Captain Wilks, of the San Jacinto, 1861. American Civil War. ...the hero of the hour in the United States...[who] was returning from the coast of Africa, in command of the San Jacinto, when, hearing at Havannah that the Confederate Commissioners [John Slidell and James M. Mason] intended to take passage in the steamer Trent, he determined to seize them and any despatches they might have with them. In acting as he did he states that he was guided only by his own notions of his duty to his country, and that he had no instructions from his superiors at Washington. [Wilkes had commanded] a naval expedition to explore the countries bordering on the Pacific and Southern Oceans...The results of his expedition were recounted in a voluminous illustrated work entitled "A Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition."...He has since published a work entitled "Western America," which contains statistical and geographical facts and maps relating to the States of the Pacific Coast. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.