PAUMOTU GROUP. SO[ 
men. 
The Commander-in-chief feels a confidence in relying on the 
officers and crews to carry out these views, from their good and 
exemplary conduct heretofore, and trusts that he will not have to 
regret the confidence he reposes in them. 
Any acts inconsistent with these views, will meet with the most 
exemplary punishment. 
(Signed) Charles Wilkes, 
July 13th, 1839 Commanding Exploring Expedition. 
United States' Ship Vineennes, 
I had determined, on leaving Callao, to take up the examination of 
the Paumotu Group, recommended to the Expedition by that distin- 
guished navigator and promoter of science, Admiral Krusenstern 
whose notes were made a part of my instructions, and have been 
already referred to in Appendix V. I therefore steered for the island 
of Minerva, or Clermont de Tonnerre, one of the most eastern of the 
Paumotu Group, or Cloud of Islands, as the name implies. I deemed 
this to be the most interesting point at which to begin our surveys, 
and the researches of our naturalists, particularly as it was inhabited' 
and would thus enable us to trace the inhabitants from one end of 
Polynesia to the other, across the Pacific. At the same time, it 
afforded a very desirable point for magnetic observations, and a visit 
to it would also enable me to settle a dispute between the two distin- 
guished English and French navigators, Captains Beechey and Du- 
perrey, relative to its geographical position. The longitude adopted 
for Callao, from which our measurements were made, was 79° 11' 
10" W. This I found to correspond well with that of Valparaiso, 
the meridian distance between the two being 5° 31' 50". 
On the 14th we found the current setting to the northwest by west 
three quarters of a mile per hour. 
The 15th, at one hundred and twenty miles from the land, we 
had changed the temperature of the surface to 67° beino- a diffe- 
rence of 7°. At three hundred fathoms depth, it was found to be 
51°. This day the current was found setting south half east, half a 
mile per hour. 
The 16th brought several showers of rain, the first we had ex- 
perienced since the 8th of June, off Valparaiso. Here we again tried 
the current, but found none. I now continued the usual experiments 
on the deep sea temperature, dips, variation, currents, the visibility of 
a white object in water, and the dip of the horizon, for which I must 
vol. i, 8! 
