XXX ORIGIN AND OPERATIONS 



As the two series of observations for parallax the specific object which had been the origin 

 of the Kxpedition would be valuable only when there were corresponding observations in the 

 two hemispheres, and the co-operation of other observatories would be matters of favor, not 

 right, in order to insure the impartial trial of Dr. Gerling's method, under date of August 11, 

 Lieut. Maury was instructed by the honorable Secretary, that 



"As the success of the Astronomical Expedition to Chile, under the direction of Lieut. 

 Gilliss, will greatly depend on the care with which the corresponding observations are made in 

 the northern hemisphere, you will designate an assistant whose especial duty it shall be to 

 make the observations at the times and in the manner specified in the ' Circular to the Friends 

 of Science,' which you prepared under the direction of this department." 



At the same time authority was granted me to dispose of the equipment at the completion of 

 our service, in such manner as would be best for the public interest, and in case of continued 

 illness, or other disability of either of the assistants, the commanding officers of the United 

 States ships touching at Valparaiso were authorized to give me any volunteer officer in ex- 

 change. The duties required would be confining and trying, our probable place of abode 

 somewhat expensive, and I was unwilling to obtain the services of any officer who would be 

 able to reproach me for having taken him from the less arduous and more economical routine 

 on shipboard. Every effort was made to obtain at least one additional assistant from the de- 

 partment, viz : the number that had been recommended by the societies. There were two 

 young officers who were earnestly desirous to accompany us, one of whom, when the honorable 

 Secretary objected on account of the small remainder of the appropriation, volunteered to bear 

 his own travelling expenses, but the Secretary was inexorable. 



The first steamer to leave was the " Empire City," at New York, advertised for 16th of Au- 

 gust. It was to be her second voyage, and the agents assured me that she would make the run 

 to Chagres in eight or eight and a half days. Had this been accomplished, there would have 

 been ample time to cross the isthmus by noon of the 27th ; but we were eleven and a third days 

 in making the voyage, and in consequence, the steamer for the south Pacific had left Panama 

 before we anchored at Chagres. Nevertheless, supposing that repairs or other casualty might 

 have caused her detention, no time was lost in landing, and by midnight I was ascending the 

 river Chagres in a canoe urged by four athletic natives. A delay of six hours, caused by a 

 flood in the stream, prevented our reaching the city until forty-eight hours after leaving the 

 " Empire City," when it was learned that speed had been of no avail ; the British mail steamer 

 had departed at her appointed time, and there was before me the certainty of passing the en- 

 suing month on the isthmus. How the time was passed, has been narrated in Vol. 1. Nor 

 need I repeat here more than the fact, that the southern terminus of my sea voyage, Valpa- 

 raiso, was reached on the 25th of October. At that time the steamers of this line left each 

 extremity only once per month ; and as they landed passengers, mails, and freight at thirteen 

 ports within the 3,100 miles of navigation, and delayed at one of them, Callao, no less than 

 five days, the voyage occupied four weeks. By omitting the two ports in Ecuador Buenaven- 

 tura and Guyaquil and Huanchaco and Casma, in Peru, and remaining only three days at 

 Callao, it is now reduced to eighteen days. But if custom-house officials would grant necessary 

 facilities, and not detain vessels all night when they chance to arrive after sunset, the new 

 steamers would easily make the voyage in fifteen days. There is now a semi-monthly line ; and 

 so pacific are the winds and waves of that broad ocean, that the arrival of a steamer from a 

 coasting voyage of a thousand miles may be calculated quite surely within a few hours. 



Beaching Valparaiso bay late in the afternoon, a glance satisfied me that the "Louis Philippe" 

 was not among the shipping in the port. Nor had the consignees any intelligence of her ; but 

 us sho might be expected to arrive at any hour, no time was to be lost in preparatory measures 

 \\ Inlst the consul, our highest representative functionary in the country at that time was pre- 

 paring for me a letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, all necessary information was obtained 

 of the climate on the coast, and soon after night-fall I was en route for the capital Besides 



