since accomplished so much for the commerce of the world. This was the first occasion in which he accepted the responsibility of sailing master, and he was naturally anxious to make a quick voyage.
Before leaving New York he had searched in every direction for reliable information as to the winds and currents to be encountered, and the best path for his vessel to follow. He soon found that little was known on the subject. Here was a deplorable want which the man of genius resolved he would one day supply. It was on this voyage also that he observed and began to study the curious phenomenon of the "low barometer" off Cape Horn, and it upon this subject that he wrote his first scientific paper for publication, which appeared in the American 'Journal of Science' But the labors of his pen did not end here, for it was on this cruise also that he began to prepare for the press a work on navigation, the materials for which he had been gathering together in his mind for several years.
While the ship lay at Callao, he wrote the following affectionate letter to his brother Dick in Tennessee:—
| Dear Dick, | U.S.S. 'Falmouth,', Callao, April 16th, 1835. |
I owe you much for your kind letter of Oct. last, which came to hand last night. I am writing on my knee for want of a table, so do not grumble at the illegibility of the writing. Your letters are always very charming to me; they give me the best and fullest accounts of all that is going on, only you have never told me of your third increase of family, though it is so common for you and your wife to multiply I do not wonder that you should have forgotten it. Four years married, and three children already! Why, that is as many as I want altogether... Old Mr. Spotswood, the poorest man I know, has some fifteen or twenty children. He says he values each one at £7,000 pounds, and his wife at £12,000! I hope you will realize at that rate off each one of yours. I am getting frightened, seeing you doing these things at
