out for your dear face and others perhaps, on this tender. The goodness that has so far preserved us amid manifold perils will soon enter it, so that we might once more embrace each other after a long absence - God our Father bless you my dearly beloved Wife and our dear children and grandchildren whose dear faces too I am longing to see and believe me.

Being Affectionate Husband.

Received a very kind letter from Henry last Sunday enclosed in one from P.F. Co. to Aden.

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