402 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



of the conduct of those who had attempted, by misrepresentation 

 of its purposes, to defeat the expedition, you seem to think have 

 not been redeemed. You appear, also, to have some difficulty in 

 recognising the parties to whom I had reference. I have no wish 

 to be obscure, or to leave any doubt on your mind upon this point ; 

 I will therefore say at once, " thou art the man" to whom I al- 

 luded as being at the head of those who misrepresented the true 

 objects of the measure with the sole view of compassing its utter 

 defeat. 



If my review of your official conduct has not been sufficiently 

 " withering," I am quite willing to amend my error ; the subject 

 is far from being " exhausted," 



There is but one more point in your third number which I es- 

 teem worthy of notice. I allude to your sneering remarks on the 

 mass of information treasured up by our whalemen during their 

 voyages in the Pacific Ocean and South Seas, which information 

 formed the subject of a report to the department in 1 828 ; to be 

 found among the documents setting forth the objects of the under- 

 taking. 



Who ever vouched for entire accuracy of detail in the docu- 

 ment you have pretended to criticise ? No one, sir, has made 

 such an averment, and of this fact you are perfectly cognizant. 

 The individual you mention as having rendered himself ridiculous 

 through the report in question held the following language in his 

 address before Congress, when speaking of the information that 

 report imbodied. 



" That the positions of the islands, as laid down by our whale- 

 men, are determined with accuracy, we pretend not to assert; 

 neither do these adventurous navigators themselves lay claim to 

 any such exactness. The very nature of these pursuits almost 

 precludes the possibility of such a result; their primary object 

 being to take whale, and not to make discoveries. When, how- 

 ever, we reflect on the disadvantages under which they labour ; 

 unprovided with instruments of improved construction ; often com- 

 puting their progress by the run of the log alone, without allow- 

 ance for the influence of currents, the force and direction of which 

 they do not stop to investigate, it must be conceded that the in- 

 formation they have imparted is more correct and explicit than 

 we could reasonably anticipate. But if these men have not the 



