INTRODUCTION. 
IX 
The ship was partially strengthened, and otherwise adapted to the 
service, by increasing her stowage. A boat was supplied, to be used as 
a tender, and for this purpose she was made as large as the space on 
the deck would allow. She was rigged as a schooner, decked, and 
fitted in the most complete manner, and reflected great credit upon 
Mr. Peake, the master-shipwright of Woolwich dock-yard, who mo- 
delled and built her. 
To the usual allowance of provision was added a variety of anti- 
scorbutics. Cloth, beads, cutlery, and other articles of traffic, were put 
on board ; and two fowling-pieces, embossed with silver, and fitted in 
the most complete manner, were supplied as presents to the kings of 
the Society and Sandwich Islands. The College of Surgeons sent 
bottles of spirits for the preservation of specimens, and the Horticul- 
tural Society enhanced our extra stores with a box of seeds properly 
prepared for keeping. 
The seamen were furnished with two suits of clothes gratis, and 
were allowed the further privilege of having six months’ wages in 
advance. 
In the equipment of all the expeditions of this nature it has been the 
good fortune of the officers engaged in them to meet with the utmost 
courtesy and attention to their wishes from the departments which have 
the power so materially to contribute to their comfort ; and I take this 
opportunity of expressing my sincere thanks to Sir G. Cockburn and 
the other Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, to Sir Thomas Byam 
Martin, and the Commissioners of the Navy and Victualling Boards, for 
t le readiness with which they at all times comphed with my requests. 
Being in every respect ready, on the 19th May I received the fol- 
lowing instructions from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty : — 
“ By the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High 
Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland, &c. &c. 
« Whereas it is our intention that his majesty’s sloop Blossom, 
under your command, should be at Beering’s Strait in the autumn of 
1826, and, contingently, in that of 1827, for the purpose of affording 
b 
