The  undersigned  will  here  state  that  he  has  not  been  furnished  with  a  copy  of
the  instructions  given  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  Lieutenant  Thomas
Jefferson  Page,  commanding  the  United  States  steamer  "Water  Witch,"  in  rela-
tion to  the  exploration  of  the  tributaries  of  the  Kio  de  la  Plata ;  all  the  information
the  undersigned  has  on  that  subject  is  obtained  from  the  statements  of  others  :  The
letter  of  Lieutenant  Thomas  Jefferson  Page  to  Ferdinand  Coxe,  Esq.,  Secretary  of
Legation  of  the  United  "States  at  the  Court  of  Brazil,  of  the  26th  April,  1853,  in
which  he  states  the  expedition  has  purely  for  its  object  the  advancement  of  com-
merce and  the  promotion  of  science ;  Mr. Coxe,  in  his  note  of  the  same  date,  2Gth
April,  1853,  to  the  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs,  speaking  of  Lieutenant  Page,  says;
"This  officer  has  been  ordered  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  upon  the  highly
interesting  and  important  duty  of  exploring  and  surveying  all  the  rivers  running  into
the  La  Plata,  and  it  is  not  doubted  that  the  results  of  the  expedition  will  be  of  the
highest  importance  to  the  commercial  and  scientific  world."  It  will  be  seen  that
Mr. Schenck,  in  his  communication  to  the  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs,  of  the  20th
August,  1853,  uses  this  language :  "  Otherwise  the  undersigned  is  unable  to  compre-
hend why  such  an  expedition,  purely  national  in  its  character,  projected  for  a  sim-
ple and  peculiar  purpose,  and  that  purpose  for  the  advancement  of  science,  should


APPENDIX  C. 575

have  been  put  on  a  footing  with  individual  commercial  pursuits,  and  subjected  to
reasoning  that  can  apply  only  to  ordinary  vessels  ;"  and,  again,  Mr. 