264 THE VOYAGE. ^TAT. 27. [1836. 



: , C. Darwin to J. S. Henslow. 



Sydney, January, 1836. 



MY DEAR HENSLOW, 



This is the last opportunity of communicating with 

 you before that joyful day when I shall reach Cambridge. 

 I have very little to say : but I must write if it is only to 

 express my joy that the last year is concluded, and that the 

 present one, in which the Beagle will return, is gliding 

 onwards. We have all been disappointed here in not finding 

 even a single letter ; we are, indeed, rather before our expected 

 time, otherwise I dare say, I should have seen your hand- 

 writing. I must feed upon the future, and it is beyond 

 bounds delightful to feel the certainty that within eight 

 months I shall be residing once again most quietly in Cam- 

 bridge. Certainly, I never was intended for a traveller ; my 

 thoughts are always rambling over past or future scenes ; I 

 cannot enjoy the present happiness for anticipating the future, 

 which is about as foolish as the dog who dropped the real bone 



for its shadow. 



***** 



In our passage across the Pacific we only touched at 

 Tahiti and New Zealand; at neither of these places or at 

 sea had I much opportunity of working. Tahiti is a most 

 charming spot. Everything which former navigators have 

 written is true. 'A new Cytheraea has risen from the 

 ocean.' Delicious scenery, climate, manners of the people 

 are all in harmony. It is, moreover, admirable to behold 

 what the missionaries both here and at New Zealand have 

 effected. I firmly believe they are good men working for 

 the sake of a good cause. I much suspect that those who 

 have abused or sneered at the missionaries, have generally 

 been such as were not very anxious to find the natives moral 

 and intelligent beings. During the remainder of our voyage 

 we shall only visit places generally acknowledged as civilised, 



