After receiving the hostages, Cæsar hastened to return in person to the coast, and ordered his army to follow him afterwards; he found the ships repaired, and caused them to be put afloat. His great number of prisoners, and the loss of several of his ships, obliged him to pass the army across the channel in two convoys. It is remarkable that, of so many ships employed several times in the passage this year or the year before, not one of those which carried the troops was lost; but, on the contrary, the greater part of the ships which returned empty, after having landed the soldiers of the first transport, and those built by Labienus, to the number of sixty, did not reach their destination; they were nearly all thrown back upon the coast of the continent. Cæsar, who had resolved to leave Britain only with the last convoy, waited for them some time in vain. The approach of the equinox led him to fear that the period favourable for navigation would pass by, and he decided on overloading his ships with soldiers, sailed in a moment of calm at the beginning of the second watch (nine o’clock), and, after a favourable passage, landed at daybreak.[409] This second expedition, though more successful than the first, did not bring as its result the complete submission of the isle of Britain. According to Cæsar, the Romans did not even obtain any booty; yet Strabo speaks of a considerable booty,[410] and another author confirms this fact by relating that Cæsar formed out of the spoils of the enemy a cuirass ornamented with pearls, which he consecrated to Venus.[411] [Sidenote: Observations.]