1 
480 VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. [Marcll, 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
Falkland Islands — Controversy between the United States and the Argentine Re- 
public, in reference to our right to a free use of the fisheries in the waters which 
surround these islands and their adjacencies. 
Towards the conclusion of our last chapter, among other 
things we mentioned the arrival of the Potomac at the Falkland' 
Islands, and that it was the intention of the commodore to have 
stopped at Port Egmont, agreeably to his conditional instructions 
from the department, had not the thick fogs, contrary winds, and 
exceedingly rough weather, rendered it impracticable to do so. 
While in the Pacific we had occasionally seen, through the 
medium of the Buenos Ayrean press, some accounts of the late 
controversy between the United States and the Argentine Re- 
public, in relation to the sovereignty of these islands, and of our 
rights to a free use of the fisheries there. The subject struck us 
at the time as one of deep interest, because there are a thousand 
other points on the globe where similar questions affecting our 
rights might be set up with equal pretensions. 
We have taken a great deal of pains to inform ourselves of the 
merits of this controversy, and we have now before us a quarto 
pamphlet of about one hundred and twenty pages, in Spanish, 
purporting to be " A collection of Official Documents, showing 
the origin and present state of the question between the two 
countries." 
This publication, however, is not the best source for obtaining 
accurate and exact information of the state of the controversy 
between the United States and the Argentine Republic ; but, as 
yet, it is the only source : for on the ground that the negotiation 
is still pending, the president did not communicate the corre- 
spondence relating to it when called for by the House of Repre- 
sentatives, on the motion of the Honourable John Quincy 
Adams. 
The correspondence contained in the pamphlet to which we 
have alluded, was published by order of the government of 
