owing to Captain Aulick having sailed from Oahu a few days before Lieutenant Wilkes arrived there, Auffust he had no opportunity of making my communication to Lieutenant Wilkes before that officer heard of the circumstance through newspapers, which gave a very distorted view of the question, and not only occasioned him much uneasiness, but left a very erroneous impression on the minds of all who regarded the information derived from that source as conclusive against any land at all having been discovered by the American squadron. And this impression was greatly strengthened by the publicly-declared opinion of one of the officers of the squadron to the same effect whilst at Sydney; but, whether this assertion arose from malicious motives or not, the most conclusive refutation of it is given in the narrative of the voyage, and in the evidence elicited at the several courts of inquiry, which followed the return of the expedition to America. The Yorktown sailed the next morning for the Sandwich Islands.
The unceasing round of hourly observations was soon brought into operation, and provided full occupation for all the executive officers of both ships, except only the senior lieutenants, who remained in charge of the vessels.
The medical officers, in their turn, made short excursions into the interior, for the purpose of increasing our collections of natural history; but the natives at the time of our visit were beginning to feel deeply, and to express in terms of severe