10 INTRODUCTORY 



uncertain stepping-stones that connect the present and 

 the past — as complete, without contrasting the ''holiday 

 and lady terms " of the sea - survey service of the 

 present scientific time with the rough, coarse, unhand- 

 some life of the old explorers of those early days. 

 The worst that I can remember of the Investigator 

 was, that we had no ice for our liquor, and very little 

 chance of doing harm to our wit by eating roast beef, 

 and that sometimes we could get only one bucket of 

 fresh water for our morning ablutions. Otherwise we 

 lived as comfortably as people ashore ; and though 

 once we had rather too much of turtle, we were never 

 reduced to eating the Robber Crab, v/hich Drake and 

 his brave men esteemed as a ''very good and restora- 

 tive meat," and a luxury to bespoken of with gratitude. 

 Our most straitened voyage was one when the eggs 

 that we brought away from port got beyond the 

 stage in which they are still suitable for the manufac- 

 ture of omelets. 



Now let us consider the bill of fare of the famous 

 Magellan, when, in the year 1521, he was approaching 

 these seas. Says the chronicler of his wonderful 

 voyage : — 



" We only ate old biscuit reduced to powder, and 

 full of grubs, and stinking, and we drank water that 

 was yellow and stinking. We also ate the ox-hides 



First Voyage round the World by Magellan, translated by 

 Lord Stanley of Alderley, and published by the Hakluyt Society. 



