existed between the two young men, the one a naturalist by
profession, the other as yet a surgeon, but more devoted to natural
history than the naturalist. Such references as occur relate to
Huxley's constant occupations on shore, sketching natives and their
dwellings, and his apparatus on board for trawling, dredging, and
dissecting.

The voyage out was uneventful. The ship touched at Madeira and at Rio
de Janeiro, and then crossed the South Atlantic to Simon's Town at the
Cape of Good Hope, where the first quantity of treasure was to be
landed. There they found the colony distressed by the long continuance
of the Kaffir war. Prices for everything were extortionate, and the
colonists had no mind for any affairs than their own, so after a short
stay the voyagers were glad to set out for the Mauritius. That island,
although in the possession of Britain, still retained a strong impress
of its French occupation, and the travellers were interested by the
mixture of population inhabiting it.[B]

"Passing through the closely packed lines of shipping, and
landing as a stranger at Port Louis, perhaps the first thing to
engage attention is the strange mixture of
nations,--representatives, he might at first be inclined to
imagine, of half the countries of the earth. He stares at a
coolie from Madras with a breech-cloth and a soldier's jacket, or
a stately bearded Moor striking a bargain with a Parsee merchant.
A Chinaman with two bundles slung on a bamboo hurries past,
jostling a group of young Creole exquisites smoking their
cheroots at a corner, and talking of last night's Norma, or the
programme of the evening's performance at the Hippodrome in the
Champ de Mars. His eye next catches a couple of sailors reeling
out of a grogshop, to the amusement of a group of laughing
negresses, in white muslin dresses of the latest Parisian
fashion, contrasting strongly with a modestly attired Cingalese
woman, and an Indian ayah with her young charge. Amidst all this,
the French language prevails; and everything more or less
pertains of the French character, and an Englishman can scarcely
believe that he is in one of the colonies of his own country."

From Mauritius they proceeded to the English-looking colony of
Tasmania, and after a few days set out for Sydney, arriving there on
July 16th. The surveying officers had tedious work to do there, a