And that is how all
nature's giant works affect you, when once you are clear of the help of
man. You have a perfect reliance upon the unseen, and there follows a
calm, sweet solace, which you cannot express. No doubts enter, when you
are confronted with the great spirit, which seems to preside over virgin
nature.
'But my emotions on the "Beagle" were as a flood. Here I was sailing to a
quarter of the world which the Creator, in His goodness, had provided for
the support and happiness of men. Yet they did not know actually what it
was like; the inheritance was still unexplored. And that land of
North-West Australia was to be all my own, to designate as I wished. My
feeling might be compared to that of a child waiting for a new toy. It
gave rise to an ardent expectation.
'Behind was the despair of thousands, without the necessaries of life or
the prospect of them; a nightmare of darkness that haunted me. But in
front, as I trusted, lay hands which should afford mankind another start.
Why, the busy brains of England were already unconsciously preparing
every device and implement, that could be useful to the rise of the New
World. We make ready in the dark for the light.'
At Cape Town, the halfway house to Australia, Sir George chartered a
schooner for detailed exploring work.
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