a rider on the leader. No other sort of conveyance was seen in Havana at that time. No doubt great changes have taken place in Cuban towns within í last half century.

Previous to our arrival in New York a meeting was called in the cabin of the steamer for the purpose of appointing a committee, whose duty it should be to employ counsel, and, if so advised, to commence suit against the steamship company for damages caused by our detention at Aspenwall. Quite a number of business men from San Francisco and other California towns going East to purchase goods, claimed to have suffered loss. I was appointed on that committee, and, upon our arrival in New York City, we consulted John Van Buren, who, after a full discussion of the matter, advised that the delay and expense before reaching a judgment would not justify commencing an action.

John Van Buren was the son of President Martin Van Buren, and was popularly termed "Prince John." He was appointed Attorney-General by President Pierce. He was a fine specimen of physical manhood, and when observed walking on Broadway, was a head taller than ordinary men. His father, whom I saw when he was a Presidential candidate in 1840, was short and stout. (My first Presidential vote was cast for Martin Van Buren in the year 1848.) John received the title of "Prince" through having visited England, with the view of paying his addresses to Queen Victoria, then in her nineteenth year. He danced with her at a court ball, and ever after his return home was called "Prince John." I distinctly remember the circumstance of his first visit to England.

Victoria's choice fell upon Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg Gotha, a man of high character and noble quali

ties.

After one week spent in New York I departed with my wife and child for my home in Illinois, and eventually located in Minnesota until after the death of my parents, when I returned to remain permanently in California.

Before bidding a final adieu to my readers, I wish to express the hope that they may find as much pleasure in perusing the foregoing pages as I have had in recording the incidents they contain and the historical facts I have endeavored to correctly set forth. Let us cherish the memories of the past, and the grand achievements of those who have labored and sacrificed to make our State and nation the home of the libertyloving and oppressed of all nations. The only factor of imperialism contemplated by our government is to carry a higher civilization to the less favored than ourselves. I believe in the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of all our race and the Fatherhood and Motherhood of God-the two elements from which flows the life of all, whether animate or inanimate. Let those of the younger generation on whom will devolve the grave and weighty responsibilities of perpetuating the civil and religious liberty bequeathed to us by our forefathers, and made sacred by their blood, discharge with fidelity all their obligations, guiding to a new and nobler life and arousing high motives and holy aims, thus leading in the formation of moral, intellectual and christian character.

The second century of our national life can in no respect be a repetition of the first. Every age has its

own work to do and its own problems to solve. Happy the age that can call strength and wisdom its own; full of woe and trouble if it be beset with weakness and folly. No one can look back upon the first century of our nation and fail to see a constant progress, and a progress, on the whole, for good. It is for the growth of the present, understanding the work of the past, to be strong and wise to do the work of a new age, the beginning of which is now with us, but the end of which no man can see..

CHAPTER XXVII.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE SUFFERINGS OF A PARTY OF ARGONAUTS WHO WERE COmpelled to ABANDON THEIR VESSEL "THE DOLPHIN' ON THE PENINSULA OF LOWER CALIFORNIA, AND MAKE THEIR WAY ON FOOT TO SAN DIEGO.

The incidents contained in the following narrative have been obtained from various authentic sources. They are a part of the history of that wild and anomalous rush of half a century ago of those fearless adventurers who sought these distant shores in search of the elusive Golden Fleece. A short account of the company that sailed in the schooner "San Blazina" from Mazatlan, and landed at Cape St. Lucas was published in the Overland Monthly in September, 1875.

As the winter of 1849 advanced the excitement caused by the discovery of gold in California continued to increase. At the Isthmus of Panama two or three thousand persons were collected waiting transportation. Every craft that could float was engaged at an extraordinary price and fitted up for the long voyage. Only small sailing vessels at that time were plying the waters of the Pacific for passenger traffic. They set sail from Panama overcrowded like a city electric car at the hour when the clerks and operatives are hurrying to their homes.