526 TAKE LEAVE OF THE BEAGLE. 



spars* and boats,t we left Plymouth with in 1831. 

 From Portsmouth we proceeded round to Woolwich, 

 where the ship was paid off on the 1 8th of October, 

 1843. After giving the men their certificates, I 

 loitered a short time to indulge in those feelings that 

 naturally arose on taking a final leave of the poor 

 old Beagle at the same place where I first joined 

 her in 1825. Many events have occurred since my 

 first trip to sea in her : I have seen her under every 

 variety of circumstances, placed in peculiar situations 

 and fearful positions, from nearly the antarctic to 

 the tropic, cooled by the frigid clime of the ex- 

 treme of South America, or parched by the 

 heats of North Australia ; under every vicissitude, 

 from the grave to the gay, I have struggled along 

 with her ; and after wandering together for eighteen 

 years, a fact unprecedented in the service, I natu- 

 rally parted from her with regret. Her movements, 

 latterly, have been anxiously watched, and the 

 chances are that her ribs will separate, and that she 

 will perish in the river;]: where she was first put 

 tofjether. She has made herself as notorious as 

 during the war did her namesake, that reaped 



* I have already mentioned that the Beagle was fitted with 

 Mr. Snow Harris's lightning conductors ; the fact mentioned in 

 the text is ample proof that they do not weaken even the 

 smallest spars. 



t It is in justice due to say, that the boats were chiefly built by 

 Mr. Johns, of Plymouth Dockyard. 



X The Beagle, now employed in the Preventive Service, is 

 moored in Crouch Creek, near South End. 



