12 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



As a consequence, during the remainder of the voyage 

 they had to eat their desserts strongly flavored with 

 turpentine. 



At the close of the voyage, the midshipmen presented 

 to Lafayette, as a mark of their personal friendship, a 

 beautiful silver urn appropriately engraved with scenes 

 of the Capitol at Washington, Lafayette's visit to the 

 tomb of Washington, and the arrival of the Brandywine 

 at Havre. At this French port, Lafayette disembarked, 

 taking with him the flag of the American vessel as a 

 souvenir of the voyage. From here Maury's ship pro- 

 ceeded to Cowes where she was calked, and then sailed 

 for the Mediterranean, joining Commodore John 

 Rodgers' squadron at Gibraltar on the 2nd of November. 

 The ship was refitted here during the winter, and the 

 following spring she returned to the United States, ar- 

 riving at New York in May, 1826. 



Such in brief outline was Maury's first cruise. 

 Though none of his letters giving his impressions of these 

 first months at sea have been preserved, yet it is not 

 difficult to imagine with what eagerness and delight his 

 active young mind observed the strange sights and as- 

 similated the new experiences. Many years afterwards 

 he wrote of how he secured a Spanish work on navigation 

 in order that he might acquire a new language and a 

 science at the same time. In this connection he related 

 how he resorted to various artifices for study while on 

 watch. "If I went below only for a moment or two," he 

 wrote, "and could lay hands upon a dictionary or any 

 book, I would note a sentence, or even a word, that I 

 did not understand, and fix it in my memory to be re- 

 flected upon when I went on deck. I used to draw 

 problems in spherical trigonometry with chalk on the 



