Books: The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 1

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Here, on the other hand, is an oasis, a bartering scene at Bruny Island,
in the Louisiade:--

"We landed at the same place as before, and this time the natives ran
down prancing and gesticulating. Many of them had garlands of green
leaves round their heads, knees, and ankles; some wore long streamers
depending from their arms and ears and floating in the wind as they
galloped along, shaking their spears and prancing just as boys do when
playing at horses. They soon surrounded us, shouting 'Kelumai! Kelumai!'
(their word for iron), and offering us all sorts of things in exchange.
One very fine athletic man, "Kaioo-why-who-at' by name, was perfectly
mad to get an axe, and very soon comprehended the arrangements that were
made. Mr. Brady drew ten lines on the sand and laid an axe down by them,
giving K-- (I really can't write that long name all over again) to
understand by signs that when there was a 'bahar' (yam) on every mark he
should have the axe. He comprehended directly, and bolted off as fast as
he could run, soon returning with his hands full of yams, which he
deposited one by one on the appropriate lines; then fearful lest some of
the others should do him out of the axe, he caught hold of Brady by the
arm, and would not let him go until yams enough had been brought by the
others to make up the number, and the axe was handed over to him.

"Then was there a yell of delight! He jumped up with the axe, flourished
it, passed it to his companions, tumbled down and rolled over, kicking
up his heels in the air, and finally, catching hold of me, we had a
grand waltz, with various poses plasticques, for about a quarter of a
mile. I daresay he was unsophisticated enough to imagine that I was
filled with sympathetic joy, but I grieve to say that I was taking care
all the while to direct his steps towards the village, which, as we had
as yet examined none of their houses, I was most desirous of entering
under my friend's sanction. I think he suspected something, for he
looked at me rather dubiously when I directed our steps towards the
entrance in the bush which led to the houses, and wanted me to go back;
but I was urgent, so he gave way, and we both entered the open space,
where we were joined by two or three others, and sat down under a
cocoanut tree.

"I persuaded him to sit for his portrait (taking care first that my back
was against the tree and my pistols handy), and we ate green cocoanuts
together, at last attaining to so great a pitch of intimacy that he made
me change names with him, calling himself 'Tamoo' (my Cape York name),
and giving me to understand that I was to take his own lengthy
appellation. When I did so, and talked to him as 'Tamoo,' nothing could
exceed the delight of all around; they patted me as you would a child,
and evidently said to one another, 'This really seems to be a very
intelligent white fellow.'

"Like the Cape York natives, they were immensely curious to look at
one's legs, asking permission, very gently but very pressingly, to pull
up the trouser, spanning the calf with their hands, drawing in their
breath and making big eyes all the while. Once, when the front of my
shirt blew open, and they saw the white skin of my chest, they set up an
universal shout. I imagine that as they paint THEIR faces black, they
fancied that we ingeniously coloured ours white, and were astonished to
see that we were really of that (to them) disgusting tint all over."

[On May 2, 1850, the "Rattlesnake" sailed for the last time out of
Sydney harbour, bound for England by way of the Horn. In spite of his
cheerful anticipations, Huxley was not to see his future wife again for
five years more, when he was at length in a position to bid her come and
join him. During the three years of their engagement in Australia, they
had at least been able to see each other at intervals, and to be
together for months at a time. In the long periods of absence, also,
they had invented a device to cheat the sense of separation. Each kept a
particular journal, to be exchanged when they met again, and only to be
read, day by day, during the next voyage. But now it was very different,
their only means of communication being the slow agency of the post,
beset with endless possibilities of misunderstanding when it brought
belated answers to questions already months old and out of date in the
changed aspect of circumstances. These perils, however, they weathered,
and it proves how deep in the moral nature of each the bond between them
was rooted, that in the end they passed safely through the still greater
danger of imperceptibly growing estranged from one another under the
influences of such utterly different surroundings.

A kindly storm which forced the old ship to put into the Bay of Islands
to repair a number of small leaks that rendered the lower deck
uninhabitable, made it possible for Huxley to send back a letter that
should reach Australia in one month instead of ten after his departure.

He utilized a week's stay here characteristically enough in an
expedition to Waimate, the chief missionary station and the school of
the native institutions (a sort of Normal School for native teachers),
in order to judge of his own inspection what missionary life was like.]

I have been greatly surprised in these good people [he writes]. I had
expected a good deal of "straight-hairedness" (if you understand the
phrase) and methodistical puritanism, but I find it quite otherwise.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Burrows seem very quiet and
unpretending--straightforward folks desirous of doing their best for the
people among whom they are placed.

[One touch must not be allowed to pass unnoticed in his appreciation of
the missionaries' unstudied welcome to the belated travellers, whose
proper host was unable to take them in:--"tea unlimited and a blazing
fire, TOGETHER WITH A VERY NICE CAT."

By July 12, midwinter of course in the southern hemisphere, they had
rounded the Horn, and Huxley writes from that most desolate of British
possessions, the Falkland Islands:--]

I have great hopes of being able to send a letter to you, via
California, even from this remote corner of the world. It is the Ultima
Thule and no mistake. Fancy two good-sized islands with undulated
surface and sometimes elevated hills, but without tree or bush as tall
as a man. When we arrived the 8th inst. the barren uniformity was
rendered still more obvious by the deep coating of snow which enveloped
everything. How can I describe to you "Stanley," the sole town,
metropolis, and seat of government? It consists of a lot of black, low,
weatherboard houses scattered along the hillsides which rise round the
harbour. One barnlike place is Government House, another the pensioners'
barracks, rendered imposing by four field-pieces in front; others
smaller are the residences of the colonel, surgeon, etc. In one
particularly black and unpromising-looking house lives a Mrs. Sulivan,
the wife of Captain Sulivan, who surveyed these islands, and has settled
out here. (Captain Sulivan, who sailed with Darwin in the "Beagle," and
served with great distinction in command of the southern division of the
fleet in the battle of Obligado (Plate River), had surveyed the Falkland
Islands many years before his temporary settlement there. During the
Crimean War he was surveying officer to the Baltic fleet, and afterwards
naval adviser to the Board of Trade. He was afterwards Admiral and
K.C.B.) I asked myself if I could have had the heart to bring you to
such a desolate place, and myself said "No." However, I believe she is
very happy with her children. Sulivan is a fine energetic man, so I
suppose if she loves him, well and good, and fancies (is she not a silly
woman?) that she has her reward. Mrs. Stanley has gone to stay with them
while the ship remains here, and I think I shall go and look them up
under pretence of making a call. They say that the present winter is far
more savage than the generality of Falkland Island winters, and it had
need be, for I never felt anything so bitterly cold in my life. The
thermometer has been down below 22, and shallow parts of the harbour
even have frozen. Nothing to be done ashore. My rifle lies idle in its
case; no chance of a shot at a bull, and one has to go away 20 miles to
get hold even of the upland geese and rabbits. The only thing to be done
is to eat, eat, eat, and the cold assists one wonderfully in that
operation. You consume a pound or so of beefsteaks at breakfast and then
walk the deck for an appetite at dinner, when you take another pound or
two of beef or a goose, or some such trifle. By four o'clock it is dark
night, and as it is too cold to read the only thing to be done is to
vanish under blankets as soon as possible and take twelve or fourteen
hours' sleep.

Mrs. Stanley's Bougirigards [The Australian love-bird; a small
parrakeet.], which I have taken under my care during the cold weather,
admire this sort of thing exceedingly and thrive under it, so I suppose
I ought to.

The journey from New Zealand here has been upon the whole favourable; no
gales--quite the reverse--but light variable winds and calms. The latter
part of our voyage has, however, been very cold, snow falling in
abundance, and the ice forming great stalactites about our bows. We have
seen no icebergs nor anything remarkable. From all I can learn it is
most probable that we shall leave in about a week and shall go direct to
England without stopping at any other port. I wish it may be so. I want
to get home and look about me.

We have had news up to the end of March. There is nothing of any
importance going on. By the Navy list for April I see that I shall be as
nearly as possible in the middle of those of my own rank, i.e. I shall
have about 150 above and as many below me. This is about what I ought to
expect in the ordinary run of promotion in eight years, and I have
served four and a half of that time. I don't expect much in the way of
promotion, especially in these economic times; but I do not fear that I
shall be able to keep me in England for at least a year after our
arrival, in order to publish my papers. The Admiralty have quite
recently published a distinct declaration that they will consider
scientific attainments as a claim to their notice, and I expect to be
the first to remind them of their promise, and I will take care to have
the reminder so backed that they must and shall take note of it. Even if
they will not promote me at once, it would answer our purpose to have an
appointment to some ship on the home station for a short time.

[The last of the Falklands was seen on July 25; the line was crossed in
thirty-six days; another month, and water running short, it was found
necessary to put in at the Azores for a week. Leaving Fayal on October
5, the "Rattlesnake" reached Plymouth on the 23rd, but next day
proceeded to Chatham, which, thanks to baffling winds, was not reached
till November 9, when the ship was paid off.

CHAPTER 1.5.

1850-1851.

[In the Huxley Lecture for 1898 ("Times," October 4) Professor Virchow
takes occasion to speak of the effect of Huxley's service in the
"Rattlesnake" upon his intellectual development:--

When Huxley himself left Charing Cross Hospital in 1846, he had enjoyed
a rich measure of instruction in anatomy and physiology. Thus trained,
he took the post of naval surgeon, and by the time that he returned,
four years later, he had become a perfect zoologist and a keen-sighted
ethnologist. How this was possible any one will readily understand who
knows from his own experience how great the value of personal
observation is for the development of independent and unprejudiced
thought. For a young man who, besides collecting a rich treasure of
positive knowledge, has practised dissection and the exercise of a
critical judgment, a long sea-voyage and a peaceful sojourn among
entirely new surroundings afford an invaluable opportunity for original
work and deep reflection. Freed from the formalism of the schools,
thrown upon the use of his own intellect, compelled to test each single
object as the prevailing system and becomes, first a sceptic, and then
an investigator. This change, which did not fail to affect Huxley, and
through which arose that Huxley whom we commemorate to-day, is no
unknown occurrence to one who is acquainted with the history, not only
of knowledge, but also of scholars.

But he was not destined to find his subsequent path easy. Once in
England, indeed, he did not lose any time. No sooner had the
"Rattlesnake" touched at Plymouth than Commander Yule, who had succeeded
Captain Stanley in the command of the ship, wrote to the head of the
Naval Medical Department stating the circumstances under which Huxley's
zoological investigations had been undertaken, and asking the sanction
of the Admiralty for their publication. The hydrographer, in sending the
formal permission, says:--

But I have to add that their Lordships will not allow any charge to be
made upon the public funds towards the expense. You will, however,
further assure Mr. Huxley that any assistance that can be supplied from
this office shall be most cheerfully given to him, and that I heartily
hope, from the capacity and taste for scientific investigation for which
you give him credit, that he will produce a work alike creditable to
himself, to his late Captain, by whom he was selected for it, and to Her
Majesty's service.

Personally, the hydrographer took a great interest in science; but as
for the department, Huxley somewhat bitterly interpreted the official
meaning of this well-sounding flourish to be made: "Publish if you can,
and give us credit for granting every facility except the one means of
publishing."

Happily there was another way of publishing, if the Admiralty would
grant him time to arrange his papers and superintend their publication.
The Royal Society had at their disposal an annual grant of money for the
publication of scientific works. If the Government would not contribute
directly to publish the researches made under their auspices, the
favourable reception which his preliminary papers had met with led
Huxley to hope that his greater work would be undertaken by the Royal
Society. If the leading men of science attested the value of his work,
the Admiralty might be induced to let him stay in England with the
nominal appointment as assistant surgeon to H.M.S. "Fisguard" at
Woolwich, for "particular service," but with leave of absence from the
ship so that he could live and pursue his avocations in London. There
was a precedent for this course in the case of Dr. Hooker, when he had
to work out the scientific results of the voyage of the "Erebus" and
"Terror."

In this design he was fortified by his old Haslar friend, Dr.
(afterwards Sir John) Watt Reid, who wrote: "They cannot, and, I am
sure, will not wish to stand in your way at Whitehall." Meanwhile, the
first person, naturally, he had thought of consulting was his old chief,
Sir John Richardson, who had great weight at the Admiralty, and to him
he wrote the following letter before leaving Plymouth.]

To Sir John Richardson.

October 31, 1850.

I regret very much that in consequence of our being ordered to be paid
off at Chatham, instead of Portsmouth, as we always hoped and expected,
I shall be unable to submit to your inspection the zoological notes and
drawings which I have made during our cruise. They are somewhat numerous
(over 180 sheets of drawings), and I hope not altogether valueless,
since they have been made with as great care and attention as I am
master of--and with a microscope, such as has rarely, if ever, made a
voyage round the world before. A further reason for indulging in this
hope consists in the fact that they relate for the most part to animals
hitherto very little known, whether from their rarity or from their
perishable nature, and that they bear upon many curious physiological
points.

I may thus classify and enumerate the observations I have made:--

1. Upon the organs of hearing and circulation in some of the transparent
Crustacea, and upon the structure of certain of the lower forms of
Crustacea.

2. Upon some very remarkable new forms of Annelids, and especially upon
the much contested genus Sagitta, which I have evidence to show is
neither a Mollusc nor an Epizoon, but an Annelid.

3. Upon the nervous system of certain Mollusca hitherto imperfectly
described--upon what appears to me to be an urinary organ in many of
them--and upon the structure of Firola and Atlanta, of which latter I
have a pretty complete account.

4. Upon two perfectly new (ordinally new) species of Ascidians.

5. Upon Pyrosoma and Salpa. The former has never been described (I
think) since Savigny's time, and he had only specimens preserved in
spirits. I have a great deal to add and alter. Then as to Salpa, whose
mode of generation has always been so great a bone of contention, I have
a long series of observations and drawings which I have verified over
and over again, and which, if correct, must give rise to quite a new
view of the matter. I may mention as an interesting fact that in these
animals so low in the scale I have found a PLACENTAL CIRCULATION,
rudimentary indeed, but nevertheless a perfect model on a small scale of
that which takes place in the mammalia.

6. I have the materials for a monograph upon the Acalephae and
Hydrostatic Acalephae. I have examined very carefully more than forty
genera of these animals--many of them very rare, and some quite new. But
I paid comparatively little attention to the collection of new species,
caring rather to come to some clear and definite idea as to the
structure of those which had indeed been long known, but very little
understood. Unfortunately for science, but fortunately for me, this
method appears to have been somewhat novel with observers of these
animals, and consequently everywhere new and remarkable facts were to be
had for the picking up.

It is not to be supposed that one could occupy one's self with the
animals for so long without coming to some conclusion as to their
systematic place, however subsidiary to observation such considerations
must always be regarded, and it seems to me (although on such matters I
can of course only speak with the greatest hesitation) that just as the
more minute and careful observations made upon the old "Vermes" of
Linnaeus necessitated the breaking up of that class into several very
distinct classes, so more careful investigation requires the breaking up
of Cuvier's "Radiata" (which succeeded the "Vermes" as a sort of
zoological lumber-room) into several very distinct and well-defined new
classes, of which the Acalephae, Hydrostatic Acalephae, actinoid and
hydroid polypes, will form one. But I fear that I am trespassing beyond
the limits of a letter. I have only wished to state what I have done in
order that you may judge concerning the propriety or impropriety of what
I propose to do. And I trust that you will not think that I am presuming
too much upon your kindness if I take the liberty of thus asking your
advice about my own affairs. In truth, I feel in a manner responsible to
you for the use of the appointment you procured for me; and furthermore,
Captain Stanley's unfortunate decease has left the interests of the ship
in general and my own in particular without a representative.

Can you inform me, then, what chance I should have either (1) of
procuring a grant for the publication of my papers, or (2) should that
not be feasible, to obtain a nominal appointment (say to the "Fisguard"
at Woolwich, as in Dr. Hooker's case) for such time as might be
requisite for the publication of my papers and drawings in some other
way?

I shall see Professors Owen and Forbes when I reach London, and I have a
letter of introduction to Sir John Herschel (who has, I hear, a great
penchant for the towing-net). Supposing I could do so, would it be of
any use to procure recommendations from them that my papers should be
published?

[[Half-erased] To Sir F. Beaufort also I have a letter.] Would it not be
proper also to write to Sir W. Burnett acquainting him with my views,
and requesting his acquiescence and assistance?

Begging an answer at your earliest convenience, addressed either to the
"Rattlesnake" or to my brother, I remain, your obedient servant,

T.H. Huxley.

41 North Bank.

[He received a most friendly reply from "Old John." He was willing to do
all in his power to help, but could recommend Government aid better if
he had seen the drawings. Meantime a certificate should be got from
Forbes, the best man in this particular branch of science, backed, if
possible, by Owen. He would speak to some officials himself, and give
Huxley introductions to others, and if he could get up to town, would
try to see the collections and add his name to the certificate.

Both Forbes and Owen were ready to help. The former wrote a most
encouraging letter, singling out the characteristics which gave a
peculiar value to these papers:--

I have had very great pleasure in examining your drawings of animals
observed during the voyage of the "Rattlesnake," and have also fully
availed myself of the opportunity of going over the collections made
during the course of the survey upon which you have been engaged. I can
say without exaggeration that more important or more complete zoological
researches have never been conducted during any voyage of discovery in
the southern hemisphere. The course you have taken of directing your
attention mainly to impreservable creatures, and to those orders of the
animal kingdom respecting which we have least information, and the care
and skill with which you have conducted elaborate dissections and
microscopic examinations of the curious creatures you were so fortunate
as to meet with, necessarily gives a peculiar and unique character to
your researches, since thereby they fill up gaps in our knowledge of the
animal kingdom. This is the more important, since such researches have
been almost always neglected during voyages of discovery. The value of
some of your notes was publicly acknowledged during your absence, when
your memoir on the structure of the Medusae, communicated to the Royal
Society, was singled out for publication in the "Philosophical
Transactions." It would be a very great loss to science if the mass of
new matter and fresh observation which you have accumulated were not to
be worked out and fully published, as well as an injustice to the merits
of the expedition in which you have served.

The latter offered to write to the Admiralty on his behalf, giving the
weight of his name to the suggestion that the work to be done would take
at least twelve months, and that therefore his appointment to the
"Fisguard" should not be limited to any less period.] "They might be
disposed," [wrote Huxley to him,] "to cut anything I request down--on
principle." [Moreover, Owen, Forbes, Bell, and Sharpey, all members of
the Committee of Recommendation of the Royal Society, had expressed
themselves so favourably to his views that in his application he was
able to relieve the economic scruples of the Admiralty by telling them
that he had a means of publishing his papers through the Royal Society.

The result of his application, thus backed, was that he obtained his
appointment on November 29. It was for six months, subject to extension
if he were able to report satisfactory progress with his work.

A long letter to his sister, now settled in Tennessee, gives a good idea
of his aims and hopes at this time.]

41 North Bank, Regent's Park.

November 21, 1850.

My dearest Lizzie,

We have been at home now nearly three weeks, and I have been a free man
again twelve days. Her Majesty's ships have been paid off on the 9th of
this month. Properly speaking, indeed, we have been at home longer, for
we touched at Plymouth and trod English ground and saw English green
fields on the 23rd of October, but we were allowed to remain only
twenty-four hours, and to my great disgust were ordered round to Chatham
to be paid off. The ill-luck which had made our voyage homeward so long
(we sailed from Sydney on the 2nd of May) pursued us in the Channel, and
we did not reach Chatham until the 2nd of November; and what do you
think was one of the first things I did when we reached Plymouth? Wrote
to Eliza K. asking news of a certain naughty sister of mine, from whom I
had never heard a word since we had been away--and if perchance there
should be any letter, begging her to forward it immediately to Chatham.
And so, when at length we got there, I found your kind long letter had
been in England some six or seven months; but hearing of the likelihood
of our return, they had very judiciously not sent it to me.

Your letter, my poor Lizzie, justifies many a heartache I have had when
thinking over your lot, knowing, as I well do, what emigrant life is in
climates less trying than that in which you live. I have seen a good
deal of bush life in Australia, and it enables me fully to sympathise
with and enter into every particular you tell me--from the baking and
boiling and pigs squealing, down to that ferocious landshark Mrs.
Gunther, of whose class Australia will furnish fine specimens. Had I
been at home, too, I could have enlightened the good folks as to the
means of carriage in the colonies, and could have told them that the two
or twenty thousand miles over sea is the smallest part of the difficulty
and expense of getting anything to people living inland; as it is, I
think I have done some good in the matter; their meaning was good but
their discretion small. But the obtuseness of English in general about
anything out of the immediate circle of their own experience is
something wonderful.

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