PREFACE. 



IN appearing again before the Public as the Narrator 

 of the leading incidents of a protracted Surveying Ex- 

 pedition, I wish the work to be regarded only as another 

 effort in the performance of that duty which should be 

 undertaken, to the best of their ability, by all Officers 

 intrusted with the command of Scientific Voyages ; and 

 however monotonous the recital of the Service-portions 

 of such duty may appear to those not immediately con- 

 versant with Naval affairs, I trust the observations here 

 detailed on some of the Islands and Islanders of the 

 Eastern Hemisphere, hitherto rarely visited, will not 

 only prove interesting to the general reader, but will, 

 in a political point of view, afford matter for considera- 

 tion in our future intercourse with those Regions. 



At the time of H.M.S. Samarang quitting England, 

 on the termination of the war with China, the promi- 



