Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/387

] sent Captain Ross a letter with his chart; but unfortunately the name of Balleny or his land is neither mentioned nor even hinted at in this letter. In short, no intimation in any manner whatever was given Ross by Lieutenant Wilkes that he did not claim the discovery of all the land marked on his chart; and to this cause alone is to be ascribed the error into which Captain Ross was, I think, unavoidably led.

"Mr. Wilkes says Ross ought to have examined the accounts of his discoveries published in the Sydney and Hobart Town papers, before he made so bold an assertion to an American officer. But, with such evidence as the chart and letter of Mr. Wilkes in his hands, I apprehend it could hardly have been seriously expected that he should search the newspaper accounts (which probably he never saw) for other or better information on the subject.

"On my visit to Captain Ross on board the Erebus, he spread this chart before me in the presence of Captain Crozier and two of my own officers. It was distinctly drawn out on tracing paper; the whole appearing to be, so far as I observed, one connected operation, representing nothing but the result of his own (Wilkes's) explorations. Ross, believing it to be such, had transcribed it at length on his chart, which he also placed before us ,