408 HONOLULU. 



these men for a time ; it was done according to law ; all the circum- 

 stances were duly reported to the government, in my next despatches, 

 and my conduct was not objected to until the charges were made out 

 against me. 



I was now enabled to complete my plans of operation, and every 

 exertion was made forthwith to put the vessels in condition for ser- 

 vice, half of the crews being retained on board to proceed with the 

 outfits, while the rest were on liberty. 



The services on which I proposed to employ the vessels of the 

 squadron, were as follows, viz. : 



Captain Hudson, in the Peacock, accompanied by the tender, was 

 to be instructed to return to the Samoan Group, and re-examine the 

 surveys made by the Flying-Fish and boats, of the south side of 

 Upolu, in which I had detected oversights and suspected neglect; 

 to seek for several small and doubtful islands, said to be under the 

 equator, and to visit the little-known groups of Ellice and Kingsmill ; 

 to inquire into the fate of Captain Dowset, commanding an American 

 schooner engaged in the whale-fishery at the Pescadores ; and to seek 

 redress for the capture of the American brig Waverley, owned by 

 Messrs. Pierce and Co., of Oahu, at Strong's Island. 



Having by the arrival of the Porpoise learned the news of the 

 murder of Gideon Smith at Upolu, I included in my orders to Captain 

 Hudson, the duty of investigating the circumstances of the crime, and 

 punishing the offenders. He was likewise instructed to seek for the 

 magnetic equator in longitude 160° W., and to follow it down to 

 the westward. These duties accomplished, I directed him, after visit- 

 ing Ascension Island, to join me at the Columbia River, towards the 

 end of the coming month of April. 



These instructions covered a wide field, which had, as far as I could 

 learn, been but little explored, and which our whaling fleet is con- 

 tinually traversing. To examine it could not fail to be highly useful 

 to those engaged in that important branch of industry. 



I designed to employ the Porpoise in a more close examination of 

 some islands in the Paumotu Group or Low Archipelago, which it 

 had not been in my power to accomplish during our visit of the pre- 

 vious year. She was also to leave a party, with the boring apparatus, 

 upon one of the islands, as soon as she reached the group, to remain 

 there for about six weeks, or so long as the vessel was eng-affed in the 

 examination of the other islands. This examination being completed, 



