696 Arboriculture of the Voyage of King and Fitzroy. 



navigators, which is capable of paddling along at the rate of fifteen miles an 

 hour) would form an admirable addition to the lake. 



Seriously, we hope that this last establishment (which, seeing the ridi- 

 culous absurdity of the plan and pretensions it set out with, may by skilful 

 adaptation to the locality, form an ornament, and be extremely useful to the me- 

 tropolis) be not set as " a tub," to turn the public attention from what it ought 

 to be the object of the government to encourage instead of impeding. From 

 the nature of the prospectus such an idea might be inferred, and, we earnestly 

 hope, may turn out to be unfounded ; both for the credit of the queen's govern- 

 ment, and to avoid the universal ridicule which will attach to those who have 

 lent their names to such a scheme, should it unfortunately prove to be the 

 case. 



We cannot conclude this notice without recurring to the work itself, which, 

 as far as those engaged in it are concerned, is a noble monument of these 

 times. The original expedition was commanded tyy Captain King, assisted by 

 Captain Stokes, whose physical and moral strength gave way under the hard- 

 ship he had to undergo. Captain Fitzroy succeeded him ; and, on the return 

 of the expedition, was sent out in the Beagle to finish some parts of the sur- 

 vey, and extend the observations previously made. Finding the vessel alone to 

 be quite inadequate to the performance of the services, he hired others, until 

 he had incurred an expense he was unable to afford, and applied to have the 

 men he employed paid and victualled at the public expense, proposing still to 

 pay the hire of the vessels himself. This was refused by the Admiralty, and 

 he returned with the service imperfectly performed; at least very much less 

 done than might have been by a very trifling additional expenditure, and with 

 the greater part of his private fortune (we have heard 7000/.) expended in 

 following the dictates of professional and patriotic zeal. Except promotion, 

 which was a matter of course, we believe not one farthing of this has been 

 in any way made up to him. We are perfectly aware of the rules, and of the 

 necessityof not allowing the private speculations or views of officers to be intro- 

 duced as precedents for public expenditure, but there are circumstances in this 

 case of rather a peculiar nature. In the first place, the object was a very noble 

 one ; the force under his command was perfectly and wholly inadequate to the 

 performance of it. These expeditions should always be confided to two ves- 

 sels, either separate, or the one as tender to the other, as circumstances may 

 require. The Beagle, though a safe and good vessel, had neither the accom- 

 modation nor stowage fit for a voyage of the sort ; and we invite the atten- 

 tion of any one acquainted with naval matters to the state of a ten-gun brig 

 as described, when ready for sea, with boats on the quarters and on the quar- 

 ter-deck. It is quite extraordinary how they managed, even to those ac- 

 quainted with the subject. For these reasons, and on account of the great 

 results obtained, it certainly does appear that some means should be taken of 

 indemnifying Captain Fitzroy for the money he has actually expended in the 

 public service. 



We have not mentioned the important assistance afforded by Mr. Darwin, 

 who accompanied the expedition at the desire of Captain Fitzroy to have a 

 regular naturalist attached, because his information, although invaluable, is 

 chiefly on geology, and subjects connected with it, and consequently is foreign 

 to the nature of this publication. 



In addition to his promotion, Captain Fitzroy received a medal from the 

 Geographical Society. An anecdote, strange and incredible to those who do 

 not know how the world is governed behind the scenes, is in circulation in 

 " the clubs" respecting the conferring of this medal, to which it is said oppo- 

 sition was offered. It must be observed that in these cases the obligation or 

 honour is reciprocal, or rather considerably to the opposite side of the balance, 

 as held in this instance. A man who, like Captain Fitzroy, has left a name 

 amongst the first navigators of his country, and the results of whose voyages 

 have been considered to place him by the side of Humboldt, had nothing on 

 earth to gain by receiving a medal from any society. In fact, of the two, the 



