26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [Cn. II. 



Next day I started for Cambridge to see Henslow, and thence 

 to London to see Fitz-Roy, and all was soon arranged. After- 

 wards, on becoming very intimate with Fitz-Roy, I heard that 

 I had rnn a very narrow risk of being rejected on account of 

 the shape of my nose ! He was an ardent disciple of Lavater, 

 and was convinced that he could judge of a man's character by 

 the outline of his features; and he doubted whether any one 

 with my nose could possess sufficient energy and determination 

 for the voyage. But I think he was afterwards well satisfied 

 that my nose had spoken falsely. 



Fitz-Roy's character was a singular one, with very many 

 noble features : he was devoted to his duty, generous to a fault, 

 bold, determined, and indomitably energetic, and an ardent 

 friend to all under his sway. He would undertake any sort of 

 trouble to assist those whom he thought deserved assistance. 

 He was a handsome man, strikingly like a gentleman, with 

 highly-courteous manners, which resembled those of his maternal 

 uncle, the famous Lord Castlereagh, as I was told by the 

 Minister at Rio. Nevertheless he must have inherited much 

 in his appearance from Charles II., for Dr. Wallich gave me 

 a collection of photographs which he had made, and I was 

 struck with the resemblance of one to Fitz-Roy; and on 

 looking at the name, I found it Ch. E. Sobieski Stuart, Count 

 d'Albanie,* a descendant of the same monarch. 



Fitz-Roy's temper was a most unfortunate one. It was 

 usually worst in the early morning, and with his eagle eye he 

 could generally detect something amiss about the ship, and 

 was then unsparing in his blame. He was very kind to me, 

 but was a man very difficult to live with on the intimate terms 

 which necessarily followed from our messing by ourselves in 

 the same cabin. We had several quarrels ; for instance, early 

 in the voyage at Bahia, in Brazil, he defended and praised 

 slavery, which I abominated, and told me that he had just 

 visited a great slave-owner, who had called up many of his 

 slaves and asked them whether they were happy, and whether 

 they wished to be free, and all answered " No." I then asked 

 him, perhaps with a sneer, whether he thought that the answer 

 of slaves in the presence of their master was worth anything ? 

 This made him excessively angry, and he said that as I doubted 

 his word wo could not live any longer together. I thought 

 that I should have been compelled to leave the ship ; but as 



* The Count d'Albanie's claim to Royal descent has been shown to be 

 based on a myth. See the Quarterly Beview, 1847, vol. lxxxi. p. 83 ; also 

 Hay ward's Biographical and Critical Essays, 1873, vol. ii. p. 201. 



