LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



Joseph Delafield, and Asa Gray pointed out the wants 

 of science; and Josiah W. Gibbs, John Pickering, and 

 Charles Pickering wrote in behalf of anthropology and 

 philology. The co-operation of the American Philo- 

 sophical Society in Philadelphia, the East India Marine 

 Society in Salem, and the Lyceum of Natural History 

 in New York was assured. So the plans were developed, 

 and yet innumerable and vexatious obstacles delayed the 

 equipment and departure of the squadron. Changes in 

 the command, changes in the ships, resignations from the 

 scientific corps, divided counsels, and other unexpected 

 difficulties were disheartening. More than once there was 

 danger that the project would be abandoned, and perhaps 

 this would have been the unfortunate result if the Presi- 

 dent, Martin Van Buren, had not been its firm and con- 

 trolling supporter. More than two years were passed in 

 preliminaries. The Secretary of War, Joel R. Poinsett, 

 of Charleston, S. C., who was greatly interested in the 

 establishment of a national museum in Washington ; the 

 Secretary of the Navy, Mahlon Dickerson ; and especially 

 his successor, James K. Paulding of New York, the well- 

 known man of letters, had the chief responsibility for the 

 arrangements. Albert Gallatin, an authority in the lan- 

 guages of the North American Indians, compiled a vocab- 

 ulary as a basis of inquiry and of comparison with the 

 tongues of primitive people. More noteworthy still, 

 the renowned Russian navigator, Admiral Krusenstern, 

 who had been to the South Seas in the first decade of 

 the century, to establish relations between Russia and Ja- 

 pan, drew up a memorandum of desiderata, having special 

 reference to the completion of the island hydrography. 



There was some delay in securing the right commander. 

 Commodore T. Ap-Catesby Jones (1789-1858) was first 

 appointed, but was obliged by a severe illness to give up 

 going. Later (in 1842) he became Commander of the 

 Pacific Squadron. Captain (afterward Rear-Admiral) 



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