BURIAL AT NIGHT. 
157 
diaracters of consumption in an advancing stage, and 
had he even recovered from the dysentery, he woidd 
not have been long spared to his numerous admiring 
friends. The remains of this eminent botanist were 
interred at night near those of other fellow-sutferers 
in the Expedition ; and as the feeble glimmering of the 
stars did not suffice, it was necessary to use torches, 
which threw a lurid blaze over the solemn scene. Ilis 
resting-place was at least characteristic of the occupant, 
for there nature had asserted the mastery, and sur- 
rounded the spot with a dense, almost impenetrable, 
mass of dark green underwood, above which the guava, 
the graceful palm and broad leaved banana, struggled 
to display their forms. 
On the evening of the 18th December, the sick 
being all now on board, and the preparations necessary 
for the voyage completed, the ‘Albert’ got up steam 
and left Clarence. In passing along the coast, here 
and there, a collection of moving lights, pointed to the 
different little sandy nooks, where the native Edeeyahs 
were busy in pursuit of the land-crabs. These indica- 
tions of life soon disappeared, and ere long, even the 
broad outline of the island itself, was lost in the dark 
shades of night. 
Few on board felt any regret at having left a place 
connected with so many sad recollections, but it may 
be presumed that gratitude and thankfulness were 
feelings common to all, at having escaped, even though 
