28 INSTRUCTIONS. [1838. 



ever, they passed Cape Henry Light, and at nine o'clock hove 

 to, and discharged their pilots. The ships then stood out to 

 sea together. This being Sunday, all hands were called to 

 muster at eleven o'clock, and an impressive sermon was de- 

 livered on board the Vincennes, by the Chaplain, Mr. Elliot. 

 He alluded, in eloquent terms, to the arduous nature of the 

 enterprise in which they had embarked, and the probably dis- 

 tant period when they would be permitted to return to the 

 bright shores then rapidly sinking below the western horizon ; 

 and appropriately cautioned his hearers, through weal and 

 woe, to put their trust in Him who holds the tempest in the 

 hollow of his hand. 



(3.) The instructions issued to Lieutenant Wilkes, re- 

 quired him, in the first place, to shape his course to Rio 

 Janeiro, crossing the line between longitude 18° and 22° 

 West, and keeping within those meridians to about latitude 

 10° South, in order to determine the existence of certain 

 vigias, or shoals, laid down in the charts as doubtful. Hav- 

 ing replenished his supplies at Rio, — the longitude of which, 

 as well as of Cape Frio, was to be determined, — he was di- 

 rected to make a particular examination of the Rio Negro, 

 which falls into the South Atlantic ; and then to proceed to 

 a safe port, or ports, in Tierra del Fuego, where the larger 

 vessels were to be securely moored, while he explored the 

 South Antartic, to the southward of Powell's Group, and be- 

 tween it and Sandwich Land, with the brig Porpoise and the 

 tenders. In the meantime, the officers left at Tierra del Fuego 

 were to make accurate examinations and surveys of the bays, 

 ports, inlets, and sounds, in that region. 



On rejoining the vessels at Tierra del Fuego, Lieutenant 

 Wilkes was ordered to stretch towards the southward and 

 westward, wiih the whole squadron, as far as the Ne Plus 

 Ultra of Cook, or longitude 105° West, and to return north- 

 ward to Valparaiso, where a store-ship would join them, in 

 March, 1839. From that port, he was to direct his course 

 to the Navigator's Group, — so disposing his vessels, in the 

 latitudes where discoveries might be reasonably anticipated, 



