HAWAII AND OAHU. 103 



The squadron was now on the eve of sailing, having on board stores 

 and provisions for a long cruise. As this winter's cruising was par- 

 ticularly intended to examine the portion of ocean that was not in- 

 cluded in my instructions, I shall, before narrating the details of the 

 proceedings of the squadron, give, in a general view, the intended ope- 

 rations. 



The movements of the squadron were, at this time, particularly 

 directed to the examination of parts of the ocean possessing great 

 interest in their connexion with that important branch of national in- 

 dustry, the whale-fishery ; and the course I proposed to adopt will be 

 understood from the following statement of the objects I now had in 

 view. 



The Porpoise, as before remarked, had been sent towards the Pau- 

 motu Group, or Dangerous Archipelago, lying to the eastward of 

 Tahiti, to examine some islands that were reported as doubtful, and 

 others whose positions were not well ascertained. She was also to 

 leave a party on one of them, to bore through the coral rock, the Ex- 

 pedition having been provided with an apparatus for that purpose. 

 Thence she was to proceed to Tahiti, and from Tahiti towards Pen- 

 rhyn and Flint's Island ; and return to Oahu by the end of March, 

 1841. The Porpoise sailed, as has been stated, on the 16th of Novem- 

 ber, 1840. 



The Peacock, with the Flying-Fish as tender, I designed should visit 

 and examine the location of several of the doubtful islands, passing 

 along, the magnetic equator westward from the meridian of 160° W. ; 

 thence to a small group of islands in longitude 174° W., which I had 

 partly examined in the Vincennes, and had found some new islands 

 among them ; these I had called the Phoenix Group. Thence the Pea- 

 cock was to proceed to search for the Gente Hermosas of Quiros, or 

 the islands reported to me at Upolu, when I was there in 1839, as ex- 

 isting to the northeast ; thence to Upolu, to re-survey the south side of 

 the island, not having been able to satisfy myself with the former sur- 

 vey of it ; at the same time directing Captain Hudson to inquire into 

 the late murder of an American seaman, of which I had received infor- 

 mation from our consul, Mr. Williams. 



Lieutenant-Commandant Ringgold had, as before stated, made a de- 

 mand for the murderer, but the chiefs had refused to comply with the 

 treaty. The circumstances of the murder of Gideon Smith, as given 

 by affidavits made before the consul, (which will be found in Appendix 

 . XX., Vol. III.,) are as follows. 



Gideon Smith was a native of Bath, Massachusetts. He belonged 

 to the whale-ship Harold, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, but left her on 



