xxviii INSTRUCTIONS. 



other fatal epidemic make its appearance among your crews, you have leave to 

 proceed to the northward, until the disease shall either disappear, or be so miti- 

 gated, as to admit of the resumption of your surveys. 



The Department does not feel the necessity of giving any special directions 

 for preserving the health of those under your command, confiding in your own 

 experience, the care and precautions of the able surgeons with whom you are 

 provided, and in the conviction you must feel, that on the health of your crews 

 must depend the success of the enterprise. 



In the prosecution of these long and devious voyages, you will necessarily 

 be placed in situations which cannot be anticipated, and in which, sometimes 

 your own judgment and discretion, at others, necessity, must be your guide. 

 Among savage nations, unacquainted with, or possessing but vague ideas of the 

 rights of property, the most common cause of collision with civilized visiters, is 

 the offence and the punishment of theft. You will therefore adopt every possible 

 precaution against this practice, and in the recovery of the stolen property, as 

 well as in punishing the offender, use all due moderation and forbearance. 



You will permit no trade to be carried on by the squadron, with the countries 

 you may visit, either civilized or savage, except for necessaries or curiosities, 

 and that under express regulations established by yourself, in which the rights 

 of the natives must be scrupulously respected and carefully guarded. 



You will neither interfere, nor permit any wanton interference with the 

 customs, habits, manners, or prejudices, of the natives of such countries or 

 islands as you may visit ; nor take part in their disputes, except as a mediator ; 

 nor commit any act of hostility, unless in self-defence, or to protect or secure 

 the property of those under your command, or whom circumstances may have 

 placed within reach of your protection. 



You will carefully inculcate on all the officers and men under your command, 

 that courtesy and kindness towards the natives, which is understood and felt by 

 all classes of mankind ; to display neither arrogance nor contempt, and to 

 appeal to their good-will rather than their fears, until it shall become apparent 

 that they can only be restrained from violence by fear or force. 



You will, on all occasions, avoid risking the officers and men unnecessarily 

 on shore at the mercy of the natives. Treachery is one of the invariable 

 characteristics of savages and barbarians ; and very many of the fatal disasters 

 which have befallen preceding navigators, have arisen, from too great a reliance 

 on savage professions of friendship, or overweening confidence in themselves. 



Much of the character of our future intercourse with the natives of the lands 

 you may visit, will depend on the impressions made on their minds by their 

 first intercourse with your vessels. 



It is the nature of the savage, long to remember benefits, and never to forget 

 injuries ; and you will use your best endeavours wherever you may go, to leave 

 behind a favourable impression of your country and countrymen. The Expe- 

 dition is not for conquest, but discovery. Its objects are all peaceful ; they are 

 to extend the empire of commerce and science ; to diminish the hazards of the 



