ADDRESS. 35 



of the legislature of Rhode Island ; and in answer to a call of the 

 House, it was communicated by the Secretary, and appended to 

 the report of Mr. Pearce of the Committee on Commerce, made 

 February 7th, 1835. 



To that report and the accompanying documents,* we would 

 earnestly call the attention of those who doubt the expediency of 

 the measure we advocate. There they will see fully set forth the 

 labour to be performed by the expedition, and behold a picture of 

 American enterprise unsurpassed in the commercial annals of any 

 other people. 



That the positions of the islands, as laid down by our whale- 

 men, are determined with accuracy, we pretend not to assert ; 

 neither do these adventurous navigators themselves lay claim to 

 any such exactness. The very nature of their pursuits almost 

 precludes the possibility of such a result; their primary object 

 being to take whale, and not to make discoveries. When, how- 

 ever, we reflect on the disadvantages under which they labour ; un- 

 provided with instruments of improved construction ; often com- 

 puting their progress by the run of the log alone, without allowance 

 for the influence of currents, the force and direction of which they 

 do not stop to investigate ; it must be conceded that the information 

 they have imparted is more correct and explicit than we could 

 reasonably anticipate. But if these men have not the means and 

 opportunity of noting with precision the geographical position of 

 their discoveries, it is still less within their power to ascertain the 

 capacity, resources, and productions, of the new lands. Whale- 

 ships, lost in the process of examining a group of islands or a 

 reef, forfeit their insurance. Even were this otherwise, time 

 cannot be spared for such a survey ; and thus a brief note in a 

 vessel's log-book is frequently the only recorded notice of a dan- 

 gerous reef, or a new archipelago. It is impossible, however, to 



