1836. | RETROSPECT. 501 
left the Beagle, having lived on board the good little vessel 
nearly five years. 
Our Voyage having come to an end, I will take a short retro- 
spect of the advantages and disadvantages, the pains and pleasures, 
of our circumnavigation of the world. Ifa person asked my ad- 
vice, before undertaking a long voyage, my answer would depend 
upon his possessing a decided taste for some branch of knowledge, 
which could by this means be advanced. No doubt it is a high 
satisfaction to behold various countries and the many races of 
mankind, but the pleasures gained at the time do not counter- 
balance the evils. It is necessary tc look forward to a harvest, 
however distant that may be, when some fruit will be reaped, 
some good effected. 
Many of the losses which must be experienced are obvious ; 
such as that of the society of every old friend, and of the sight 
of those places with which every dearest remembrance is so inti- 
mately connected. ‘These losses, however, are at the time partly 
relieved by the exhaustless delight of anticipating the long wished- 
for day of return. If, as poets say, life is a dream, I am sure in 
a voyage these are the visions which best serve to pass away the 
long night. Other losses, although not at first felt, tell heavily 
after a period: these are the want of room, of seclusion, of rest ; 
the jading feeling of constant hurry ; the privation of small Juxu- 
ries, the loss of domestic society, and even of music and the other 
pleasures of imagination. When such trifles are mentioned, it is 
evident that the real grievances, excepting from accidents, of a 
sea-life are at an end. ‘The short space of sixty years has made 
an astonishing difference in the facility of distant navigation. 
Even in the time of Cook, a man who left his fireside for such 
expeditions underwent severe privations. A yacht now, with 
every luxury of life, can circumnavigate the globe. Besides the 
vast improvements in ships and naval resources, the whole western 
shores of America are thrown open, and Australia has become 
the capital of a rising continent. How different are the cireum- 
stances to a man shipwrecked at the present day in the Pacific, 
to what they were in the time of Cook! Since his voyage a 
hemisphere has been added to the civilized world. , 
If a person suffer much from sea-sickness, let him weigh it 
