20 VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. , [AugllSl, 
the 22d, of which they were apprized by another letter dated the 
25th of July, in reply to that of the 20th before referred to ; in 
which they were requested to furnish the department with such 
local information relative to the region where the outrage was 
committed, as might become essential in seeking indemnity or 
inflicting punishment on the perpetrators. A copy of this letter 
will also be found in the Appendix. Through the medium of 
this correspondence the government obtained the services of a 
gentleman of Salem, who had been personally concerned in the 
pepper-trade on the coast — was on board the Friendship when 
attacked, and was well acquainted with that part of Sumatra. 
The preparations being completed, additional instructions oa 
this branch of the cruise were given to the commander, as before 
mentioned, by the secretary of the navy, on the 9th of August. 
In order to appreciate the judgment and caution with which these 
instructions on so delicate and important a subject were drawn 
up, as well as to enable the reader, in the sequel, to judge of the 
faithful and olficer-like manner in which they were carried into 
execution, it will be necessary for him to recur to the copy which 
we have been permitted to insert at length in the Appendix. By 
these instructions it will be seen he was directed to proceed from 
Rio Janeiro to the east by the Cape of Good Hope, to call the 
treacherous Malays to an account, and redress our grievances in 
that quarter; and from thence, after visiting certain ports in the 
Chinese Seas, to cross the vast Pacific, and take command of the 
squadron on the west coast of South America. 
With reference to the outrage in question, the public press 
evinced a sensitiveness which did honour to the editorial corps-. 
Only a few days previous to the sailing of the Potomac, many 
articles on the subject appeared in the daily papers, from one of 
which the following extracts are copied : — " As far as public sen- 
timent can be collected from the newspapers and from general 
conversation, it appears to be the unanimous wish of the nation 
that one or more of our ships-of-war should be despatched to the 
western coast of Sumatra, to look after our commercial interests 
in that remote sea, and punish the natives for the outrage recently 
committed upon the ship Friendship, of Salem." In the same 
article it is added, " A high-handed outrage has been committed, 
and if it be suffered to pass by unavenged, we know not how 
