LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 49 



the protection of commerce exceeds the means of supply which this 

 department can immediately bring into operation. When, there- 

 fore, on the 18th of May last, it was provided, by an amendment to 

 the general naval appropriation bill, that the President of the United 

 States should be authorized to send out a surveying and exploring 

 expedition to the Pacific Ocean and South Seas, I considered it 

 impracticable to fit out this expedition in a manner to meet the 

 views of Congress under eight or nine months without a serious 

 injury to other branches of the naval service. 



" The only insurmountable difficulty, however, in my opinion, 

 was the recruiting the requisite number of seamen in three or four 

 months without interfering with arrangements already made for 

 sending ships to the Pacific and Brazilian stations, and for sending 

 an additional force to the West Indies. 



*' As, however, it was your earnest wish that the intentions of 

 Congress in authorizing this measure should be carried into effect 

 with the least possible delay, and that the expedition should be 

 fitted out upon the extensive and liberal scale which the indica- 

 tions of public opinion seemed to require ; and as the officer, Cap- 

 tain Thomas Ap. Catesby Jones, selected for the command of the 

 expedition, gave assurances that the difficulty of obtaining seamen 

 could be obviated by giving him power to have them recruited 

 under his immediate superintendence, and for this particular ser- 

 vice, it was determined to make an extraordinary effort to accom- 

 plish these objects. 



" Every facihty consistent with the rules and regulations of the 

 navy was offered to Captain Jones for recruiting seamen in the 

 manner he proposed ; and measures were immediately adopted to 

 have one frigate of the second class, one store-ship, tw^o barks, 

 and one schooner, all which he considered as indispensably ne- 

 cessary to the success of the enterprise, prepared without delay. 

 The frigate and store-ship, which were on the stocks when this 

 measure was adopted, have been furnished and equipped, and are 

 now receiving their crews ; and the other three vessels have been 

 entirely built and equipped for sea. The whole have been finished 

 in the most substantial manner, and adapted to the particular ser- 

 vice for which they are destined. These vessels will sail to Nor- 

 folk to complete their crews, take in their stores, and to await fur- 

 ther orders. 



G 



