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x  of this volume be impeached, in consequence of my having sometimes used the indicative mood when I ought to have employed the subjunctive. It is for fidelity alone, that I claim any praise, or expect further encouragement in my laborious undertaking. That there are no errors in this volume, and will be none in those that are to follow, it would be idle to assert. When it is considered, that in the course of the work I shall have to speak of near two thousand persons, my readers will readily pardon a few mistakes. I have at least been anxiously careful to avoid rnistatements ; and those, which, notwithstanding my diligence, have occurred, shall be corrected, as early as possible after they are pointed out to me. It will be seen that, of some of the officers mentioned in the present volume, the notices are very short. In this nothing invidious is intended. My respect and reverence for the naval profession is unbounded; and I have, thank God, no enmity to gratify against any individual in existence. The brevity is in some instances to be attributed to the bodily infirmities of the individuals, preventing them from using their pens any further than to acknowledge what they have been pleased to term my “courtesy,” in apprising them of my being engaged in such a work, and to express their “regret,” that the great distance of their respective residences from town, precluded the possibility of a personal interview. Some few have disregarded my request to be furnished with information relative to their services; and. others, being on the continent, or employed on foreign service, I have found it impracticable to 