LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 417 



to become acquainted with them I know from the circumstance 

 that you have avowed your intention not to look at the memorials 

 to Congress praying for the expedition, nor to the reports of com- 

 mittees setting forth its objects, while making up your mind of 

 what the material and personel of the enterprise should consist, 

 when it was to sail, and what it was to do. 



Putting the case that the exploring squadron had accomplished 

 all that was necessary to be done at the Fiji Islands, where would 

 you next direct its course ? In every direction from that point it 

 would find duties to perform ; but I wish to bring you down from 

 your generalities to something specific, and, therefore, repeat, 

 where would you next direct its course ? Perhaps it is not re- 

 spectful in me to propose this question, recollecting, as I do, that 

 your knowledge of geography and our interest in the seas to 

 which I refer only enabled you to name three places on the globe 

 in your general instructions for the guidance of the expedition, 

 and all of these as well known as the port of Brazil, the Falkland 

 Islands, or New-Zealand. 



About seven hundred miles northeast from the Fijis lies the 

 Navigator Group. Let this be considered the next point of gen- 

 eral rendezvous. In the passage thither the lesser vessels might 

 vary their routes, touching at and fixing the positions of the west- 

 erly and least known portions of the Friendly Islands ; while the 

 frigate might show herself in the principal harbours, hold commu- 

 nications with the natives, and, by so doing, promote the interest 

 and add to the security of our shipping in that quarter. The Samoa, 

 or Navigator's Group, was discovered by the French circumnavi- 

 gator, Bougainville, in 1678, and again visited by La Peyrouse in 

 1788, more than a century afterward. M. de Langle, the com- 

 panion of La Peyrouse, with a number of his men, were killed by 

 the islanders. In consequence of this catrastrophe, an impression 

 prevailed for many years that these islands could not with safety 

 be visited. Nothing to be relied on in the hydrography was 

 given by the French discoverers ; and Kotzebue, who touched at 

 this group subsequently, did not correct a single error of his pre- 

 decessors. Even Norie, in his epitome, gives the names of the 

 islands different from those they bear on his charts of the Pacific, 

 and neither are correct. This archipelago consists -of eight isl- 

 ands, and contains not less than one hundred and sixty thousand 



