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30G HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.

harbours of the province of Shantung. Daring the progress of
these surveys, many discoveries were made of the highest im-
portance to the navigation of those seas, and points and posi-
tions of objects fixed with accuracy, which had long been
desiderata from the extreme want of correctness in all former
charts.
In 1820 the surveys of the China seas were closed, and the
vessels returned to Bombay. The work was not only of an
arduous character, but great tact and caution were necessary,
for fear of giving umbrage to the Chinese Government. The
operations, when conducted near the shore, were closely watched,
and at many of the harbours, particularly Amo_y, Chinese war-
boats cruised about or anchored near the ships ; the same
jealousy was also exhibited off Formosa and Corea ; hence the
surveyor's exertions were frequently cramped, as they had
received strict injunctions to avoid giving offence.
Captain Ross' charts, which were published, as they were
completed, by the Court of Directors, were incorporated into a
general chart by Captain Horsburgh. Though njade more
than half a century ago, with inferior instruments, and at a
time when the science of marine surveying was in its infancy,
these surveys have stood the test of revision in our day, and
Admiral Sir Richard Collinson—than whom a more competent
authority does not exist—expressed to us the surprise he ex-
perienced at their accuracy when going over the same ground
dtu'ing the China War. Captain Ross' health was so much
shattered by exposure during the fourteen years over which
the survey lasted, that he was only just enabled to complete
the work, for which he received a grant of .£1,500 from the
Court of Directors.*
In 1809, the Court of Directors established a Marine Survey
Department in Bengal, and Captain Wales, of the Marine, was
appointed the first Surveyor-General. He was an officer of
rare professional and scientific attainments. His father, Mr.
John Wales, accompanied tlie great circumnavigator. Captain
Cook, in the capacity of astronomer, in his first and second
voyages, and was afterwards elected Master of Christ's Hos-
pital ; from him the son imbibed that taste for astronomy
which gained him a considerable reputation in India, while his
acquirements in the sister science of marine surveying, were
the means of raising him to his present eminence. But Cap-
tain Wales did not long survive his appointment, and died in
the following year, when he was succeeded by Captain Charles
* We find in the Keoords of the India Office that at a Special General Court
of Proprietors of the East India Company, held on the 4th of April, 1821, con-
firmation was given to tlie Resolution of the General Court of the preceding 21st
of March, approving the Resolution of the Court of Directors of the 17th of
January, in which this grant of £1,500 was made to Captain Daniel Ross for his
surveys.