708 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



any particular place. A favorable opportunity presenting for viewing 

 one of these eclipses on October 27, 1780, the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, and the University at Cambridge, were desirous 

 to have it properly observed in the eastern parts of the State, where, 

 by calculation, it was expected it would be total. With this view 

 they solicited the government of the Commonwealth, that a vessel 

 might be prepared to convey observers to Penobscot -Bay; and that 

 application might be made to the officer who commanded the Brit- 

 ish garrison there, for leave to take a situation convenient for this 

 purpose. 



" Though involved in all the calamities and distresses of a severe 

 war, the government discovered all the attention and readiness to pro- 

 mote the cause of science, which could have been expected in the most 

 peaceable and prosperous times ; and passed a resolve, directing the 

 Board of War to fit out the Lincoln galley to convey me to Penobscot, 

 or any other port at the eastward, with such assistants as I should 

 judge necessary. 



"Accordingly, I embarked October 9 with Mr. Stephen Sewall, 

 Professor of the Oriental Languages, James Winthrop, Esq., Librarian, 

 Fortesque Vernon, A. B., and Messrs. Atkins, Davis, Hall, Dawson, 

 Rensalear, and King, Students in the University. We took with us an 

 excellent clock, an astronomical quadrant of 2-1/2 feet radius, made 

 by Sissons, several telescopes, and such other apparatus as were 

 necessary. 



" On the 17th we arrived in Penobscot- Bay. The vessel was directed 

 to come to anchor in a cove in the east side oi Long -Island : after 

 several attempts to find a better situation for observations, we fixed 

 on this place as the most convenient we had reason to expect : And 

 on the 19th we put our instruments on shore, near the house of Mr. 

 Shubael Williams, where the following observations were made." 



[A note to the foregoing paragraph gives us a clear picture of the 

 difficulties due to the existing state of war : 



" As an officer who commanded at Penobscot in his answer to the 

 application of the government, had limited us to a time wholly inade- 

 quate to our purpose, from the 25th to the 30th of October, we were 

 obliged to make a second application for leave to enter Penobscot-Bay. 

 Leave was granted, but with a positive order to have no communica- 

 tion with any of the inhabitants, and to depart on the 28th, the day 

 after the eclipse. Being thus retarded and embarrassed by military 

 orders, and allowed no time after the eclipse to make any observations, 

 it became necessary to setup our apparatus and begin our observations 

 without any further loss of time. In the course of which we received 



