CORRESPONDENCE. 131 



tude and force would strike the islanders with such aioe, as at once 

 to guaranty their friendship, and perhaps effectually guard against 

 and prevent any of those ever-to-be-lamented conflicts which have 

 so often interrupted the progress of scientific research, and caused 

 the death of many voyagers as well as natives. The protection, 

 too, which such an expedition would necessarily afford to our 

 whalemen and traders, everywhere to be found in the South Seas, 

 ought not to be lost sight of; and the statesman whose enlarged 

 and humane conceptions shall furnish the means of procuring such 

 happy results, will well merit, and certainly receive, the lasting 

 gratitude of the philanthropic of every country and of every age to 

 come. 



You ask, too, what time would be required for the preparation of 

 an expedition? L do not know what facilities are at present within 

 the control of the Navy Department for building small vessels: 

 but our means of increasing the navy must be greatly overrated or 

 criminally neglected, if such an expedition as I have suggested 

 could not be ready for sea in four months from the issuing of 

 orders ; at any rate, the vessels could be ready by the time some 

 of the instruments, which report says must be imported from 

 Europe, could be obtained. 



I have already extended my remarks, in answering your inter- 

 rogatories, to what you will probably consider an inordinate length , 

 which, however, I am sure you will readily excuse, when you bear 

 in mind my former connexion with the projected expedition of 

 1828, and the deep interest I have ever taken in the subject; and 

 that you will bear with me still a little longer, while I state a ques- 

 tion which has often been put to me, (though never by yourself,) 

 viz. : What situation, if any, will Mr. Reynolds occupy in the 

 expedition ? / 



The answer to this interrogatory, I presume, rests with yourself; 

 for it cannot be denied that to you, and to your unwearied exer- 

 tions, is due the credit of so interesting the public upon the subject 



