LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



Wilkes, " that we have discovered, not a range of de- 

 tached islands, but a vast continent. ' ' * All doubt regard- 

 ing the reality of his discovery wore away from the mind 

 of the American explorer as, toward the close of his cruise 

 along the icy barrier, the mountains of the Antarctic con- 

 tinent became familiar and of daily appearance. 



After an absence of two and a half months, Wilkes 

 returned to his base in Port Jackson (Sydney) before 

 proceeding to take up, in New Zealand, his scientific 

 colleagues. The Peacock needed important repairs. This 

 vessel, weak at the outset, had been blocked up in the 

 polar ice, and was not extricated before it had suffered 

 severe injury. Under trying circumstances the captain, 

 Hudson, exhibited skilful seamanship and received high 

 praise. He was ordered to proceed, after the repair of 

 his vessel, to Tongataboo, while Wilkes sailed for the Bay 

 of Islands. Here he found the Porpoise and the Flying- 

 Fish at anchor. 



The scientific corps, Dana among them, had arrived a 

 month previously, February 24th, having made the pas- 

 sage in the British brig Victoria. Some of them were 

 witnesses of the ceremony of treaty-making between the 

 New Zealand chiefs and the representatives of the British 

 government. Little did they suspect that in half a cen- 

 tury there would be more than seven hundred thousand 

 Europeans on these islands, and not quite forty thousand 



* The following note from Captain Wilkes to the Secretary of the Navy 

 is worth reprinting : 



" I lost no time in preparing for Captain Ross a copy of the chart sent 

 you, of our operations south, giving him all my experience relative to the 

 weather, etc., well knowing that it would be anticipating the wishes of the 

 President and yourself to afford all and every assistance in my power to aid 

 in the furtherance of its objects and views, and in some small degree repay 

 the obligations this expedition is under to all those who are deeply inter- 

 ested in that which Captain Ross now commands, who had himself afforded 

 me all the assistance in his power while I was engaged in procuring the 

 instruments for this expedition." From Charles Wilkes to Jas. K. Pauld- 

 ing, Secretary of the Navy, April 6, 1840. 



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