LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 441 



j.,* y > all the rest of Natural History. 



M. Gabert, Agent, Commerce and Industry of the Natives. 



M. Lejeune, Draughtsman. 



M. Duperrey, Physic and Hydrography. Seven assistants. 



Thus, sir, notwithstanding the limited sphere of action to which 

 the labours of Freycinet and Duperrey were confined, in compar- 

 ison with the vastness of that marked out for the South Sea ex- 

 ploring expedition, fifteen persons accompanied the former and 

 twelve the latter commander, who were engaged directly in sci- 

 entific researches. 



From these two celebrated voyages, then, you may learn two 

 things : First, they were not fitted out or intended for the duties 

 expected to be performed by the present enterprise ; and, secondly, 

 that the scientific corps were more numerous, in proportion to their 

 field of action and number of vessels ; though not so well organized, 

 as regards the division of duties, as the present. In scientific re- 

 sults the voyage of Duperrey was decidedly inferior to that of 

 Freycinet, who preceded him ; and even were this government 

 about to send out a single vessel for objects precisely similar, the 

 former ought not be selected as a model. Duperrey had but a mea- 

 ger supply of instruments, and only five chronometers. The 

 -nean maximum irregularity of these chronometers varied no less 

 than twenty-three seconds and a fraction per day. Would you 

 have the mean maximum irregularity of those used in this voyage 

 to run thus ? Duperrey made no experiments on the temperature 

 of the sea at great depths ; nor was he provided with a single 

 self-registering thermometer. Would it Jiot be best to sell those 

 provided for this expedition unless we can find authority for using 

 them in some of the other expeditions sent out by the " maritime 

 powers of Europe ?" Duperrey " was authorized to appoint his 

 own officers," the same privilege which had been allowed Frey- 

 cinet. Mark that ! ! ! 



Captain La Place made a pretty little voyage round the world 

 a few years ago in the Favourite, of seven hundred tons and twen- 

 ty-four guns. What do you think of his enterprise as a model ? 

 What did he do ? Where did he go ? After doubling the Cape 

 of Good Hope he followed in the well-known track of modern 

 voyagers. He run down the African and Indian Oceans, passed 



