INTRODUCTION. 



had our progress been in any degree proportionate to the exertions of 

 those under my command, there would ere this have been nothing 

 left to regret, and but little to accomplish ; and I am happy therefore 

 thus publicly to express the high sense I entertain of the laudable 

 zeal and strenuous exertions uniformly displayed by Captain Lyon, 

 the officers, seamen, and marines, of both the ships engaged in this 

 service. Of the exemplary conduct of the men it has been my good 

 fortune to command on this occasion, I cannot indeed speak too 

 highly ; it has been a happiness to their officers and a credit to them- 

 selves. It was highly gratifying to observe the eager assiduity with 

 which, during two successive winters of long and tedious confinement, 

 they followed up the more sedentary occupations of learning to read 

 and write, with which they were furnished ; and it is, I confess, with 

 no ordinary feelings of pleasure that I record the fact, that on the 

 return of the Expedition to England, there was not an individual 

 belonging to it who could not read his Bible. 



Of the value of Mr. Fisher's labours in those departments of science 

 to which his attention was particularly directed, I cannot pretend to 

 form a competent opinion, and his account of them now preparing in 

 the Appendix will, I doubt not, speak for itself ; but I have the most 

 sincere pleasure in offering my testimony to the unabated zeal and 

 perseverance with which, under circumstances of no ordinary diffi- 

 culty from climate, and in spite of frequent ill health, he continued 

 to pursue every object which could tend to the improvement of Astro- 

 nomy and Navigation, and to the interests of Science in general. 



