tiii 
INTRODUCTION. 
, In comparing what I had written from these authentic sources 
with the journal kept by N. K. G. Oliver, Esq., the commodore's 
private secretary during the early part of the voyage, I found 
not a line to erase, and scarcely a word to add. In addition to 
all these advantages combined, the length of residence on board 
of the Potomac, in the midst of those who had been eye-witnesses 
and actors, by whom the incidents of the past were so often 
brought in review before us, I found no difficulty in filling up 
even the lights and shades of the whole picture, up to the period 
at which I joined the frigate — some twenty months previous to 
her return to the United States. Being thus familiar with the 
whole subject, I have found it most convenient to adopt the first 
person and present tense in the narrative, from the beginning to 
the end of the cruise. 
Where I have travelled beyond the record of the voyage, and 
say something on our commercial interests in the east, of its his- 
tory, present condition, and means of its further extension; of 
sailing directions and the monsoons ; of the Chinese, their pecu- 
liarities and pagodas; of the Sandwich and Society Islands, 
their population, missionaries, and foreign residents and traders ; 
of the great Pacific whale fleet, the present derangement of this 
important branch of commerce, and the necessity of some action 
on the part of the United States government for the preservation 
of this interest; of the people of South America, their political 
and social institutions; of the controversy with the Argentine 
Repubhc in relation to the Falkland Islands; or of Rio. and the 
empire of Brazil — I repeat, that what I say on any of these sub- 
jects, or others of a like nature, will be at all times on my own 
responsibility. 
A short time after the return of the Potomac, I addressed a 
line to the Honourable Levi Woodbury, at that time Secretary 
of the Navy, requesting _ permission to examine certain public 
documents on file in the department, from our commercial agents 
in different parts of the world where the Potomac had touched, 
and which might contain matter useful in rendering more perfect 
the details of my work. To this request I received the follow- 
ing reply : — 
