Washingtons, the Lees, and the Maurys, it is our proud boast 

 that the grandeur of their character dims the glory of their 

 achievements. But to return to Maury: there were weighty 

 reasons for his acceptance of service in Mexico; he was now in 

 his sixtieth year and in declining health. His property, accumu- 

 lated during thirty-six years' naval service, had been swept away 

 by the harsh fortunes of war; without a home or an acre of land 

 to cultivate, he must provide for his wife and four minor children, 

 refugees and in need. Moreover, his life was no more jeopardiz- 

 ed in Mexico under the rule of the best of the Hapsburgs than in 

 Virginia under constitutional government. Charles Francis 

 Adams, United States Minister at the Court of St. James, had 

 advised English friends of Maury to counsel him against return- 

 ing to Virginia while passion still held sway in Washington. Were 

 not Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens languishing in pri- 

 son, and were not Mrs. Surratt and Major Wirz doomed to die? 



Maury was soon established in Mexico as Commissioner of 

 Immigration; here his son, Colonel R. L. Maury, soon joined him, 

 and, as secretary to the Commissioner, could carry on the work; 

 this enabled his father to obtain leave to visit his family in Eng- 

 land, and, incidentally, to perform some governmental service in- 

 trusted to him by the Emperor. 



Little did Maury dream when the shores of Mexico faded 

 from sight, as he sailed eastward, that never again would he re- 

 turn to the proud Empire of the Montezumas, to cultivate his cin- 

 chona groves, and to help Mexico along on the rugged road to civ- 

 ilization. But so it was. He had not been long in England before 

 a revolution in Mexico resulted in the tragic death of Maximil- 

 ian ; consequently, the plan of founding a Virginia Colony there 

 was abandoned; but Maury remained two years longer in Eng- 

 land, until conditions in the United States were somewhat im- 

 proved. During those years, his English friends gave him hos- 

 pitable welcome and timely aid; the failure of the bank in which 

 he deposited the funds he brought from Mexico, with the loss of 

 all of his American investments, made him poor indeed; then it 

 was that, at a public dinner in London, he was presented with a 

 testimonial of 3,000 Guineas raised by public subscription. 



Nor were his friends in America less active in his behalf ; they 



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