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APPENDIX, No. VIII.
LETTER FROM LIEUTENANT WILKES IN REPLY TO CAPTAIN AULICK.
"To the Editors of the Spectator.
"Gentlemen,—The editorial notice in the columns of your paper, in which the remarks of Captain Aulick are inserted, is so full as respects the discovery of the Expedition, that I should not have thought it necessary to say another word relative to the subject, if Captain Aulick's remarks might not give the idea, that the chart and letter sent Captain Ross by me were disingenuous, in so far that I had attempted to claim a greater extent of discovery than the Expedition was entitled to, and that I had taken occasion to show some little temper towards himself, and pass 'public censures upon Captain Ross, while my own negligence was the cause alone to which is to be ascribed the error into which he thinks Captain Ross was unavoidably led.'
"It will, I think, be sufficiently shown, that I had the warmest feelings towards Captain Ross and the English Expedition, by the simple perusal of my letter to him, giving him the information I did. The whole was prepared in much haste, and when my time was much occupied, and I doubt not all will perceive the candour and frankness with which it was written; and it ought certainly to go to prove that I was not afraid of rivalry, for every one knew that Captain Ross was about to explore our very track, and thus would test our operations. I am well aware that many have blamed me for sending him any information; but I have not changed my opinion, that it was proper for me to do so. As the Commander of a great undertaking in the cause of science, I was in duty bound to forward that of another Expedition of a
