LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 143 



yond the pictures in an examination of this work, great as it is 

 and splendidly as it has been brought out ? I very much question 

 if you have. At any rate, 1 hold you to the comparison even with 

 this voyage, and deny that from its pages any warrant can be de- 

 rived for a reduction of the naval force or number of scientific 

 observers in the exploring expedition. You have the work before 

 you, so have I ; come, then, to the comparison. This voyage 

 was made in the years 1826, '7, '8, '9, in the corvette Astrolabe, 

 Captain D'Urville, with eighty persons, all told. What were its 

 objects ? They are set forth in the following extract from the in- 

 structions of the minister of marine, the French secretary of the 

 navy, to the commander. 



" The king, in confiding to you the command of the corvette 

 Astrolabe, has wished to put you in a situation to explore some 

 of the principal groups of islands in the Pacific, which the Co- 

 quille only passed by hastily, and to give you the means of aug- 

 menting, as much as possible, the mass of scientific documents 

 obtained by this vessel in the years 1822, '3, '4. 



" His majesty knows that you contributed much to the success 

 of this expedition, in which you seconded Captain Duperrey. 

 Being called to direct in chief the present one, you will realize, 

 without doubt, all the hopes which have originated the project; 

 and the French navy will have to felicitate itself once more upon 

 the services which it renders to the sciences in associating itself 

 to ihe labours of those who profess them, and in submitting to 

 their mediations materials collected with as much skill as zeal in 

 all parts of the globe." 



These instructions point out the purposes of this voynge. 

 They were to follow, measurably, in the track of the Coquille, 

 and, at various points in the Pacific, to make more minute obser- 

 vations where the other vessels liad passed by hastily. The mod- 

 els of the preceding enterprises had been followed in preparing 

 this; while, with the exception of the attention paid to pendulum 

 observations by the former ones, their general objects were pre- 

 cisely the same ; and neither furnished any precedent for the 

 strength which the great interests of this country require should 

 be invested in our own expedition to those seas. Indeed, the 

 most that can be said in favour of this voyage, constituted as it 

 was, may not be too high praise ; though I am inclined to be- 



