railway-carriage window, on that sad autumn night I
have already spoken of. With what tearful eyes I went
home to tell his mother (from whom he had already
taken leave) how cheerfully he went away; how they
were dried by-and-by when we began to have letters
from him, and how we rejoiced at his safe arrival;
how we waited for news of him when he had entered
upon his w o rk ; how when Witti, a fellow-explorer,
and his men were massacred, we resolved to send
for Frank home; how we received reassuring letters
from him and the Company; how he got on well with
the natives, and sent home despatches full of a strange
wisdom for one so young; how we, all of us, wrote
to him every week; how his letters thrilled us with
pleasure as they recorded his success ; how we suffered
when he was laid up with fever; how he was
better almost before we had had time to deplore his
illness; how at last he cheered us finally with the
news that he was starting on his last expedition prior
to returning home; how we got intelligence of his
safety and good health, and his nearing the end of his
journey; and how in the midst of our happiness came
tidings of his death ; the joy and the misery and the
final heart-break of all this goes without saying. But
the story of the closing days of his brave young life is
full of a touching pathos that must have a fascination
for all tender souls. Considering the narrative as a
stranger might, who had never looked into his frank
brown eyes nor heard the music of his voice, I would
still, I think, be deeply touched by the brief record of
his industrious, heroic, and blameless career.
II.
REMINISCENCES AND RELICS.
The lost diaries—A difficult task—Many-sidedness—1“ Man proposes ”
First .talks about Borneo—Choice of work—Borneo or Guy’s
Hospital?—“ Too young! He will get over th a t’’—Risks at
home and abroad—Omens—Memories-Contributions to the
press—A scientific controvèrsy-The adventures of a drop of
Thames water—At the Chemical Society—A visit to Rothschild’s
and the Mint—Packing up.
I.
I had hoped that if ever the brief story of my own
career should be deemed worth the telling, he would
have been my biographer. .I t had occurred to me,
i | this connection, that the famous people I had known
and their influence on historic events would be for him
interesting subjects of study. With these thoughts in
my mind I had during his absence laid aside and collated
many papers and letters for his perusal. When my time
should come, I thought I would leave him the literary
and journalistic notes of my labours and associations,
that he might know me even from the time before he
was born. I t seemed to me as if I were putting my house
m order for him. I likened myself to the old year
that was going o u t; I thought of him as the new
one that was coming in. I should rest from my
labours. He would begin his work in the great world