LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



men, upon which they frequently suffer shipwreck, with 

 many privations and loss of property." He suggests 

 that " new channels might be opened for commercial 

 pursuits, especially in animal fur, a trade out of which 

 an immense revenue accrues to the government, and 

 which greatly augments our national strength by increas- 

 ing the number of our most efficient seamen." 



Disappointed in his efforts with the government, Rey- 

 nolds sailed from New York, in 1829, for the Pacific 

 Ocean in the brig Annawan, Captain N. B. Palmer, after 

 whom " Palmer's Land " was named by the Russian 

 commander Stanjykowitch. After long journeys in 

 Chili and the regions southward, Reynolds happened to 

 be in Valparaiso when Commodore John Downes arrived 

 at that port, in the United States frigate Potomac, fresh 

 from an engagement with the Malays at Quallah Battoo 

 on the coast of Sumatra. The Commodore invited 

 Reynolds to become his private secretary and afterward 

 to write the history of the voyage from its beginning in 

 1831 until its close in 1834. The narrative of this cruise 

 appeared soon after the frigate's return, and its pages, 

 illustrated by noteworthy engravings, are still worth read- 

 ing. Here and there appear allusions to what the Ameri- 

 can navy might do for discovery and exploration as well 

 as for the promotion of American commerce.* 



During the prolonged absence of Mr. Reynolds, there 

 was a pause in the agitation, but it began again as soon 

 as he returned to this country. In the winter of 1834, 

 the East India Marine Society, of Salem, sent up a 

 memorial to Congress, the Legislature of Rhode Island 

 also spoke in favor of the project, and many other mani- 



* The curious reader may consult the Voyage of the Potomac, by J. N. 

 Reynolds (New York : Harpers, 1838), and an interesting volume (to which 

 my attention was called by Captain James S. Biddle, U. S. N., of Phila- 

 delphia) entitled Address on the Subject of a Surveying and Exploring 

 Expedition to the Pacific Ocean and South Seas, copies of which are owned 

 by the Philadelphia Library Company and Yale University. 



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