XXIII.

Eighty-two days elapsed between the departure of the Novara from Valparaiso and her arrival in the harbour of Gibraltar. They had been as many days of dreadful trial and disaster for our country! While the good ship was careering along in mid ocean, and in an unusually short space of time had sailed over 10,600 nautical miles, the fortune of arms had gone against our House, and we now heard for the first time of the desperate battles, the heavy losses, the sudden armistice of Villafranca! The Commodore at once telegraphed to Trieste the news of our arrival, and asked for further instructions.

Among our friends and acquaintances at Gibraltar many changes and alterations had taken place. The former Governor, Sir James Ferguson, had in the interim been replaced by Sir W. Codrington. The Austrian Consul, the estimable Mr. Longlands Cowell, was dead, and in his stead Mr. Frembly attended provisionally to the duties of the office.

The heads of the community, the Governor, the staff, Mr. Creswell, Postmaster-General, Mr. Frembly, &c., paid us marked attention on our present visit. Singular to say, no one here seemed to be aware of our having been declared neutral by most of the European powers, thanks to the far-sighted circumspection of the projector of the voyage, and consequently some apprehension had been felt lest some warships of the enemy might have encountered the Novara in American waters. But albeit of late years we have been pretty well accustomed to see even written treaties trodden underfoot, yet, in the present instance, the capture of the Novara had been stringently prohibited to all French cruisers. For even in the Tuileries the consequences of such an abuse of power had been well foreseen; it was felt moreover even there, that in our time the most powerful can no longer dispense with science or disregard its interests, that any violence offered to her votaries is an outrage upon mankind and civilization. So great, indeed, was the anxiety felt at Paris to avoid any possible collision with the Novara, that in addition to the existing declaration of neutrality, special orders were dispatched by the French Government, and from amid the din of battle and the thunder of artillery, the word went forth: "The Novara may proceed unmolested, for she is freighted with scientific treasures, and science is the common benefit of all nations!"

On 7th of August, a telegraphic dispatch was received in the course of the morning from the Lord High Admiral, with instructions for the Novara to proceed under sail to Messina, where a war-steamer would be in waiting to take us in tow. The same afternoon we weighed anchor on our way up the Mediterranean.

On 15th August we sighted the northern shores of Sicily, and the same evening could plainly perceive the brilliant red lights of the newly erected lighthouse on Cape San Vito, the extreme N.W. point of the island. Diversified by frequent calms, and but occasionally favoured with gentle breezes, our progress was necessarily very slow. On the 16th we passed the island of Ustica, and the following day the Lipari Islands, and at last, about 7 A.M. of the 18th, we reached the Straits of Messina. A pilot who came on board informed us that an Austrian war-steamer was lying off Messina. Orders were now given to fire a few blank shot, to advise her commander of our arrival in the Straits, after which we resumed our course. A few hours more and we were in tow of the steamer, which proved to be the Lucia, the same vessel which upwards of two years before had brought us as far as Messina on our outward voyage. We now received letters from friends and relatives at home, as also the customary and inevitable poetical effusion, which some sailor poet had written on "The Return of the Novara."

On the night of the 19th August we were off Cape Santa Maria di Leuca, which marks the entrance of the Adriatic Gulf, and in the afternoon of the following day passed Caste Nuovo near Cattaro, and the same night anchored in the harbour of Gravosa in Dalmatia. The captain of the Lucia had been dispatched to bring us hither, there to wait further orders.

The following morning, Sunday, 21st August, the naturalists and superior officers made an excursion to the highly interesting city of Ragusa, only a few miles distant, which communicates with Gravosa by a beautiful wide well-kept road. For the first time in 28 months our feet once more trod our native soil.

Next morning, about nine, the imperial steam yacht Fantasie came into port, with H.I.H. the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian on board, accompanied by the Archduchess. The Lord High Admiral stood on the paddle-box, and saluted us most heartily, repeatedly waving his cap, to which the crew of the Novara replied by a shout that made the welkin ring. The screw-corvette Dandolo shortly after anchored near us.

About noon the Archduke came on board, and inspected the crew and ship, after which he expressed himself in the most kind terms to the officers of the ship and the scientific corps of the expedition. The Archduchess afterwards had a levee, at which the officers and naturalists had the honour of being presented to her Highness, who addressed to each a few gracious words of welcome and interest.

In the evening there was an elegant banquet of forty covers, at which the Archduke presided, his consort also sharing in the festivities, during which his Highness distinguished the members of the Expedition in proposing the toast, "The men of the Novara, whose names will belong to Austrian history."

On 23rd August our frigate, accompanied by the Lucia and the screw-corvette Dandolo, sailed for Pola. Shortly before our departure the Archduke again came on board, and himself brought with him a long list of promotions. The entire crew were promoted one grade, and all the midshipmen were made officers.

On the 25th August we passed, during the morning, the light-tower of Promontore, standing on a solitary rock that rises out of the sea, hardly a cable's length from the shore, and at 11 reached Pola, the chief naval arsenal of Austria. Here we availed ourselves of the stoppage to visit some of the classical monuments of Pola.

Few cities can present better-preserved or more extensive mementoes of Roman architecture than this, the ancient Pietas Julia, so named because shortly after its destruction by Julius Cæsar, it was rebuilt at the instance of Julia, the daughter of Augustus. The majestic amphitheatre, of elliptical form, rises on the slope of the hills, so that to remedy the inequality of the ground the portion next the sea is held up by a succession of buttresses. The dazzling white of the stone does not present any traces by which one would guess its age. This relic of antiquity is in far better preservation than the Colosseum of Rome, or the Amphitheatre of Verona, and would have been far more perfect had it not been used as a stone-quarry during the days of Venetian supremacy, when entire ship-loads of this brilliant white stone were transported to Venice, there to be used as building material.

Near the amphitheatre, on the side next the city, the stranger is struck by another beautiful edifice, the Porta Aurea (golden gate), a monumental structure in the Corinthian style, which, according to one of the inscriptions, was erected by his widow, Salvia, at her own expense, in honour of Lucius Sergius Lepidus, tribune. For harmony of proportion, richness and elegance of decoration, and perfect preservation, it may be cited as one of the best existing specimens of Roman architecture. A temple to Augustus and another to Diana also attract the astonished gaze of the artist and antiquary, while many another object of classical interest lies prostrate on the earth for want of means, or perhaps, more probably, through indifference. It is highly probable that, with the rapid development of the town, some interest will also be taken in preserving its antiquities.

The importance of this spacious, easily accessible, secure, and well-fortified harbour, induced the Austrian Government during the last few years to commence public works on a large scale, which was munificently projected and fully carried out, and have resulted in opening for Pola a prospect of future importance second to none on the Adriatic, making it the Portsmouth of the Austrian Empire.

In the evening we again set sail, and about 11 A.M. of the 26th escorted by a squadron of above a dozen ships of war, in two columns, the one led by H.I.H. the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, the other by our Commodore, we neared the imposing roadstead of Trieste. As the Novara passed beneath the walls of the splendid château of Miramar, the residence of the Archduke, a guard of artillery saluted the home-returning wanderer, and almost immediately afterwards the cannon of the citadel of Trieste thundered forth their salute.

A Lloyd's steamer, having on board the principal officials of the city, as also a few friends, was now seen wending its way towards us with a band of music on board, and fell into the procession. The latter made its way, enveloped in clouds of smoke, to the picturesquely-situated city, as far as the Bay of Muggia, where each ship let go her anchor in her appointed position, and—The voyage was over.

On the transcriber of the foregoing literary detail of the incidents of the voyage of the Novara still devolves the task of presenting a brief summary of the chief objects aimed at, and the actual scientific results attained by the Imperial Expedition, so as to moderate the exaggerated expectations of one set of readers, and to rectify the hasty, depreciatory judgment of others, by stating obvious and convincing facts.

He feels, above all, compelled to examine the question, which not alone criticism but the entire educated world will address with reference to an undertaking begun under such auspices and of such universal interest, "What are the actual results, and what those to be anticipated from the Novara Expedition? How did its members respond to the efforts made to provide them with every possible appliance that munificence could supply?"

In order aright to answer this query, whether the first Austrian Expedition round the globe has really answered the expectations formed of it, it is necessary to bear in mind that its first and foremost object was the instruction on an adequate scale of the officers and midshipmen of the Imperial navy, and that scientific investigation was always regarded as of secondary importance to that chief object.

The descriptive portion of the voyage of the Novara must be considered simply as the precursor of a series of scientific publications which, thanks to Imperial munificence, will be published at the expense of the State. The nautico-physical portion will include the astronomico-geodetical, magnetic, and meteorological observations made throughout the voyage, and will appear under the auspices of the Imperial hydrographic Institution at Trieste.

The abundant materials collected in the departments of natural history, statistics, and commercial policy, will be prepared by the various gentlemen who accompanied the Expedition, and comprise as many sections as there were scientific branches represented on board ship during the voyage. These publications will embrace, in a collected form, the observations, investigations, and results obtained in the course of the entire campaign, relating to Geology, Zoology, Botany, Ethnography and Anthropology, Medicine, Statistics, and Trade.

And while these various works can only after their publication admit of a just opinion being formed as to what has been achieved in this respect by the Expedition, the numerous and valuable collections of objects of natural history already give an idea of the activity and research of each member of the scientific staff in the course of the voyage.

The zoological collection comprises above 26,000 specimens, partly collected by the two zoologists themselves, partly presented or purchased; they consist of 320 mammalia, 1500 birds, 950 amphibiæ, 2000 fish, 6550 conchyliæ, 13,000 insects, 950 crustacea, 500 molluscs, 60 skeletons, 50 skulls, 120 nests, and 150 eggs.

The botanical portion embraces several very comprehensive and valuable herbaria and collections of seeds (in selecting the latter the capabilities of the various portions of the Empire were carefully borne in mind, with reference to the power of propagating the plant), besides a large quantity of fruits and flowers of tropical plants, preserved in acetic acid or alcohol, as also Indian and Chinese drugs, and specimens of ornamental and useful woods.

The mineralogical, petrographical, and palæontological collections consist of several thousand specimens of mineralogy and petrifactions, part collected by the geologist himself, part presented by scientific Institutes, or private donors, or purchased.

The ethnographic collection embraces 376 objects, such as weapons of the most diverse form, house utensils and implements of labour, ornaments, amulets, carvings, idols, headgears, masks, pieces of clothing, models, textile fabrics, manufactures in bark, musical instruments, Cingalese manuscripts, as also fragments of palm-leaves, bamboo-reeds, and bark, all variously transcribed. Some of these various objects are the more interesting, as furnishing, so to speak, the last proofs of the aboriginal skill which, in proportion to the increasing intercourse of the savage tribes with European civilization, is rapidly diminishing, and in all the principal colonies may be considered as already extinguished.

The anthropological collection consists of 100 skulls of various races of men, and includes a complete Bushman-skeleton, besides a great variety of interesting physiological and pathologico-anatomical preparations.

But it is not merely in its general, nautical, scientific, and politico-economical features that the voyage of the Novara has reacted in a suggestive and instructing manner upon those who were privileged to belong to the Expedition. It has widened the horizon of political knowledge, presented the opportunity of instituting interesting comparisons between the conditions of the various countries visited, and has furnished many an instructive insight into the transmuting process, which the possession of civil and religious liberty effects upon the material welfare and intellectual energy of every race and land, from pole to pole. And although mankind is subjected to the powerful influences of climate, nourishment, soil, and natural phenomena in general, yet it is not less certain that by freely developing the physical and intellectual powers, those influences may be materially limited in extent of operation, and modified in practice; so that, while we see a people inhabiting a country, where Nature has lavished her utmost treasures of fertility, beauty, and loveliness, languishing spiritually and physically under the oppression of a despotic power, and the land itself hastening to impoverishment and decay, we perceive on the other hand that another, far less favourably situated, has been able under free institutions to become by its own unaided energy the marvel of all nations, colonizing every region of the earth, and extending its commercial and political importance over the entire universe.

What a melancholy picture of stagnation and decay is presented by the Spanish and Portuguese possessions in Asia, Africa, and the West Indies, by the Slave-empire of Brazil, and the Hispano-American Republics, with their mestizo dictators, as compared with the mighty development and glorious promise of the British colonies in Asia, Africa, America, and Australia, governed as they are by constitutional laws, and enjoying full civil and religious rights! Here the energy of free self-governing men, aided by a keen spirit of enterprise and investigation, has obtained a victory over all impediments of a primeval nature, and not alone opened to European civilization new channels for the extension of commerce and industry, but also accomplished important social and political reforms, for which many a civilized state in old Europe is still sighing in vain!

And to the German who has circumnavigated the globe, the consideration of these lofty themes is mingled with a glow of pride and satisfaction, in reflecting that it is a kindred Anglo-Saxon race, to whom apparently has been assigned the glorious mission of diffusing a new life over the earth, of carrying the light of Christian civilization, of political liberty, and spiritual culture, to the most primitive tribes in the furthest regions of the world, and of heralding, amid the ruins of slavery and despotism, the day-spring of a lasting era of Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity!

VOL. II.

APPENDIX B.