494 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



fore of any of them, which, from ray knowledge of botany, I must 



have done had they existed), by the E 1, as the general says, I 



have no hesitation, Wilkes, in declaring that they are all coined 

 names, got up by the corps to bamboozle us. So I will assert 

 indeed, I have done so already and raise all the prejudice I can 

 in the country against them. 



Wilkes. So I say. I begin now to see that we shall be able to 

 manage things all our own way, governor. I move that the ento- 

 mologist be dismissed. 



Dickerson. I second that motion. I hate bugs ; they eat up 

 flowers, and spoil botanical specimens. And now I should like to 

 propose that the rest of the corps should be got rid of in the same 

 manner ; but I suppose that won't do ; we should have too large a 

 wasp's nest about our ears. We had best, therefore, let a part go, 

 if only to diminish the opposition to us. As for the remainder, they 

 will gradually become silent when they see how little is to be 

 gained by complaints to the government. Though we have been 

 unable to break down the expedition entirely, we shall at least 

 have the satisfaction of dismembering it and of getting rid of Rey- 

 nolds. But what noise is that 7 



Wilkes. What's the matter 1 You look frightened, governor. 



Dickerson. I thought I heard the creaking of the general's boots 

 on the stairway. I wouldn't like to have him know what we are 

 now about. The very idea makes me shake in my shoes ; though 

 he's at the Hermitage, when I come to think of it. 



Poinsett. It's only the flapping of the shutters, governor ; the 

 wind blows hard to-night. There, take something from the side- 

 board, and let's despatch this business at once. What say you to 

 Couthouy, the " conchologist, actinologist, and molachologist V 

 Did you not remark, governor, in one of your official papers, or 

 was it in one of your " Friend to the Navy" letters, in answer to 

 Citizen, that you wouldn't give a bit of dry dock for a mountain 

 of cockle shells and mollusca \ 



Dickerson. Ahem ! never mind the particulars. Couthouy's a 

 hard customer. In the very first letter he wrote to me, he said he'd 

 go in the expedition whether I gave him an appointment or not. 

 He'd find his place, he said, before it returned. He's a desperate 

 fellow. I believe he wouldn't mind shooting me if I were to pre- 

 vent his going. The fact is, he would be a formidable enemy, and 



