10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



likely to be employed, said that Captain Ow'en Stanley, 

 who was to command the ship, had asked him to re- 

 commend an assistant surgeon who knew something 

 of science ; would I like that ? Of course I jumped at 

 the offer. " Very well, I give you leave; go to London 

 at once and see Captain Stanley." I went, saw my 

 future commander, who was very civil to me, and 

 promised to ask that I should be appointed to his ship, 

 as in due time I was. It is a singular thing that, during 

 the few months of my stay at Haslar, I had among 

 my messmates two future Directors-General of the 

 Medical Service of the Navy (Sir Alexander Armstrong 

 and Sir John Watt-Reid), with the present President 

 of the College of Physicians and my kindest of doctors, 

 Sir Andrew Clark. 



Life on board Her Majesty's ship in those days 

 was a very different affair from what it is now, and 

 ours was exceptionally rough, as we were often many 

 months without receiving letters or seeing any civilised 

 people but ourselves. In exchange, we had the inter- 

 est of being about the last voyagers, I suppose, to 

 whom it could be possible to meet with people who 

 knew nothing of fire-arms as we did on the south 

 coast of New Guinea and of making acquaintance 

 with a variety of interesting savage and semi-civilised 

 people. But, apart from experience of this kind and 

 the opportunities offered for scientific work, to me, 

 personally, the cruise was extremely valuable. It was 

 good for me to live under sharp discipline ; to be down 

 on the realities of existence by living on bare necessa- 

 ries; to find out how extremely well worth living life 

 seemed to be when one woke up from a night's rest 

 on a soft plank, with the sky for canopy and cocoa 

 and weevilly biscuit the sole prospect for breakfast; 



