LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 13 



the objects to be attained by the projected undertaking, as well as 

 of the facts and reasoning adduced in its favour. He then went 

 into a full examination of our great interests in the North and 

 South Pacific and Indian Oceans, and pointed aut the numerous 

 ways in which those interests might be rendered more secure, as 

 well as greatly extended, by an efficient expedition. He noticed 

 the action of the legislature of his own state during the October 

 session of 1834, in which that body recommended the enterprise 

 to the favourable consideration of Congress, as " highly important 

 to our shipping and commercial interests^ What shipping and 

 commercial interests have we near the South Pole ? But the leg- 

 islature did not, perhaps, exactly understand the import of the lan- 

 guage they used. 



To the memorial from the East India Marine Society of Salem, 

 Massachusetts, the committee made special reference. That 

 society comprises among its members a larger number of practi- 

 cal seamen than any other in the United States. By its constitu- 

 tion no one is eligible to membership who has not doubled either 

 Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. The language of such 

 a body of men is the language of experience. They ask that an 

 expedition be fitted out under the sanction of the government, the 

 objects of which shall be to examine the numerous places of trade 

 already visited for commercial purposes by our enterprising citi- 

 zens, and to open new channels for the extension of traffic by the 

 survey of such groups of islands in the North and South Pacific 

 Oceans as are imperfectly explored or entirely unknown ; to as* 

 certain their true positions on the charts ; examine their harbours 

 and mercantile or agricultural capabiliiies ; and to bring about such 

 a friendly intercourse with the natives as shall prevent the effusion 

 of blood. 



They speak of having themselves been in those seas, and of 

 experiencing, in severe losses and painful solicitude, the want of 

 national protection — protection from the dangerous reef, guaran- 

 tied by a well-ascertained knowledge of its position, as also 

 against savages, who can only be deterred from lawless violence 

 by being made sensible of our power to restrain and punish them. 



They have "seen and felt the dangers our vessels are exposed 

 to for the want of such protection as an expedition fitted out f^r 

 the express purpose alone can give." They enforce their views 



