_20th April, 1822_.--To-day we made the coast of Chile. I had continued to write my Journal regularly; but though nearly two years are past since I wrote it, I cannot bring myself to copy it: from the 3d of April it became a register of acute suffering; and, on my part, of alternate hopes and fears through days and nights of darkness and storms, which aggravated the wretchedness of those wretched hours. On the night of the ninth of April, I regularly undressed and went to bed for the first time since I left Rio de Janeiro. All was then over, and I slept long and rested; but I awoke to the consciousness of being alone, and a widow, with half the globe between me and my kindred. Many things very painful occurred. But I had comfort too. I found sympathy and brotherly help from some; and I was not insensible to the affectionate behaviour of _my boys_, as the midshipmen were called. And I had the comfort to feel that no stranger hand had closed his eyes, or smoothed his pillow. Mr. London and Mr. Kift, the surgeon and assistant surgeon, never left the bed-side; and, when my strength failed, my cousin Mr. Glennie, and Mr. Blatchly, two passed midshipmen, did all that friends could do. Mr. Dance, the second lieutenant,--though, from the illness of the first lieutenant, the whole business of the ship devolved on him,--found time to be near his friend's death-bed; and, whether at noon or midnight, was never absent where kindness could be shown. But what could any human kindness do for me? My comfort must come from him who in his own time will "wipe off all tears from our faces." SECOND VISIT TO BRAZIL. Before I begin the Journal of my Second Visit to Brazil, from which I was absent a year and three days, it will be necessary to give a short account of the principal events which took place during that year, and which changed the government of the country.