248 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



of the affair until we reached Mazatlan a month 

 afterwards, too late to be of any assistance. 

 But the most extraordinary thing was, that two 

 days after passing San Jose, the American mail 

 steamer " Costa Bica," passed us on her way to 

 San Francisco. She had left St. Jose the day 

 before, and the passengers on board of her were 

 desirous of communicating with us, and inform- 

 ing me of the outrage ; they had in fact a letter 

 for me on the subject, but for some unaccount- 

 able reason the captain of the vessel passed on 

 without taking any more notice than the usual 

 ceremony of dipping his colours. Owing to this 

 unfortunate blunder it was several weeks before 

 a man-of-war reached St. Jose to demand satis- 

 faction for the outrage and the moral effect 

 which would have been produced by the 

 appearance of the English flag within forty- 

 eight hours of the perpetration of the insult 

 was lost. 



I felt it my duty to report the conduct of the 

 commander of the " Costa Bica " (so contrary 

 to the usual courtesy of the captains of mail 



