38 ADDRESS. 



We answer in the language of the memorial of the East India 

 Marine Society of Salem, Massachusetts ; and if long practical 

 acquaintance with those seas give weight to opinions expressed 

 with relation to them, then is the extract we are. about to quote 

 entitled to your respectful consideration : 



" Without attempting to designate the groups or islands most 

 important to be examined, your memorialists would simply call 

 the attention of your honourable body to one point, which may 

 serve as an index to the rest: the Fegee or Betee Islands. 

 What is known of them ? They were named, but not visited, by 

 Captain Cook, and consist of sixty or more in number. Where 

 shall we find charts of this group, pointing out its harbours and 

 dangers ? There are none to be found, for none exist. And yet 

 have we no trade there ? We speak not for others, but for 

 ourselves. 



" From this port the following vessels have been, or now are, 

 employed in procuring beche~le-?ner and shells, at the Fegee 

 Islands, in exchange for which eastern cargoes are brought into 

 our country, and thus contributing no inconsiderable amount to 

 our national revenue : ship Clay, brig Quill, have returned ; brig 

 Fame, lost at the islands ; ship Glide, also lost ; and bark Peru, 

 greatly damaged, and in consequence condemned at Manilla ; brig 

 Spy, damaged, but repaired again ; brig Charles Daggett, bark 

 Pallas, brig Edwin, ship Eliza, ship Emerald, ship Augustus, and 

 brig Consul. The Charles Daggett has recently returned, in con- 

 sequence of having a portion of her crew massacred by the 

 natives. The ship Oeno, of Nantucket, was lost on one of these 

 islands, and her officers and crew, consisting of twenty-four in 

 number, were all massacred in like manner, except one. 



" Thus, it must appear to your honourable body, that the losses 

 sustained at this single point to say nothing of the value of 

 human life, which is above all value would not fall far short, if 

 any, of the amount necessary to fit out an expedition for the better 



