142 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



the Straits of Molaccas and entered the China Sea, which he left 

 by passing to the east of Java, to the west and soulii of New-Hol- 

 land, and soLilli of Van Dienien's Land. 'Jhence returning nor- 

 therly, he visited New-Zealand, from which he sailed by the nnost 

 direct route to Valparaiso, and then proceeded round Cape Horn 

 and home. 1 question if you could have m^^rked out a route more 

 barren of interest than that which he pursued. He took wiih him 

 no men of science, and gave to the world on his return a portfolio 

 of landscape drawings ! Would this modern effort of one of the 

 "maritime powers of Europe" be a suitable pattern for the naval 

 enterprise of this country ? It is not necessary to allude to the 

 English expeditions and discoveries. Those which they have re- 

 cently sent out under King, Owen, Foster, <Scc., can form no ex- 

 amples for this country, as Captain King was employed in sur- 

 veying the Straits of Magellan and the east and west coasts of 

 Patagonia ; Owen on the coast of Africa ; Foster in making a iew 

 pendulum observations. 



Sir, I will not pay your judgment so poor a compliment as to 

 credit, for a moment, that you could regard ihe expeditions of Ross 

 and Parry, sent out for the sole purpose of making their way along 

 a frozen coast and among numerous islands in the polar seas to 

 determine a single question in physical geography, as models for 

 this expedition ; though I have seen these same voyages, by gen- 

 tle implication, held up for that purpose in the report of a com- 

 mittee of the Naval Lyceum at Brooklyn, who seemed to feel under 

 increased responsibility for their opinions from the circumstance 

 that they might be regarded as representing something like three 

 hundred naval officers ! ! ! 



J come now, sir, to the last great effort of the maritime powers 

 of Europe, as given to the world in the voyage of the Astrolabe. 

 A copy of this work was sent a year ago by the French as a 

 present to our government. It was a pretty conception, honoura- 

 ble to the Frerjch ; and it will he honourable to us when we shall 

 be able to return the compliment. How often has this voyage 

 been the ihcmc of your remarks ? How often, nay, how con- 

 stantly iiave you relied on this voyage as a model, and as a justi- 

 fication of your late proceedings? It has been a sort of stalking- 

 horse for you, upon which you have endeavoured to ride down the 

 present ex])edilion. But, in sober truth, have you really got be- 



