I am equally bound to commend the efficiency of our consular service in the remotest outposts of civilisation which we have visited; and evidences of good colonial administration are abundantly manifest in Hongkong, Singapore, Penang, Ceylon, and Aden, in the prosperity and contentment of the people.

It is scarcely necessary to observe, in conclusion, that experiences may be gathered in a voyage of circumnavigation which are not to be gleaned from Blue-books or from shorter cruises in European waters.  A more vivid impression is formed of the sailor’s daily life, of his privations at sea, and his temptations on shore.  The services required of the Navy are more clearly appreciated after a visit to distant foreign stations.

Such a voyage is, indeed, a serious effort.  It demands many laborious days and anxious nights of watching.  For my safe return to ’those pale, those white-faced shores,’ so welcome to the homeward-bound, accompanied, happily, by the adventurous little family who have taken part in the expedition, I am truly thankful.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

THOMAS BRASSEY.

COWES

actual experiences of the voyage, the ease and certainty with which every passage has been made are truly surprising.  Our track has been for the most part within the Tropics.  The storms off the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn have been avoided in the inland passages of the Straits of Magellan and the Suez Canal.  We have encountered no continuous stormy weather, except during the four days preceding our arrival at Yokohama.  We have suffered discomfort from heat and detention in calms, but storms have disturbed us seldom, and they have not lasted long.

Our experience of gales include a north-east gale off Cape Finisterre, on the outward voyage; a northerly gale between Rio and the River Plate, a westerly gale off the east coast of Patagonia, short but severe gales on each of the four days preceding our arrival at Yokohama, a severe gale from the north-west in the Inland Sea, a north-east gale in the Formosa Channel, a northerly gale in the Straits of Jubal, a westerly gale off Port Said, and an easterly gale on the south coast of Candia.  On the passage homewards from Gibraltar we met strong northerly winds on the coast of Portugal, and a north-east gale off Cape Finisterre.

The navigation has presented few difficulties.  All the coasts that we have visited have been surveyed.  Lighthouses are now as numerous and efficient on the coasts of China and Japan as on the shores of Europe.  Such is the perfection of the modern chronometer, that lunar observations, the only difficult work in ocean navigation, are no longer necessary; and the wind charts published by the Admiralty supply to the amateur navigator accumulated information and valuable hints for every stage of his voyage.

How infinitely easy is the task of the modern circumnavigator compared with the hazardous explorations of Magelhaens and Captain Cook, when the chronometer was an instrument of rude and untrustworthy quality, when there were no charts, and the roaring of the breakers in the dead of night was the mariner’s first warning that a coral reef was near!