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APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



A. 



INSTRUCTIONS. 



Navy Department, 

 August llth, 1838. 



SIR, The Congress of the United States, having 

 in view the important interests of our commerce 

 embarked in the whale-fisheries, and other adven- 

 tures in the great Southern Ocean, by an act of 

 the 18th of May, 1836, authorized an Expedition 

 to be fitted out for the purpose of exploring and 

 surveying that sea, as well to determine the ex- 

 istence of all doubtful islands and shoals, as to 

 discover and accurately fix the position of those 

 which lie in or near the track of our vessels in that 

 quarter, and may have escaped the observation of 

 scientific navigators. Liberal appropriations have 

 been made for the attainment of these objects, and 

 the President, reposing great confidence in your 

 courage, capacity, and zeal, has appointed you to 

 the command of the Expedition, requiring you to 

 proceed to the performance of the duties of that 

 station with the vessels placed under your orders, 

 consisting of the sloops of war Vincennes and Pea- 

 cock, the ship Relief, the brig Porpoise, ' and 

 tenders Sea-Gull and Flying-Fish. 



As soon as these vessels are in every respect 

 ready, you will accordingly take your departure 

 from Norfolk, and shape your course to Rio Janeiro, 

 crossing the line between longitude 18 and 22 W., 

 and keeping within those meridians to about lati- 

 tude 10 S., with a view to determine the existence 

 of certain vigias or shoals laid down in the charts 

 as doubtful, and whose position, should they be 

 found to exist, it is deemed useful to the interests 

 of our commerce to ascertain. 



At Rio Janeiro you will replenish your supplies, 

 taking special care to furnish yourself with a suffi- 

 ciency of all those articles which are considered 

 the best preventives and remedies for the scurvy. 

 You will determine the longitude of that place, as 

 well as of Cape Frio ; after which, you will either 

 detach a vessel, or proceed with your whole squa- 

 dron, to make a particular examination of Rio 

 Negro, which falls into the South Atlantic about 

 latitude 41 S., with a view to ascertain its re- 

 sources and facilities for trade. 



Having completed this survey, you will proceed 

 to a safe port or ports in Terra del Fuego, where 

 the members of the scientific corps may have 

 favourable opportunities of prosecuting their re- 

 searches. Leaving the larger vessels securely 

 moored, and the officers and crews occupied in their 

 respective duties, you will proceed with the brig 

 Porpoise, and the tenders, to explore the southern 



Antarctic, to the southward of Powell's Group, 

 and between it and Sandwich Land, following the 

 track of Weddell as closely as practicable, and en- 

 deavouring to reach a high southern latitude ; 

 taking care, however, not to be obliged to pass the 

 winter there, and to rejoin the other vessels be- 

 tween the middle of February and beginning of 

 March. The attention of the officers left at Terra 

 del Fuego, will, in the mean time, be specially 

 directed to making such accurate and particular 

 examinations and surveys of the bays, ports, inlets, 

 and sounds, in that region, as may verify or extend 

 those of Captain King, and be serviceable in future 

 to vessels engaged in whale-fisheries, in their out- 

 ward and homeward-bound passages. 



You will then, on rejoining the vessels at Terra 

 del Fuego, with all your squadron, stretch towards 

 the southward and westward as far as the Ne Plus 

 Ultra of Cook, or longitude 105 W., and return 

 northward to Valparaiso, where a store ship will 

 meet you in the month of March, 1839. Proceed- 

 ing once more from that port, you will direct your 

 course to the Navigator's Group, keeping to the 

 southward of the place of departure, in order to 

 verify, if possible, the existence of certain islands 

 and shoals, laid down in the charts as doubtful, 

 and if they exist, to determine their precise posi- 

 tion, as well as that of all others which may be 

 discovered in this unfrequented track. When you 

 arrive in those latitudes where discoveries may be 

 reasonably anticipated, you will so dispose your 

 vessels as that they shall sweep the broadest ex- 

 panse of the ocean that may be practicable, with- 

 out danger of parting company, lying-to at night 

 in order to avoid the chance of passing any small 

 island or shoal without detection. 



It is presumed you will reach the Navigator's 

 Group some time in June, 1839. You will survey 

 this group and its harbours, with all due care and 

 attention. If time will permit, it will be well to 

 visit the Society Islands, and examine Eimeo, 

 which, it is stated, possesses a convenient har- 

 bour. 



From the Navigator's Group, you will proceed 

 to the Feejee Islands, which you will examine with 

 particular attention, with a view to the selection of 

 a safe harbour, easy of access, and in every respect 

 adapted to the reception of vessels of the United 

 States engaged in the whale-fishery, and the general 

 commerce of these seas ; it being the intention of 

 the government to keep one of the squadron of the 

 Pacific cruising near these islands in future. 



