Borneo, and thus up through the Sea of Celebes to the
Philippine Islands and Japan. He had faint hopes of finding us, but yet
the opportunity was not to be lost.

Our meeting was indeed wonderful, and we had reason to be thankful that
we had been saved the sufferings to which we might have been subjected,
and that their anxiety was thus happily ended. I need scarcely say that
Mrs Davenport and her husband suffered greatly at the supposed loss of
their daughter, while I fully believe they mourned also greatly for us;
indeed, they treated both Emily and I as if we were their own children,
and nothing could exceed their kindness and attention. Captain
Davenport offered to return to Singapore for the sake of landing Mr
Hooker and our uncle; but they preferred remaining on board the ship,
declaring that they must set to work to replace the treasures they had
lost; and as the ship was to remain for several days at every place she
touched at, they hoped in a limited degree to do so; but I could not
help being amused sometimes at hearing them mourning the loss of their
specimens--not, however, so much on their own account as on that of the
scientific world in general.

"But surely, uncle," I said one day, "you have saved your note-books,
and from them you may give a good deal of information."

"Of course, Walter," he answered. "That is my great consolation. Had
it not been for that, I scarcely think I could have survived the
terrible disaster."

We had reason to be thankful that we had fallen in with the _Ulysses_,
for we had not been on board a couple of days when it came on to blow
hard, and so heavy a sea got up, that I suspect our raft would scarcely
have held together, or at all events we should probably have been washed
off it. I must reserve the notes we made at the fresh places we visited
for another occasion.

At length we were once more on our homeward voyage. The first mate of
the ship having got appointed to the command of a vessel which had lost
her master, Mr Thudicumb took his place. The boatswain also was taken
ill, and Dick Tarbox became boatswain in his stead; while the other men
entered as seamen on board the _Ulysses_.

We arrived in England after a prosperous voyage. I told Captain
Davenport that I hoped he would allow me to accompany him again to sea,
trusting that I might soon obtain a berth as mate on board his ship.

"I should be very glad to have you, Walter," he said; "but I have
rece