defence of my conduct during my absence; and I have quoted thus largely from this letter because his very clear and candid testimony gives so much weight to the few additional remarks which I must here make, in order to show that I did not make any "erroneous statement" whatever. I must first refer to the only passage that bears on the subject in Mr. Wilkes's answer to the above letter.[1]
He says, "On my arrival at Sydney from the antarctic cruise, I was introduced to Captain Biscoe, the discoverer of Enderby Land, and believe he gave me the first information of the English discovery, and its position, which I placed on my chart, marking it 'English Discovery.' My impression is, that the copy which I ordered to be made (from my own original) was a perfect one; and on the original chart the English discovery is detached and separate from ours, and stands alone. At the time I sent my letter to Captain Ross, I did not know the English discoverer's name; but whether the English discovery was so marked or not, is of but little consequence, for Captain Ross knew of Balleny's discovery before he left England, and therefore must have seen at once the latitude and longitude to be identically the same with those of Balleny; and I am satisfied the only erroneous conclusion Captain Ross could have been led into by it was, that I had verified Balleny's discovery."
In the tracing copy of his original chart, which
