40O AT FALMOUTH. [chap. xxi. 



great is our sin ; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot 

 see ; as well might the use of the thumb-screw be defended 

 in one land, by showing that men in another land suffered 

 trom some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at 

 the slave-owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never 

 seem to put themselves into the position of the latter ; — 

 what a cheerless prospect, with not even a hope of change ! 

 Picture to yourself the chance, ever hanging over you, of 

 your wife and your little children — those objects which 

 nature urges even the slave to call his own — being torn 

 from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder! And 

 these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to 

 love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, 

 and pray that His will be done on earth ! It makes one's 

 blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen 

 and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of 

 liberty have been and are so guilty ; but it is a consolation 

 to reflect that we at least have made a greater sacrifice, 

 than ever made by any nation to expiate our sin. 



On the last day of August we anchored for the second 

 time at Porto Praya in the Cape de Verd Archipelago ; 

 thence we proceeded to the Azores, where we stayed six 

 days. On the 2nd of October we made for the shores of 

 England ; and at Falmouth I left the Beagle, having lived 

 on board the good little vessel nearly five years. 



Our Vo3'age having come to an end, I will take a short 

 retrospect of the advantages and disadvantages, the painsand 

 pleasures, of our circumnavigation of the world. If a person 

 asked my advice, before undertaking a long voyage, my 

 answer would depend upon his possessing a decided taste for 

 some branch of knowledge, which could by this means be ad- 

 vanced. No doubt it is a high satisfaction to behold various 

 countries and the many races of mankind, but the pleasures 

 gained at the time do not counterbalance the evils. It is 

 necessary to look forward to a harvest, however distant that 

 may be, when some fruit will be reaped, some good effected. 



Many of the losses which must be experienced are 

 obvious ; such as that of the society of every old friend, 

 and of the sight of those places with which every dearest 

 remembrance is so intimately connected. These losses, 

 however, are at the time partly relieved by the exhaustless 

 delight of anticipating the long-wished-for day of return. 

 If, as poets say, life is a dream, I am sure in a voyage 

 these are the visions which best serve to pass away the 



