THIRD VOYAGE OF THE * BEAGLE.' 5 



lightful narrative allusion has been already made — 

 on the 4th July, 1831,* and continued under his 

 command till her return to Woolwich in November, 

 1836; where, after undergoing some slight repairs, 

 she was a third time put in commission for the 

 purposes of discovery, under Commander Wickham, 

 her former first lieutenant ; and shortly afterwards 

 commenced that third voyage, of the toils and suc- 

 cesses of which, as an humble contribution to the 

 stores of geographical knowledge, I have attempted 

 in the following pages to convey as faithful and 

 complete an account as the circumstances under 

 which the materials have been prepared will allow. 

 Nor will the subject less interest myself, when I 

 call to mind, that for eighteen years the Beagle has 

 been to me a home upon the wave — that my first 

 cruize as a Middy was made in her ; that serving 

 in her alone I have passed through every grade in 

 my profession to the rank I have now the honour to 

 bold — that in her I have known the excitements of 

 imminent danger, and the delights of long antici- 

 pated success ; and that with her perils and her 

 name are connected those recollections of early and 

 familiar friendship, to which even memory herself 

 fails to do full justice ! 



* The Beagle was stripped to her timbers, and rebuilt under 

 this able officer's own inspection : and among other improve- 

 ments, she had the lightning conductors of the well-known 

 Snow Harris, Esq., F.R.S. fitted to her masts ; a circumstance 

 to which she has more than once been indebted fur her safety. 



