CHARLES WILKES 229 
“We ourselves anticipated no such discovery; the 
indications of it were received with doubt and hesitation ; 
I myself did not venture to record in my private journal 
the certainty of land, until three days after those best 
acquainted with its appearance in high latitudes were 
assured of the fact ; and finally, to remove all possibility 
of doubt, and to prove conclusively that there was no 
deception in the case, views of the same land were 
taken from the vessels in three different positions, with 
the bearings of its peaks and promontories, by whose 
intersection their position is nearly as well established 
as the peaks of any of the islands we surveyed from 
the sea. 
“ All doubt in relation to the reality of our discovery 
gradually wore away, and towards the close of the cruise 
of the Vincennes along the icy barrier, the mountains of 
the Antarctic Continent became familiar and of daily 
appearance, insomuch that the log-book, which is 
guardedly silent as to the time and date of its being first 
observed, now speaks throughout of 1 the land. 
Wilkes accordingly adopted January 16th as the date 
of first discovery, although one of the charges subse- 
quently brought against him and disproved, was that on 
the 19th he stated that he had seen land, well knowing 
that he had not done so. Unless the latter date was 
considered of supreme importance it is difficult to imagine 
how it could have been made the foundation of a charge, 
even though that charge was proved to be absolutely 
groundless. Lieutenant Ringgold of the Porpoise, also 
stated that on January 13th, he was strongly impressed 
with the belief of the close approach of land. It is quite 
possible from his position that he caught the distant loom 
of the Balleny Islands, the existence of which was un- 
