52 IN MEMORIAM : 



Spent some time in San Francisco and interior towns of Cali- 

 fornia, attending to family business and traveling with his 

 good friend and uncle, Mr. Robert Brown. His return was 

 made via Panama. For the next two years he divided his 

 time between his native town of Newport and visits to the 

 homes of several families, related to his own, and where he 

 was always welcome, his kindliness of heart, tact and rare 

 mind endearing him to those with whom he came in contact 

 in the intimacy of family life. 



In 1875 an opportunity presented itself to visit the East on 

 an American cruiser. The berth of captain's clerk was offered 

 him and accepted. Under orders to report on board the 

 "Ashuelot," Captain (now Rear Admiral) Matthews, Mr. 

 Brown sailed for San Francisco, again traversing the Isthmus, 

 and continuing his voyage in the old side paddle steamer 

 "China." This voyage he loved always to recall — four 

 weeks of slow steaming, of level sea and brilliant sunsets 

 day after day, of brilliant starlight night after night, as the 

 vessel continued westward, through that most equable climate 

 of the globe. During this voyage, and a later one from China 

 to France, he stored away a myriad of finely graduated 

 impressions of ocean, sky and sunlight eifects which enabled 

 him, in later years, to present to English readers his exquisite 

 and accurate translation of de Amicis' " vSuH'Oceano," pub- 

 lished under the title "On Blue Water." 



For the next two years he lived the routine life of the navy 

 on board the "Ashuelot," along the coast of China and 

 Japan, from time to time making excursions to points of 

 interest, and once, in company with several others, ascending 

 the Yang-Tse river many hundred miles into the interior, 

 reaching a portion of country which had at that time been 

 visited by comparatively few Europeans. He spent some time 

 in Pekin, and when visiting the Great Wall of China made 

 notes and measurements of its various dimensions, the char- 

 acter of its material, etc. (See Proc. Del. Co. Inst. Sci., 

 Vol. I, No. I.) Mr. Brown was on board this vessel on the 



