488 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -III 



utmost care ; and that if you find anything whatever which 

 connects me or any of my family with any of them, you 

 expose me to the American people. " The President ut- 

 tered these words in a tone of deep earnestness. I left him, 

 feeling that he was an honest man ; and I may add that the 

 closest examination of men and documents relating to 

 titles and concessions in the island failed to reveal any 

 personal interest of his whatsoever. 



Arriving next day in New York, I met the other com- 

 missioners, with the secretaries, interpreters, attaches, and 

 various members of the press who were authorized to ac- 

 company the expedition. Most interesting of all to me 

 were the scientific experts. It is a curious example of the 

 happy-go-lucky ways which prevail so frequently at Wash- 

 ington, that although the resolutions of Congress required 

 the commissioners to examine into the mining and agricul- 

 tural capacities of the island, its meteorological character- 

 istics, its harbors and the possibilities of fortifying them, 

 its land tenures, and a multitude of other subjects de- 

 manding the aid of experts, no provision was made for any 

 such aid, and the three commissioners and their secretaries, 

 not one of whom could be considered as entitled to hold 

 a decisive opinion on any of these subjects, were the only 

 persons expected to conduct the inquiry. Seeing this, I 

 represented the matter to the President, and received his 

 permission to telegraph to presidents of several of our 

 leading universities asking them to secure for us active 

 young scientific men who would be willing to serve on the 

 expedition without salary. The effort was successful. 

 Having secured at the Smithsonian Institution two or 

 three good specialists in sundry fields, I obtained from 

 Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, and other universities 

 the right sort of men for various other lines of investiga- 

 tion, and on the 17th of January, 1871, we all embarked 

 on the steam-frigate Tennessee, under the command of 

 Commodore Temple. 



It fell to my lot to take a leading part in sending forth 

 our scientific experts into all parts of the republic. Four- 



