472 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. [September, 
trouble could be avoided. In fact, I think it almost indispensably- 
required. I hope you will be disposed to send us one of your 
squadron the next spring, as I feel assured that a vessel of war 
will then be required more than ever." 
The commodore received a similar request from J. Lenox 
Kennedy, United States consul at the port of Mazatlan, dated the 
sixteenth of May, eighteen hundred and thirty-three, on account 
of the frequent revolutions which were at that time taking place 
in the country. He also received a pressing letter, signed by five 
American ship-masterS; in the port of Callao, complaining of the 
abuses they suffer " from a class of worthless keepers of grog- 
shops, who entice awa,y and conceal their men, to the great haz- 
ard, and even ruin of their voyages." 
Immediately on the receipt of this letter from the masters of 
the whale-ships, Commjodore Downes made a communication to 
the commandant of marines at Callao, which was by him trans- 
mitted to the government at Lima; and in the course of a few 
days, such regulations were introduced, under the superintend- 
ence of the captain of the port, as effectually checked for the 
time the abuses complained of. The readiness with which the 
local authorities interfered in this matter on the representation 
of Commodore Downes, is an evidence of what might be effected, 
if we had commercial agents who attended to their duties. 
The mere appointment of a consul, as our consuls are appointed 
and supported in other places, will not answer for our extended 
commercial operations of these seas. We require a consul at 
the islands, one in Payta, and another in Talcuahana, Chili, on 
salaries which shall command the services of able men, and make 
them independent in action ; to which add one more sloop-of-war 
to our present squadron, to cruise among the islands ; and then, and 
not till then, will our interests be properly protected in the Pacific. 
In Payta we should have an hospital, on a simple and economi- 
cal plan : there is not a foreign port on the globe which needs one 
so much. Let it be remembered, that there are more than six 
thousand seamen traversing the ocean from Japan to this coast, 
visiting each, in the alternate changes of season, engaged in a 
business at all times adventurous, and often exceedingly hazard- 
ous ; and yet, within this mighty range, there is not a spot where 
the disabled or infirm sailor can be placed, with perfect assurance 
