386 LETTERS OF A FRIEND TO THE NAVY. 



Will not the large ship Relief, of four hundred and sixty tons, 

 the two brigs Pioneer and Consort of two hundred and thirty tons 

 each, and the schooner Pilot, of one hundred and fourteen tons, 

 sufficiently awe the natives ? Must the frigate be added to in- 

 timidate the savages ? The sending out this frigate will increase 

 by one hundred thousand dollars the expense of the expedition , 

 but this the " Citizen" will think money well expended, consid- 

 ering how amazingly the natives will be scared. 



The " Citizen" may be assured that Congress had views very 

 different from his in authorizing the employment of a frigate on 

 this expedition; and he will find that the naval officers differ 

 from him in this, as in most other points in which he undertakes 

 to regulate the affairs of the navy. It is the glory of those officers 

 to meet an enlightened enemy gun to gun and man to man ; but 

 not to exhibit themselves in big ships to intimidate savages or awe 

 the natives. 



Terror is the favourite means of the " Citizen" for carrying his 

 points. His threats are quite awful ; and upon the officers of the 

 navy who have offended him he is about to try the efficacy of his 

 valued remedy. 



In his number four he says, " The title of citizen, sir, is a proud 

 title" (meaning, no doubt, his own title). " This is a country of cit- 

 izens. Citizens make the navy ; increase or diminish it at their 

 pleasure ; appoint and support its officers, and will judge them (! !) ; 

 for every year he is on active duty an officer may be two on 

 shore, receiving pay in the latter as well as in the former case." 

 " Let them indulge in illiberal, contracted feelings of petty jeal- 

 ousy against the appointment of citizens to their appropriate prov- 

 inces, and they will soon find themselves in the hands of a giant 

 who knows his power, and will use it." 



Now this giant must be the " Citizen" himself, as he could not 

 be certain that any other giant knew his own power, or that he 

 would use it. And as it is believed that the officers of the navy 

 have no indulged themselves. " in illiberal, contracted feelings of 

 petty jealousy" against any gentleman of science selected for the 

 expedition, however they may have manifested their aversion to 

 a pretender who seems disposed to regulate the whole enterprise, 

 they have nothing to fear but from the execution of his terrible 

 threats. 



