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THE SECOND INVASION OF BRITAIN The sailing and landing points are assumed to be the same as in the previous expedition (p. 254), although Caesar says only that he used the points which he had found most suitable in the previous summer. The sailing point of the previous expedition had been entirely satisfactory; and he had found no opportunity of exploring the coast of Britain for a better landing point, so that he must have landed at any rate very near his first landing point. Caesar set sail with a wind blowing from the southwest (chap. 8), which was not the most suitable wind for a voyage to Deal with flat-bottomed ships; but the tide was running toward the southwest and served to keep his ships from drifting down the wind to the northeast. A gentle breeze which died out at midnight could not have carried him more than half way across. Then the tide changed and carried him to the northeast for five hours, probably from twelve to fifteen miles; and in the morning he saw that he had got farther away from Britain, which now lay at his left. The Goodwin Sands prevented his making directly for Deal, so that he had nearly twenty-five miles to row. The tide, which again changed to the southwest, helped him at first, but not in the latter part of his voyage, so that it was nearly midday before he reached Deal. The route in Britain is that of Napoleon and Rustow, but too few data are given by Caesar to make any part of it certain.

Arthur Tappan Walker, Caesar's Gallic War (Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Co. 1907), p. 294 [1].