A Voyage in the 'Sunbeam', Our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months

E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Ronald Holder, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team




DEDICATION
TO THE FRIENDS in many climes and countries, of the white and coloured races, and of every grade in society, who have made our year of travel a year of happiness, these pages are dedicated by the ever grateful Author

PREFACE.
This volume needs no elaborate preface. A general sketch of the voyage which it describes was published in the 'Times' immediately after our return to England. That letter is reprinted here as a convenient summary of the 'Sunbeam's' performances. But these prefatory lines would indeed be incomplete if they did not contain a well-deserved tribute to the industry and accuracy of the author. The voyage would not have been undertaken, and assuredly it would never have been completed, without the impulse derived from her perseverance and determination. Still less would any sufficient record of the scenes and experiences of the long voyage have been preserved had it not been for her painstaking desire not only to see everything thoroughly, but to record her impressions faithfully and accurately. The practised skill of a professional writer cannot reasonably be expected in these simple pages, but their object will have been attained if they are the means of enabling more home-keeping friends to share in the keen enjoyment of the scenes and adventures they describe.
THOMAS BRASSEY