36 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



Purser's slops and topman's hat, 

 Boatswain's call and colt and cat, 

 Belt that on the berth-deck lay, 

 In the Lucky Bag find their way; 

 Gaiter, stock, and red pompoon. 

 Sailor's pan, his pot and spoon. 

 Shirt of cook and trowser's duck, 

 Kid and can and 'doctor's truck'. 

 And all that's lost and found on board 

 In the Lucky Bag's always stored." 



It was a well-chosen and apt title, which enabled 

 Maury to treat in the same article of various matters 

 more or less unrelated. Among the various topics that 

 he touched upon was, first, the desirability of having 

 grades in the navy higher than those of captain, to 

 correspond with those in foreign navies. He also de- 

 clared that there should be a larger force on the coast of 

 Africa to put down the traffic in slaves, and more war- 

 ships in the Pacific to support American commerce with 

 China and to protect American fishermen on the whaling 

 grounds. Thus prophetically did he portray the future 

 of American trade on that ocean : ''If you have a map of 

 the world at hand, turn to it and, placing your finger at 

 the mouth of the Columbia River, consider its geographi- 

 cal position and the commercial advantages which, at 

 some day not far distant, that point will possess. To the 

 south, in one unbroken line, lie several thousand miles of 

 coast indented with rich markets of Spanish America — 

 to the west, Asiatic Russia and China are close at hand — 

 between the south and west are New Holland and 

 Polynesia; and within good marketable distance are all 

 the groups and clusters of islands that stud the ocean, 

 from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope, from Asia 

 to America. Picture to yourself civilization striding the 

 Rocky Mountains, and smiling down upon the vast and 



