CHAPTER II 



THE VOYAGE OF THE "RATTLESNAKE" 



The Objects of the Voyage — The Route — The Naturalist and 

 the Surgeon — Collecting and Dredging — Stay in Sydney 

 — Adventures with the Natives — Comparison v?ith Dar- 

 win's Voyage on the Beagle. 



HER Majesty's ship the Rattlesnake, one of the old 

 class of 28-guti ships, sailed from Plymouth for 

 the Torres Straits and the Australian seas on Decem- 

 ber 12, 1846. Her commander was Captain Owen 

 Stanley, a yotmg but distinguished officer, the son of 

 the Bishop of Norwich and a brother of Dean Stanley, 

 who afterwards played so great a part in the social and 

 religiotis history of England. She carried a comple- 

 ment of 180 officers and men, and was attended by the 

 Bramble and the Castlercagh, two small vessels of light 

 draught, whose purpose was to precede her in shallow 

 waters. The yotmg colonies of Atistralia were develop- 

 ing commerce with the mother country, and the busi- 

 ness of the Rattlesnake was to survey the waters round 

 about the Torres Straits, that the passage towards India 

 on the homeward trip might be made safer. Inci- 

 dentally the vessel was to land a treasure of ^^50,000 at 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and another of ^15,000 at the 

 Mauritius. The Admiralty Commissioners left ftill 



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