PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION. 57 



"■Mr. Bennett early suggested and urged on the Department 

 that Lieutenant De Long should be assigned to the command 

 of the expedition. The Navy Department would have been 

 justified in not making the appointment, unless assured that 

 De Long possessed the other qualifications, aside from profes- 

 sional ability, necessary to the discharge of such a duty. As 

 regarded his professional skill, his brother officers in the navy 

 bore universal attestation to that, and the Department was 

 aware that in this respect he possessed all that was necessary. 

 It did not take many interviews with De Long to tell that he 

 was a man of courage, devotion, judgment, and will, and pos- 

 sessed all the qualities which fitted him for this duty. The 

 other selections were necessarily made as the result of confer- 

 ences with him, and the Department was more or less in a po- 

 sition to be guided by his views." 



Captain De Long had a magnetic power which made 

 him singidarly successful in dealing with men and in 

 carrying out the purposes which he conceived. He 

 was always scrupulously considerate of the rights and 

 privileges of others, and exceedingly careful of the per- 

 sonal relations which he held toward them. While ab- 

 sent in the east he wrote to Master Danenhower, who 

 had been sent forward to Mare Island navy yard, 

 where the Jeannette was being strengthened, and af- 

 ter detailing the nature of the work which had been 

 ordered, concluded : — 



" The foregoing will give you a general idea of the work 

 already begun, and as likely to be in hand during your pres- 

 ence at Mare Island before my arrival. It is decided by the 

 Secretary of the Navy that all materials are to be given by the 

 yard, and merely the labor paid for. It is therefore necessary 

 that we should so act that the cost of labor should not be 

 alarming. . . . The labor being paid for by Mr. Bennett needs 

 great consideration by us. . . . 



" Upon your arrival at Mare Island, you will of course re- 



