Captain Stanley." I went, saw my future commander, who was very civil to
me, and promised to ask that I should be appointed to his ship, as in
due time I was. It is a singular thing that during the few months of my
stay at Haslar I had among my messmates two future Directors-General of
the Medical Service of the Navy (Sir Alexander Armstrong and Sir John
Watt-Reid), with the present President of the College of Physicians, and
my kindest of doctors, Sir Andrew Clark.

A letter to his eldest sister, Lizzie, dated from Haslar May 24, 1846,
shows how he regarded the prospect now opening before him.]

...As I see no special queries in your letter, I think I shall go on to
tell you what that same way of life is likely to be--my fortune having
already been told for me (for the next five years at least). I told you
in my last that I was likely to have a permanency here. Well, I was
recommended by Sir John Richardson, and should have certainly had it,
had not (luckily) the Admiralty put in a man of their own. Having a good
impudent faith in my own star (Wie das Gestirn, ohne Hast, ohne Rast), I
knew this was only because I was to have something better, and so it
turned out; for a day or two after I was ousted from the museum, Sir J.
Richardson (who has shown himself for some reason or another a special
good friend to me) told me that he had received a letter from Captain
Owen Stanley, who is to command an EXPLORING EXPEDITION to New Guinea
(not coast of Africa, mind), requesting him to recommend an assistant
surgeon for this expedition--would I like the appointment? As you may
imagine I was delighted at the offer, and immediately accepted it. I was
recommended accordingly to Captain Stanley and Sir W. Burnett, and I
shall be appointed as soon as the ship is in commission. We are to have
the "Rattlesnake," a 28-gun frigate, and as she will fit out here I
shall have no trouble. We sail probably in September.