Few of Dr. Brown's London friends were aware that his attainments as a scientific botanist were of the highest order. Yet in this department of science alone he had written thirty papers and reports, besides an advanced text-book of Botany (published by William Blackwood and Sons), before the summer of 1872, when he was only thirty years of age. These were entirely outside his contributions to general literature on that and other subjects, already at that date numerous; and if we add to the list the various reports, essays, memoranda contributed by him to the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, of which he was President, to the Royal Geographical Society, of whose Council he was a member at his death, and to numerous other bodies, as well as to scientific and popular journals, on geographical, geological, and zoological subjects, from first to last the total mounts to several hundreds. In these branches of science his heart lay always, but he laboured for his daily bread and to give to him that needed. The portrait forming the frontispiece to this volume is from a photograph of Dr. Brown taken in 1870, just after his return from his last expedition to Greenland, and represents him much as he looked when, some years later, he first came to London, after failing to obtain the chair of Botany in Edinburgh University. That was a disappointment which he cannot be said ever to have entirely surmounted. The memory of it to some extent kept him aloof from his fellow-labourers in the world of journalism. What work he had to do he did loyally, manfully, and with the most scrupulous care; but he lived a man apart, more or less, from his first coming among us to the end. In his family circle, and where he was really known, his loss has brought a great sorrow. A. J. W. LONDON, _February 16, 1896_. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION. BY DR. ROBERT BROWN 13 CHAPTER I BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 43 CHAPTER II VOYAGE TO NOOTKA SOUND 53 CHAPTER III INTERCOURSE WITH THE NATIVES--MAQUINA--SEIZURE OF THE VESSEL AND MURDER OF THE CREW 58 CHAPTER IV RECEPTION OF JEWITT BY THE SAVAGES--ESCAPE OF THOMPSON--ARRIVAL OF NEIGHBOURING TRIBES--AN INDIAN FEAST 70 CHAPTER V BURNING OF THE VESSEL--COMMENCEMENT OF JEWITT'S JOURNAL 83 CHAPTER VI DESCRIPTION OF NOOTKA SOUND--MANNER OF BUILDING HOUSES--FURNITURE--DRESSES 95 CHAPTER VII APPEARANCE OF THE NATIVES--ORNAMENTS--OTTER-HUNTING-- FISHING--CANOES 112 CHAPTER VIII MUSIC--MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS--SLAVES--NEIGHBOURING TRIBES--TRADE WITH THESE--ARMY 129 CHAPTER IX SITUATION OF THE AUTHOR--REMOVAL TO TASHEES--FISHING PARTIES 142