ABSTRACT
Either because the present circumstances of the expedition were so different from those prevailing at the time of our previous visit, or simply because of my own thoughts on the inconveniences of life on board, 1 on this occasion it mattered as much for our decorum that we should live separately as it had mattered previously that we should live together. Such arrangements appeared all the more beneficial considering that few of their present duties required the officers to be gathered together, while many of the sick were in need of peaceful recreation, free of all irksome discipline. Accordingly, my first step towards the re-establishment of good order was to give all senior officers permission to live just where they wished, granting them their messing allowance 2 while I, in the agreeable surroundings of La Magdalena, 3 would attend simultaneously to the care of the observatory, the compilation of the results of the recent passages, and the preparations for those to come. Thus all the ill will that did not arise from an uneasy and intolerant attitude would be shaken off without violence and buried in oblivion. Left to their own devices the officer class would revert to myself, I would finally be able, for a time, to commanding officer and attend quietly to the restoration of my own much weakened health. 4
