ALBEUT LAND. 
207 
ber, 1850, and Commodore Austin's official reports of 
subsequent date, and have looked through the differ- 
ent letters of Captain Penny, who was the command- 
er of Mr. Manson, without discovering one word in any 
of them that could suggest, or imply, or support such 
a claim. Indeed, I am not aware that either Captain 
Ommanney or Mr. Manson has authorized the asser- 
tion of it. Happily, the question may be decided with- 
out appealing to negative evidence. It is a fact, sus- 
ceptible of demonstration, that neither of them did or 
could make the discovery which is now imputed to 
them. 
On the 26th of August, 1850, Captain Ommanney 
was on board his own vessel, the Assistance. He had 
been detached by Commodore Austin to make a thor- 
ough examination of the coast about Cape Hotham, 
and on the evening of the 25th he was fairly imbedded 
and fast in the ice between that point and Barlow's 
Inlet. He was seen there by Mr. Penny, by Commo- 
dore Austin, and by every one on board the Advance. 
He may not have been seen there by some of his Brit- 
ish associates on the 26th, for a reason which I shall 
advert to presently; but on the 27th he was there 
still, and his own report shows that he remained there 
till the 3d of September. Now he who feels interest 
enough in the question to extend a scale upon any of 
the charts, will prove for himself that on the 26th of 
August, Captain Ommanney, being then off Cape Ho- 
tham, was at the distance of a hundred miles from the 
land he is supposed to have that day discovered. We 
' had drifted more than sixty miles to the north of his 
position before we saw that land, and it was then some 
forty miles still further to the north. We lost it again 
when we had drifted back ten miles to the south. 
