vi PREFACE. 



jouruals slioukl be consigned to me. To my regret a 

 variety of circumstances prevented my making use of the 

 valuable bequest of this most intelligent and distinguished 

 young officer, and I eventually returned the papers to his 

 fomily, thus losing the invaluable opportunity of enriching my 

 own work, whenever it shoidd appear, by blending it with 

 some parts of his. His journals have since been published 

 by his fomily, and- achieved a success Avhich they eminently 

 deserved. The loss, therefore, has been entirely my own. 



To the kindness of Mi. Foljambe I am indebted for some 

 illustrations which ^dll be found in tliis work, and which 

 had already appeared in an agreeably and well written 

 work of his own, published only for private circulation, 

 entitled ' Three Years on the Australian Station,' &c., a part 

 of which contained a concise but sph'ited account of our 

 Cruise. These illustrations were from his own drawings. 



In these days of rapid pntgress and rapid change, when 

 the 'latest news' — a phrase which mighty once imply an 

 interval of months or even yeare — has now reference to 

 nothing longer than weeks or daj^s, or hours, the publica- 

 tion of facts observed seven years ago has I am aware an 

 archaeological tint about it. But various and long wander- 

 ings since my jom-nal was written, and different causes of 

 delay unconnected witli it, retarded its appearance for a 

 long while. 



At length, when the opportunity — not entirely free from 

 interruptions— of bringing it forth did occur, I felt it really 

 necessary, as a sort of excuse for publishing it at all, to 



