44^ Voyage of the Novnra. 



Murchison, General Sabine, Sir Charles Lyell, Professor 

 Owen, Dr. Graj, Mr. Henry Reeve, Mr. Crawford, Mr. John 

 Murray, Mr. Ellis, and many others, was the most gratifying 

 and conclusive evidence of the interest and high expectations 

 which the Novara Expedition had excited among scientific 

 circles in England. 



On 27th July I embarked on board the P. and 0. Com- 

 pany's steamer Behar, Captain Black, en route to Gibraltar, 

 which I reached after a passage of 4 J days, and, what is 

 still more curious, by a singular coincidence, at the very same 

 moment when the Novara, with every stitch of canvas set, 

 was proudly careering through the famous Straits ! ! As the 

 noble frigate shot past our steamer, Caj^tain Black saluted, 

 and was so thoughtfully kind as to signal the Novara that I 

 was among his passengers. Very soon after, both ships an- 

 chored in the roads of Gibraltar. In the course of my over- 

 land journey from Valparaiso to Gibraltar, I had travelled 

 88-32 nautical miles, and had been but 29 days actually 

 travelling. 



I now felt pervaded by a sentiment of profoundest gratitude 

 to a benevolent fate, which had led me safely and pleasantly 

 through so many dangers till I rejoined that Expedition with 

 which not alone the best and happiest remembrances of my 

 life are henceforth associated, but which opened to me the 

 unspeakably gratifying prospect of being better able to con- 

 tribute, by extended knowledge and experience, to the ad- 

 vancement of science in my native land ! 



