450 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



true " Friend to the Navy," occupying your station, would be anx- 

 ious to employ as large a number of officers on a service so well 

 calculated to give them high attainments as well as distinction in 

 their profession ; to make them personally acquainted with seas 

 where our future seafights must take place ; so that where they 

 should command they could themselves be pilots ! You would 

 also perceive that the results of the expedition might lead to the 

 formation of a hydrographical bureau in your department ; in a 

 word, that it would be of more importance to the navy than the 

 service of all the force in all other squadrons during the same pe- 

 riod ! 



I must now, sir, take leave of you, and, in doing so, would ap- 

 peal, not to your candour, but to public justice, if I have not fairly 

 met and completely overthrown your objections, stated and implied, 

 to the magnitude of the scale upon which this expedition is orga- 

 nized ? Have I not shown that the naval force authorized and 

 the scientific corps engaged are barely adequate to the vast sphere 

 of action to be embraced, the multifarious objects to be accom- 

 plished, and the mighty interests involved ? Have I not shown 

 that your outcry about economy was a mere cloak for your enmi- 

 ty ; and that the remuneration of the country for its outlay would 

 be almost in geometric ratio with its degrees of efficiency ? 

 Have I not shown that the almost limitless field for those hydro- 

 graphical surveys so necessary for the protection of our wide- 

 spread commercial interests in the two Pacifies could not be ex- 

 amined with the care which humanity as well as good policy de- 

 mands, by an enterprise of inferior capacity ? Have I not fairly 

 met the comparisons you have invited, even with the climax of 

 your models, the voyage of the Astrolabe, which you have culled 

 par excellence from all the rest, and held up exultingly as a weap- 

 on of attack, a shield of defence, a precedent and a pattern ? This 

 voyage is in one respect, I own, worthy of all praise as well as 

 of imitation ; I refer to the magnificent style in which the whole 

 work has been brought out ! Have I not shown that, according 

 to your reasoning, the Pacific squadron should be broken up or 

 materially reduced ? You have on that station a ship of the line, 

 two sloops, and two schooners. On an average, half of this force 

 is constantly at anchor in the bay of Callao, the principal port of 

 Peru ; while the exports from the United States to that republic, 



