Captain Wilkes was highly applauded for his act by his countrymen, but
England was very indignant. It was an illegal proceeding on his part,
since the deck of a ship is the same as the soil of the country whose
flag she flies. Our Government was compelled to disavow his action and
restore the commissioners to English custody.

In the War for the Union Captain Wilkes commanded the James River
squadron, was made commodore in 1862 and was retired in 1864 and made
rear-admiral on the retired list.

[Illustration: THE "SAN JACINTO" STOPPING THE "TRENT."]

The scientific expedition of which Lieutenant Wilkes was given command
was intended, to quote the words of Congress, "for the purpose of
exploring and surveying the southern ocean, as well to determine the
existence of all doubtful islands and shoals as to discover and
accurately fix the position of those which lie in or near the track of
our vessels in that quarter and may have escaped the observation of
scientific navigators."

Lieutenant Wilkes sailed from Hampton Roads on the 19th of August, 1838,
his flagship being the 18-gun sloop-of-war _Vincennes_, the 18-gun
sloop-of-war _Peacock_, the 12-gun brig-of-war _Porpoise_, the storeship
_Relief_, the tender _Sea Gull_ and the tender _Flying Fish_. Since one
of the main objects was scientific research, the expedition was provided
with a philologist, naturalists, conchologists, mineralogist, botanist,
draughtsmen and a horticulturist.

A halt for a week was made at the Madeira Islands, when the ships headed