82 
problem to its solution, I then proposed an expedition to 
Chile, to observe the planet near its stationary terms and 
opposition, in 1849, should my views receive encouragement 
rom astronomers to justify such an undertaking. Nearly 
on the same meridian as Washington is the island of Chilée,— 
a place of considerable trade with the nearer ports, and 
occasionally visited by American whale-ships. At all events, 
it was accessible without much difficulty, and I hoped to be 
able to induce the government to send me there, proposing 
to leave the United States in time to reach the island by the 
middle of March of that year, at latest. To avoid expense, 
which it was supposed would prove the first and main obstacle, 
I contemplated only one assistant, who, like myself, would 
be an officer of the Navy, and in the receipt of pay, whether 
abroad or at home, and would take instruments already 
belonging to, or under control of, the government. I 
proposed Childe, because it was the point farthest south on 
this continent at which a lengthened winter residence could 
be endured, in exposure, without incurring an outlay that 
might prove a serious impediment, and because I thought 
that a passage to it could be obtained in a whale-ship from 
one of our northern ports. It being inhabited by a civilized 
and most hospitable people, would tend to render a resi- 
dence of five or six months, in the latter part of the autumn 
and winter, not altogether uncomfortable. Its distance is 
about 5,000 miles, due south from Washington; and a com- 
parison of the observations I proposed to make there, with 
those to be obtained at the Washington Observatory, would ~ 
give us a determination of the parallax from data wholly 
_ American. This last reason I hoped would benefit me, 
. should i it be necessary to seek the interposition of Congress.” 
‘Then commenced a series of efforts, prosecuted with the 
wn energy of our lamented colleague, to prepare 
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