130 THE VOYAGE. [Ch. VI. 



my collections are increasing wonderfully, and from Rio I 

 think I shall be obliged to send a cargo home. 



All the endless delays which we experienced at Plymouth 

 have been most fortunate, as I verily believe no person ever 

 went out better provided for collecting and observing in the 

 different branches of Natural History. In a multitude of coun- 

 sellors I certainly found good. I find to my great surpriso 

 that a ship is singularly comfortable for all sorts of work. 

 Everything is so close at hand, and being cramped makes one 

 so methodical, that in the end I have been a gainer. I already 

 have got to look at going to sea as a regular quiet place, like 

 going back to homo after staying away from it. In short, I 

 find a ship a very comfortable house, with everything you want, 

 and if it was not for sea-sickness the whole world would be 

 sailors. I do not think there is much danger of Erasmus setting 

 the example, but in case there should bo, he may rely upon it 

 he does not know one-tenth of the sufferings of sea-sickness. 



I like the officers much more than I did at first, especially 

 Wickham, and young King and Stokes, and indeed all of them. 

 The Captain continues steadily very kind, and does everything 

 in his power to assist me. We seo very little of each other 

 when in harbour, our pursuits lead us in such different tracks. 

 I never in my life met with a man who could endure nearly so 

 great a share of fatigue. He works incessantly, and when 

 apparently not employed, he is thinking. If he does not kill 

 himself, he will during this voyage do a wonderful quantity of 

 work. . . . 



February 2Qth. — About 280 miles from Bahia. We have been 

 singularly unlucky in not meeting with any homeward-bound 

 vessels, but I suppose [at] Bahia we certainly shall be able to 

 write to England. Since writing the first part of [this] letter 

 nothing has occurred except crossing the Equator, and being 

 shaved. This most disagreeable operation, consists in having 

 your face rubbed with paint and tar, which forms a lather for a 

 saw which represents the razor, and then being half drowned in 

 a sail filled with salt water. About 50 miles north of the lino 

 we touched at the rocks of St. Paul ; this little speck (about 

 i of a mile across) in the Atlantic has seldom been visited. It 

 is totally barren, but is covered by hosts of birds ; they were so 

 unused to men that we found we could kill plenty with stones 

 and sticks. After remaining some hours on the island, we 

 returned on board with the boat loaded with our prey.* From 



* " There was such a scene here. "Wickham (1st Lieutenant) and I 

 were the only two who landed with guns and geological hammers, &c. 

 The birds by myriads were too close to shoot ; we then tried stones, but 



