PREFACE. 



It has been my main object, in the preparation o( this 

 work, to present, in an attractive and condensed form, an 

 account of the various Expeditions mentioned in its pages, 

 with such other information touching the places and localities 

 described, as might be of interest to the general reader ; and 

 if the public approve of the design, additions will hereafter 

 be made to it, treating of similar enterprises undertaken by 

 the American government. 



So far, however, from being an abridgment of the published 

 narratives of Messrs. Wilkes and Lynch, this volume will be 

 found to contain a very large proportion of facts not embraced 

 in either of them. These have been obtained from divers 

 sources. While engaged in preparing the work, I have 

 consulted the Voyages of D'Urville, Ross, Beechey, King 

 and Fitzroy ; Ellis 1 Polynesian Researches ; Crawfurd's 

 Indian Archipelago ; Darwin's Journal of Researches ; Wil- 

 liams' Missionary Enterprises ; Kidder's Sketches of Resi- 

 dence and Travels in Brazil ; Bingham's Sandwich Islands ; 

 Mrs. Meredith's Sketches of New South Wales; Earl's 

 Enterprise in Tropical Australia ; Greenhow's History of 

 Oregon and California ; the travels of Hall, Mier, Moeren- 

 hout, Clarke, Elliott, Stephens, Robinson, and Fisk ; and a 



