vi PREFACE. 



journals sliould be consigned to me. To my regret a 

 variety of circumstances prevented my making use of the 

 valuable bequest of this most inteUigent and distinguished 

 young officer, and I eventually r-eturned the papers to his 

 family, thus losing the invaluable opportunity of enriching my 

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

 some parts of his. His journals have since been published 

 by his family, and achieved a success which they eminently 

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



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

 illustrations which will be found in tliis work, and which 

 had already appeared in an agreeably and well written 

 work of his own, pubhshed only for private circulation, 

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

 of which contained a concise but spirited account of our 

 Cruise. These illustrations were from liis own drawings. 



In these days of rapid progress and rapid change, when 

 the ' latest ncAvs ' — a phrase whicli might, once imply an 

 interval of months or even years — has now reference +0 

 nothing longer than weeks or days, or hours, the publica- 

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

 archseological tint about it. But various and long wander- 

 ings since my journal was written, and different causes of 

 delay unconnected with 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 



