LITTLE Captain Fitz-Roy of the British Navy was but twenty- 

 JOURNEYS three years old. He was a draftsman, a geographer, a 



mathematician and a navigator. He had sailed 'round 

 the world as a plain tar, and taken his kicks and cuffs 

 with good grace. At the Portsmouth Naval School he 

 had won a gold medal for proficiency in study, and an- 

 other medal had been given him for heroism in leaping 

 from a sailing ship into the sea to save a drowning 

 sailor & & 



Let us be fair the tight little island has produced the 

 men. To evolve a few good men she may have pro- 

 duced many millions of the spawn of earth but let the 

 fact stand : England has produced men. 

 Here was a beardless youth, slight in form, silent by 

 habit, but so well thought of by his Government that 

 he was given a ship, five officers, two surgeons and 

 forty-one picked men to go around the world and make 

 measurements of certain coral reefs and map the dan- 

 gerous coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. 

 The ship was provisioned for two years, but the orders 

 were, " Do the work, no matter how long it may take, 

 and your drafts on the Government will be honored." 

 Q Captain Fitz-Roy was a man of decision he knew 

 just where he wanted to go, and what there was to do. 

 He was to measure and map dreary wastes of tossing 

 tide, and do the task so accurately that it would never 

 have to be done again his maps were to remain for- 

 ever a solace, a safety and a security to the men who 

 go down to the sea in ships. 



England has certainly produced themen and Fitz-Roy 

 168 



