CORRESPONDENCE. 133 



HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES, ) 

 Washington, June 10, 1836. 5 



DEAR SIR The passage of the appropriation authorizing an 

 expedition to the South Seas has given me unfeigned satisfaction. 

 It is a design honourable to the congress which proposed it, and to 

 the administration by which it is to be directed. 



If suitably executed, it cannot fail to be useful to the domestic 

 interests of the country, and, at the same time, to elevate us in the 

 eyes of Europe. It is notorious how much England and other 

 countries have done towards the maritime exploration of the globe, 

 while we, as a nation, have been passive. Allow me to relate to 

 you a little anecdote in illustration of this. I enjoyed the pleasure, 

 whilst at Madrid, some years ago, of the personal acquaintance of 

 Don Martin Fernandez de Navarette, author of a valuable work on 

 the voyages and discoveries of his countrymen, and himself one of 

 the most learned and estimable of the public men of modem Spain. 

 At that time, he exercised supervision over an establishment in 

 Madrid, called the " Deposito Hidrografico," which is a govern- 

 ment bureau for the preparation of maps and charts, particularly 

 of the Spanish possessions in the two hemispheres. In exhibiting 

 to me this establishment, he expressed his regret and surprise that 

 the United States, a nation so opulent, and possessed of such ex- 

 tensive commerce, was so totally neglectful of its duty to science, 

 to itself, and to the world, in this matter. 



Spain herself had realized the advantages of the survey of her 

 own coast by Topino, so well known to navigators of the Mediter- 

 ranean. She was continually collecting and multiplying charts 

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