VIU PREFACE. 



It remains for me to make my acknowledgments to the 

 numerous individuals to wliom I have been more or less 

 indebted in various ways during my sojourn abroad, and 

 since my return to this country. First of all, I have to 

 express my heartfelt obligations to Captain Eichard Charles 

 Mayne, C.B., E.K, for his unw^earied kindness and considera- 

 tion towards me throughout the period in which I served 

 under his command, as well as for the loan of his private 

 journals, and other generous acts. My obligations are hardly 

 less due to my late messmates, the officers of the "Nassau,"* 

 in whose company I spent three very happy years, and who 

 assisted me most materially in the prosecution of my work. 

 To one and all of them I beg to return my most hearty thanks. 

 To the artistic skill of two of their number (Mr. F. Le B. 

 Bedwell, and the Hon. F. C. P. Vereker) I owe the landscape 

 sketches which adorn this volume ; while to the exertions 

 of a third. Dr. S. Campbell, my companion in nearly all my 

 rambles, and an invaluable coadjutor, I am indebted for the 

 greater portion of the ornithological collections obtained. 

 Eeferences to services of other members of our party will be 

 met with in the course of this narrative. 



My best thanks are also due to the Hydrographer to the 

 Admiralty, Eear-Admiral G. H. Eichards, and to Dr. Hooker 

 (to whose kindness I owe more than I can here express), as 

 well as to Professors Huxley, Newton, and Flower ; Dr. P. 



* Lieutenants D. G. Tandy and J. H. Orlebar ; Navigating Lieutenants 

 F. J. Gray and J. T. Hoskyn ; Dr. S, Campbell ; Messrs. Bedwell and Baver- 

 stock ; Navigating Sub-Lieutenants E. K. Connor and J. "W. Dixon ; Mr. 

 H. J. Ollard ; and the Hon. F. C. P. Vereker. 



