510 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF OUR WORK. 



such a passport to the frontier as would prevent obstruction in his mission. The reply was as 

 follows : 



" I have had the honor to receive, and have placed before his Excellency the President, your 

 letter of the 8th instant, advising me that the series of observations in the southern hemisphere 

 with which you had been charged by the government of the United States will terminate in 

 Chile on the 14th instant, and that you propose to embark from Valparaiso with two of the 

 assistants of the astronomical expedition immediately afterwards. 



" The sentiments expressed by you on this occasion, in the name of the honorable Secretary 

 of the Navy and government of the United States, have afforded much satisfaction to the 

 President. The assistance which this government has rendered the Expedition has been super- 

 abundantly compensated by the benefits which your residence in Chile has conferred on the 

 cultivation of science here ; and if, as is hoped, the newly created astronomical establishment 

 prospers an object to which this government will devote special attention it will be for yourself 

 and for the United States an honorable monument, serving as a new bond of friendship between 

 the two countries. 



lf I shall take great pleasure in furnishing Lieut. MacEae with a passport that will insure him 

 due attention from the Chilean authorities in his transit to the Argentine territory, and will also 

 prepare for him a letter of introduction to the governor of Mendoza, promising myself that the 

 former gentleman will have the goodness to notify me of the epoch of his intended departure. 



" The President hopes that you may arrive in all happiness at your home, and that from 

 there you will favor him with communications, especially such as relate to the promotion of 

 science in this country, where you leave such grateful remembrances. Uniting my personal 

 wishes with those of his Excellency, I have the honor to subscribe myself, with sentiments of 

 cordial esteem," &c. 



I must add, these were not mere words of compliment to the parting guests ; for through the 

 University I have twice since availed myself of the invitation from his Excellency once to 

 recommend for the Observatorio Nacional the purchase of a new clock fitted with an electro- 

 magnetic register ; and subsequently, that an astronomical expedition be sent to Peru to observe 

 the total solar eclipse of November 30, 1853 : both of which measures were immediately con- 

 sidered and successfully carried into effect. 



The expedition of Lieut. MacRae had long been a subject of thought. To determine whether 

 magnetic intensity sensibly varies with distance from the centre of the earth ; the measurement 

 of zenith distances exceeding 90, to assist Baron Lindenau in his investigations of atmospheric 

 refraction ; the geography and meteorology of the Andes and Pampas, these were all most 

 interesting questions, for the attempted solution of which there was but one obstacle opposing 

 him want of funds. Of the small sum granted by Congress there remained $4,160 when I 

 left the United States, out of which all expenses were to be paid ; and this, too, in a country 

 where the wages of ordinary mechanics are more than double those of artisans in the United 

 States. Although it was strictly enjoined that the department would in no event sanction an 

 expenditure beyond the amount appropriated by Congress, notwithstanding the most rigid 

 economy every dollar of it was gone before the observations terminated, and, of necessity, 

 current expenses were defrayed from my own slender means. With the purchase of the observa- 

 tory all difficulty disappeared, and Lieut. MacRae was left in Santiago with the necessary instru- 

 ments, to prosecute his laborious journey as soon as the snow should be sufficiently melted from 

 the passes of the Andes. The results of his travels are given in Vol. II. Our last observa- 

 tions in Chile he being in Santiago, and I at Valparaiso were to determine the difference of 

 longitude between the two cities by means .of the magneto-electric telegraph, for which purpose 

 the directors had very kindly placed the line at my disposal. This executed, we took leave of 

 the considerate friends of our foreign home. Mr. Phelps and myself embarked October 1st 

 on board of the steamer Bolivia, for Panama, and reached New York without special incident, 

 just three years and a quarter after I had left home. 



