XX vi INSTRUCTIONS. 



best preventives and remedies for the scurvy. You will determine the longitude 

 of that place, as well as of Cape Frio ; after which, you will either detach a 

 vessel, or proceed with your whole squadron, to make a particular examination 

 of Rio Negro, which falls into the South Atlantic about latitude 41° S., with a 

 view to ascertain its resources and facilities for trade. 



Having completed this survey, you will proceed to a safe port or ports in 

 Terra del Fuego, where the members of the scientific corps may have favoura- 

 ble opportunities of prosecuting their researches. Leaving the larger vessels 

 securely moored, and the officers and crews occupied in their respective duties, 

 you will proceed with the brig Porpoise, and the tenders, to explore the southern 

 Antarctic, to the southward of Powell's Group, and between it and Sandwich 

 Land, following the track of Weddell as closely as practicable, and endeavour- 

 ing to reach a high southern latitude; taking care, however, not to be obliged to 

 pass the winter there, and to rejoin the other vessels between the middle of 

 February and beginning of March. The attention of the officers left at Terra del 

 Fuego, will, in the mean time, be specially directed to making such accurate and 

 particular examinations and surveys of the bays, ports, inlets, and sounds, in 

 that region, as may verify or extend those of Captain King, and be serviceable 

 in future to vessels engaged in the whale-fisheries, in their outward and home 

 ward-bound ■ passages. 



You will then, on rejoining the vessels at Terra del Fuego, with all your 

 squadron, stretch towards the southward and westward as far as the Ne Plus 

 Ultra of Cook, or longitude 105° W., and return northward to Valparaiso, 

 where a store-ship will meet you in the month of March, 1839. Proceeding 

 once more from that port, you will direct your course to the Navigator's Group, 

 keeping to the southward of the place of departure, in order to verify, if possi- 

 ble, the existence of certain islands and shoals, laid down in the charts as doubt- 

 ful, and if they exist, to determine their precise position, as well as that of all 

 others which may be discovered in this unfrequented track. When you arrive 

 in those latitudes where discoveries may be reasonably anticipated, you will so 

 dispose your vessels as that they shall sweep the broadest expanse of the ocean 

 that may be practicable, without danger of parting company, lying-to at night 

 in order to avoid the chance of passing any small island or shoal without detec- 

 tion. 



It is presumed you will reach the Navigator's Group some time in June, 1839. 

 You will survey this group, and its harbours, with all due care and attention. 

 If time will permit, it will be well to visit the Society Islands, and examine 

 Eimeo, which, it is stated, possesses a convenient harbour. 



From the Navigator's Group, you will proceed to the Feejee Islands, which 

 you will examine with particular attention, with the view to the selection of a 

 safe harbour, easy of access, and in every respect adapted to the reception of 

 t r essels of the United States engaged in the whale-fishery, and the general 

 commerce of these seas ; it being the intention of the government to keep one 

 of the squadron of the Pacific cruising near these islands in future. 



