IN THE PACIFIC. 247 



of decaying vegetable matter from the man- 

 grove swamps ; presently our upper sails would 

 feel the gentle air, which, gradually freshening, 

 would carry us away from the land to an offing 

 by daybreak, when this wind in its turn died 

 away. "We found that the land-breeze was not 

 nearly so regular as the other, and sometimes it 

 did not come at all. 



On the 23rd April we were off St. Jose de 

 Guatemala, and stood in till within a quarter of 

 a mile of the pier ; the people on shore evidently 

 expected us to anchor, but as we had no object 

 in doing so, and moreover the Admiral had 

 expressed himself verbally to me that he saw 

 no necessity for our going there, we tacked and 

 stood out to sea again. As it happened, it was 

 most unfortunate that we did not anchor, for 

 the very next morning a scandalous and cruel 

 outrage was perpetrated on Mr. Magee, the 

 acting British vice-consul. Of course no one 

 could have foreseen this, but had we touched at 

 San Jose that night in all probability it would 

 never have occurred ; as it was we heard nothing 



