INTRODUCTION. xiii 



visit. For these acts of kindness and encouragement, without 

 which my researches would have been more arduous and less 

 efficient, I am much indebted, and gratefully offer my acknow- 

 ledgments, to Major-General M'Comb, General Jessup, Gene- 

 ral Gratiot, the Honourable Messrs M'Lean, Livingston, 

 and Woodbury, to Colonel John Abert, and others, whose 

 frank and prompt attentions will never be forgotten by me. I 

 need not say that towards our President and the enlightened 

 members of the civil, military, and naval departments, I felt 

 the deepest gratitude for the facilities which they thus afforded 

 me. All received me in the kindest manner, and accorded to 

 me whatever I desired of their hands. How often did I think 

 of the error committed by Wilson, when, instead of going 

 to Washington, and presenting himself to President Jeffer- 

 son, he forwarded his application through an uncertain medium. 

 He, like myself, would doubtless have been received with fa- 

 vour, and obtained his desire. How often have I thought of 

 the impression his piercing eye would have made on the dis- 

 criminating and learned President, to whom, in half the time 

 necessary for reading a letter, he might have said six times 

 as much as it contained. But, alas ! Wilson, instead of 

 presenting himself, sent a substitute, which, it seems, was not 

 received by the President, and which, therefore, could not have 

 answered the intended end. How pleasing was it to me to find 

 in our Republic, young as she is, the promptitude to encourage 

 science occasionally met with in other countries. Methinks I 

 am now bidding adieu to the excellent men who so kindly re- 

 ceived me, and am still feeling the pressure of their hands indi- 

 cative of a cordial wish for the success of my undertaking. May 

 He who gave me being and inspired me with a desire to study 



