Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

1831. WELL PROVIDED TO WHOM OWING. 43 likely to be very long, promised much that would interest, and excite, and perhaps reward. To the executive officers of a ship it is always a most satis- factory feeling, independent of other thoughts, to be fairly at sea, and away from the scenes of irregularity which so often take place in ports. Those scenes, however, are now much less offensive, and the sailor is far less heedless than he was for- merly, if we may take Fielding's description as authority. That humorous sensible author says, in one of the most entertain- ing accounts of a voyage ever written, "• To say the truth, from what I observed in the behaviour of the sailors in this voyage, and comparing it with what I have formerly seen of them, at sea, and on shore, I am convinced that on land there is no- thing more idle and dissolute ; but, in their own element, there are no persons, near the level of their degree, who live in the constant practice of half so many good qualities." Never, I beheve, did a vessel leave England better pro- vided, or fitted for the service she was destined to perform, and for the health and comfort of her crew, than the Beagle. If we did want any thing which could have been carried, it was our own fault ; for all that was asked for, from the Dock- yard, Victualling Department, Navy Board, or Admiralty, was granted. To mention the names of those to whom my shipmates and myself felt most grateful for attention to requests, and for a kind foresight of our future wants, may be unnecessary, some may think improper ; yet, at the risk of offending, I must try to express the gratitude that I, and those who sailed with me in the Beagle, owe to Sir James Graham, Sir Thomas Hardy, Captain Beaufort, Commissioner (now Admiral) Ross, Sir Robert Seppings, Sir James Gordon, the late Sir Manley Dixon, and Sir William Burnett : less I cannot say, more might be displeasing. The wind increased, and drove us onwards into the Atlantic as fast as a heavily laden small vessel, with her ' scuppers' in the water, could be forced. We steered as southerly a course as was safe, in hopes of keeping the east wind longer, and the