Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/82

 CHAPTER V.

the 13th of July we got under way and stood out to sea, all the squadron in company except the Sea Gull. The ship Relief directed her course towards the Sandwich Islands, and the rest of the squadron towards the South Pacific, or summer seas. Next day we fell in with a Peruvian brig very much in need of water. We were most happy to be able to supply them with the necessary  article. On this day the following order was read from the quarter-deck: "The undersigned, commanding the  U. S. expedition, informs the officers and crews under  his command that, as they are now about to visit the  islands of the Pacific and to have intercourse with their inhabitants, he wishes to inculcate on all in the squadron  that courtesy and kindness towards the natives which are  well understood and felt by all classes of mankind; and  trusts that neither contempt of nor interference with  their customs, habits, manners, and prejudices, nor arrogance over them will be shown by any one belonging to  the squadron, always bearing in mind that savage natives  have but vague ideas of the rights of property, and that  theft committed by them has been the great cause of  collision between them and civilized nations. He would  therefore enjoin upon them all great moderation in