164 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



Virginia and through her with the Confederacy. One 

 of his daughters relates how he came to Fredericksburg to 

 tell his wife and children of the offer and its rejection. 

 There were two letters. "One was from His Imperial 

 Highness, the Grand Duke Constantine, Grand Admiral 

 of Russia", she wrote, "and one from Baron Stoeckle, 

 Russian Ambassador in Washington, telling him how 

 and by what route he was to travel to Russia, where he 

 was to go for passports, money, advice, and information. 

 My father was now fifty-seven years old. Every mari- 

 time nation of Europe had given him evidences of their 

 appreciation of the benefits that their commerce had 

 received from the use of his Wind and Current Charts 

 and Sailing Directions. He read that correspondence 

 to us in my mother's bedroom, all of us gathered around 

 him, before the wood fire, the young ones leaning against 

 him looking into his face with eager questioning eyes as 

 he read that princely offer, and told us he would not go". 

 In his courteous reply to this generous invitation, 

 Maury wrote that it was only his stern sense of duty that 

 enabled him to withstand such inducements as none but 

 the most magnanimous of princes could offer, — the 

 hospitalities of a great and powerful Empire, with the 

 Grand Admiral of its fleets for patron and friend. He 

 assured the Grand Duke that he was grateful for the 

 offer of a home on the banks of the Neva, where, in the 

 midst of books and surrounded by his family and friends, 

 he would be free from anxiety as to the future and have 

 the most princely means and facilities for prosecuting 

 those studies and continuing those philosophical labors 

 in which he had taken so much delight in former years 

 in Washington. He then reviewed the recent events 

 that had taken place in the United States, and explained 



