The Survey of the Coast. 61 



But it is not to be supposed the commercial importance of a 

 knowledge of the coast and harbors was underrated because the 

 Survey was not prosecuted. The people were poor, the task 

 would be expensive and laborious. The appliances for the work 

 were not in the possession of the Government, and above all, war 

 came came sooner than was anticipated and the energies of the 

 people were taxed to the utmost in combat with their powerful 

 foe ; and when peace came again, there was the inevitable com- 

 mercial depression that follows a resort to arms. The men of the 

 day fully realized how illy they were prepared to invite com- 

 merce to our shores, or incite our own people to more extensive 

 trade. There was nothing to adequately represent those mag- 

 nificent harbors that have since become famous the world over ; 

 nor of that long line of coast with its treacherous shoals, whereby 

 those seeking new ventures might judge of the dangers to be 

 encountered. The absolute ignorance that existed was aptly 

 described in the Albany Argus in 1832, when the propriety of 

 reviving the act of ISO? was under discussion, as follows : 



" It had been discovered by an American statesman that parent 

 countries always keep the commercial knowledge of their colo- 

 nies as a leading-string in their own hands, and that as practical 

 navigators, American seamen knew less of their own shores than 

 the country and its allies from whose subjection we had recently 

 delivered ourselves by force of arms. In large vessels, three 

 nations, the Dutch, the French, and the English, approached our 

 harbors with less risk than those bearing our own flag ; at the 

 same time that in small and more manageable vessels, we had 

 long been known as a match for the strongest. The president, 

 Jefferson, saw the defect and the manner in which it must be 

 remedied. We were at that time on the brink of war, about 

 whose justice some of our politicians differed in opinion and it 

 was, of course, more necessary to pray for a fortunate result than 

 to preach the causes which had occasioned the quarrel. To have 

 procured for the nation (even had it been practicable so to do) 

 the old charts from the Dutch, French, and English govei'n- 

 ments, would have only been to put our knowledge on a par with 

 theirs, while to execute more recent and accurate surveys, was 

 advancing the new country above the old. With the clear and 

 bold perception, which always distinguishes men of genius when 

 they are entrusted in times of danger with the destinies of a 

 nation, the president recommended a survey of the whole coast 

 with all the aid of the more recent discoveries of science." 



