INTRODUCTION. XXXV 
may find it useful to employ one or more of the respectable inhabitants to pro- 
ceed with you as interpreters, and to explain to their countrymen, the real 
motives and views of the expedition. You will, of course, avail yourself of the 
assistance of such persons, and collect from them every information they may 
be able to give of those parts of the continent through which the river 
descends ; and on your entering the country of any new tribe of people, your 
first care should be to obtain interpreters, and to make it clearly understood to 
the chiefs of every tribe, that you mean to make them suitable presents, or pay 
them such transit duty as may be customary ; and you are to take especial care 
that no cause of jealousy or quarrels with the natives be occasioned by any of 
the officers or men under your orders. 
It would be unnecessary to go into a minute detail of the various duties you 
will have to perform on this voyage of discovery, the conduct of which has been 
intrusted to your charge ; or of the probable objects that will present themselves 
for your research ; but the mention of sume of the more prominent points that 
should claim your attention, may enable you to prepare yourself on your pas- 
sage thither, by making arrangements for your future proceedings after the de- 
parture of the transport for England. 
Among the more important points, then, for observation, may be mentioned, 
the depth of the river ; the strength of the current in general, and its velocity in 
particular places; the quantity of its rise and fall, from land floods and 
droughts; the quality of the water as to clearness or muddiness; the direc- 
tion of the several reaches; and the latitude and longitude of every spot 
remarkable for any particular produce, towns, hamlets, neighbouring mountains, 
&c. and of the points of junction of branches falling into the main stream ; all 
of which should be particularly attended to. The variation of the compass 
should be taken and stated down, as frequently as opportunities may offer for 
ascertaining it; and a set of observations of the dip of the magnetic needle is 
very desirable, to obtain which, their Lordships have directed a very excellent 
dipping needle, by Blunt, to be supplied for your use. 
You will also, with the assistance of the Surveyor, be careful to keep an ac- 
count of each day’s run, to enable you to lay down with tolerable correctness 
a chart of the river and the adjacent banks, and on such a scale, as will admit 
of the main features of the country, and all remarkable objects, being marked 
down upon it: among other things, the ranges of wood along the banks ; the 
places where those ranges are interrupted, and to what extent; the nature of 
the prevailing trees, and their quality as fuel in a green state, in order 
that a competent judgment may be formed of the supply of fuel, should 
