464 PROJECTED EXPEDITION. [1847. 



Martine, Chateaubriand, Lamartine, and the Count de Bertou, 

 among Europeans, — and Stephens and Robinson of our own 

 countrymen, have thrown a flood of light upon the subject. But 

 all these travellers were, in one respect or another, deficient in 

 the facilities that might have enabled them to perfect their 

 investigations, and a great deal was still left undetermined as 

 the fruitful subject of conjecture. An accurate survey of the 

 lake, and a critical examination into the configuration of its 

 shores, were essential. This was attempted by private in- 

 dividuals, but the results were neither complete, nor reliable. 

 Two successive efforts were also made by British officers, but 

 they too failed ; and it was reserved for Lieutenant William 

 F. Lynch, of the navy of the United States, with the means 

 placed at his disposal by his government, to achieve a far 

 greater measure of success, in many particulars, than those 

 who had preceded him. 



(2.) In the spring of 1847, the idea of conducting an Ex- 

 pedition to the Holy Land, to circumnavigate the Lake As- 

 phaltites, or Dead Sea, and explore the river ordan, suggested 

 itself to Lieutenant Lynch. The project which he had con- 

 ceived was immediately laid before the Secretary of the Navy 

 and the President of the United States, and received a favor- 

 able consideration. Instructions were accordingly issued to 

 him on the last day of July to commence his preparations ; 

 and on the 2d of October following, the store-ship Supply was 

 placed under his orders, to convey the men whom he had 

 selected to accompany him, with the necessary stores, to the 

 Syrian coast. 



Besides furnishing himself and the members of his party, 

 with a liberal supply of weapons, including a large blunder- 

 ^ as a protection against the attacks of the savage Be I i- 

 win of the desert, the commander of the projected Expedition 

 received permission to have two metallic boats constructed, 

 one of copper and the other of galvanized iron, together with 

 a couple of trucks and sets of harness, it being the intention 

 to transport them overland from the Mediterranean to the sea 



