A supply of fresh vegetables and fruit was taken on board, as the vessel, after touching at Madras, was to go on to Calcutta.

A few of the passengers landed at Point de Galle, but neither Dick nor his mother went ashore.
"You will have plenty of opportunities of seeing Indians, later on, Dick," Mrs.Holland had said; "and, as the gigs will not take all ashore, we may as well stop quietly here.

I heard the captain say that he would weigh anchor again, in four hours." Dick was rather disappointed, but, as they would be at Madras before long, he did not much mind.
Ten days later, they anchored off that town.

Little was to be seen except the fort, a number of warehouses, and the native town, while the scenery contrasted strongly with that of Ceylon, with its masses of green foliage, with hills rising behind.
For the last fortnight, Mrs.Holland had been somewhat depressed.

Now that the voyage was nearly over, the difficulties of the task before her seemed greater than they had done when viewed from a distance, and she asked herself whether, after all, it would not have been wiser to have waited another two or three years, until Dick had attained greater strength and manhood.