462 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



From 1811 to 1813 he was in the brig Siren, where he perform- 

 ed his duty to the entire satisfaction of his commander. He was 

 also in the sloop-of-war Fralies when she was captured by a superior 

 force in 1814, and remained a prisoner of war until March, 1815. 

 Within a month after his return home he joined the frigate Con- 

 gress as acting lieutenant, and sailed for the Mediterranean. From 

 that vessel he was transferred to the Washington 74, Commodore 

 Chauncey in command, in which vessel he returned to New-York 

 in 1818. After a very short respite he was ordered to the Inde- 

 pendence, and, at the expiration of a few months, from her to the 

 Columbus 74, when he served as first lieutenant under Commodore 

 Bainbridge till August, 1821. He had scarce come on shore from 

 this cruise before he was again ordered to the frigate United States, 

 when he again acted as first lieutenant under Commodore Hull on 

 the Pacific, and did not leave that ship till May, 1827. From 

 this date till 1831, he was on duty as lieutenant in the Navy-yard, 

 Charlestown. His next service was as commander of the schooner 

 Porpoise in the West Indies. At the termination of this cruise he 

 was ordered to the Columbus, where he remained on duty until ap- 

 pointed to the command of the Macedonian, as I have already 

 stated. 



During this long career of unobtrusive and faithful public ser- 

 vice, not in Washington, but afloat, he had acquired that familiari- 

 ty with the ocean, that thorough and practical knowledge of his 

 profession, which is infinitely more desirable and valuable in a com- 

 mander than a vain and pompous pretension to science. More 

 than half the expeditions on record have been rendered less useful 

 in their results than they otherwise would have been, by the jeal- 

 ousy, weakness, and folly of their commanders, in wishing to be 

 considered scientific. An able, prudent, yet bold and experienced 

 seaman, who knows how to take care of his vessels and his men 

 under all circumstances, and to harmonize all under his command, 

 is the fittest to conduct such an enterprise as the South Sea Sur- 

 veying Expedition. Such a man is Captain James Armstrong, 

 who, after being two years attached to the expedition, was rudely 

 superseded by a favourite without the courtesy of a previous con- 

 sultation ! 



In the remonstrance sent in by Lieutenant Magruder, who had 

 also been a long time attached as first lieutenant to the Macedoni* 



