Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work | Page 9

of Edinburgh to sail in
the Fly. After the return of the Rattlesnake, he was appointed in 1852 as
naturalist to H.M.S. Herald, then starting under Captain Denham for
surveying work round the shores of South America. He left that ship at
Sydney, and after many years' wandering about the southern seas,
accounts of which he communicated from time to time to Sydney
newspapers, he died in 1867. He was a zealous collector of plants and
animals, but apparently cared little for the study of his captures, either
in life, in relation to their surroundings, like Darwin, or for the structure
of their bodies, like Huxley. The somewhat unpleasing nature of his
regard for animals appears in the following story which he himself
tells:
"While at dinner off Darnley Island near the Torres Straits, news was
brought that Dzum was under the stern in a canoe, shouting out loudly
for Dzoka (MacGillivray's native name), and, on going up I found that
he had brought off the barit, which after a deal of trouble I struck a
bargain for and obtained. It was a very fine specimen of Cuscus
Maculatus, quite tame and kept in a large cage of split bamboo. Dzum
seemed very unwilling to part with the animal, and repeatedly enjoined

me to take great care of it and feed it well, which to please him I
promised to do, although I valued it merely for its skin, and was
resolved to kill it for that purpose at my first convenience."
On the other hand, MacGillivray paid great attention to native
languages, and collected vocabularies of some value. To him was
entrusted the task of writing an account of the voyage, and it is from his
rather dull pages, brightened by illustrations from Huxley's sketches,
that the incidents of the voyage are taken. The references to Huxley in
the narrative are slight, and seem to shew that no great intimacy 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, and
Huxley stayed in Sydney for three months. Then, and in the course of
three other prolonged stays in that town during the expedition, Huxley
entered into the society of the town and became a general favourite. He
is still remembered there, and the accompanying illustration[C] is a
copy of an original sketch of himself, now in the possession of an
Australian lady. He drew it on the fly-leaf of a volume of Lytton's
poems and presented it on her birthday to the