142 CORRESPONDENCE. 



express the earnest hope, that it may be an omen of final success, 

 and of the honour that awaits yourself, your companions, and our 

 common country. 



I cannot but regard it as a singular coincidence, that the gallant 

 frigate, which is to lead this first American voyage of discovery, 

 and to enter on a path from which so much glory has accrued to 

 our great maritime rival, should itself be a trophy wrested by our 

 arms from the navy of that rival, and should thus be destined to 

 carry to distant regions, not only our national name, but a memo- 

 rial of our national prowess. Amid the sober realities of life, 

 speculations such as these may be only calculated to excite a smile ; 

 but in a case like the present, into which much of romantic daring 

 must necessarily enter, they may be indulged in with less danger 

 of ridicule, and with something even of a beneficial effect. Indeed, 

 the whole history of our species is only one tissue of singular coin- 

 cidences, characterized by as singular results. 



Apart from the concern which I naturally feel in whatever 

 regards your reputation and welfare, I find myself strongly inter- 

 ested, on another account, in the intended expedition. It has long 

 been a favourite theory of mine, that one of the early races which 

 peopled our continent was identical with that from which have 

 descended the inhabitants of the numerous islands in the South 

 Pacific. The fabrics accompanying the dried human bodies, or 

 natural mummies, (if they maybe so called,) that have been found 

 in the caverns of the west, strongly resemble the rude articles that 

 are manufactured in the Sandwich and other islands of the Pacific, 

 and point to a sameness of origin in the respective people who 

 prepared them. The most striking proofs of this, however, if the 

 theory be a correct one, will be found in a comparison of the lan- 

 guages of these islanders with one another, as well as with the 

 remains of aboriginal tongues on our own continent; and it is these 

 very proofs which the projected expedition will be able to furnish, 

 if they are at all to be obtained. Let me suggest, therefore, that 



