PERSONAL AOCOUNT. 



5 



At the various conferences of the joint commissionj the mode of conducting the survey was 

 discussed ; and it was agreed to determine the line hy astronomical methods, us the only mode hy 

 which Ave could do so correctly and within our means. Although rrnt then a memher of tho 

 joint commission, I "was invited to their consultations; and my linowledgc of the country, 

 derived from a previous exploration, was brought into requisition. 



I would here he doing injustice to Colonel Weller, the United States commissioner, and 

 General Conde, the Mexican commissioner, if I did not place their conduct in contrast with 

 what suhscquently happened, hy commending the just and enlarged views which guided their 

 early conferences^ and the intelligence and liberality with which all suggestions for the guidance 

 of the scientific operations of the commission were received and ado2)ted l>y those two gentle- 

 men. 



It will be seen by those conversant witli geodetic matters, that the determination I had 

 undertaken was of no ordinary kind, and required for its success the most accurate and elaborate 

 observations, and a skilful application of those observations by analytic formulae, involving the 

 figure of the earth and other elements, a perfect knowledge of which has not ycL hecn attained, 

 although researches upon the subjoft have occupied the minds of the great astronomers ; and 

 the last half century has seen their labors embodied, and our knowledge brought very near 

 perfection, by the beautiful analysis of Bess'el, and the successful application of that analysis 

 by Professor A. D. Bache. 



An error in the latitude or longitude of either extremity, of a few seconds, would produce a 

 great departure of the line from the point it was intended to strike ; the utmost precision was, 

 therefore, necessary to be observed in all determinations connected with the line. 



In this operation I looked for little or no aid from the Mexican commission, for although 

 composed of well educated and scientific men, their instruments were radically defective. Our 

 determinations, after being re-observed and re-computed by the Mexican commission, were 

 received by them without correction ; and the actual tracing of the line on the ground by the 

 two parties, operating in different directions from the two extremities of the line, showed their 

 correctness. When the parties met on the desert, they were found to be bo nearly on the 

 same line, that the difference might as properly be attributed to the inaccuracy of prolong- 

 ing straight lines over such vast and almost impassable tracts, as to error in the original 

 direction. 



The elaborate observations and computations by Avhich the result was arrived at, will be 

 found in their proper place. 



It was in the month of September, while engaged in this dreary and thankless work, that 

 intelligence was received that Colonel Weller was removed, and Mr. J. C. Fremont was 

 substituted. This official, although he accepted the appointment, afterwards declined it, 

 and never joined the commission. At this time Colonel Weller was absent at the north, 

 engaged in the fruitless task (f raising funds. About the same time, intelligence reached our 

 hitherto quiet and secluded camp, of the successful accumulation of wealth by many who had 

 gone to the gold region without a dollar in their pockets. News caraC; too, that was afterwards 

 confirmed, that Colonel Weller's drafts had been protested, his disbursements repudiated, and 

 himself denounced as a defaulter ; when, at that very time, as the settlement of his accounts 

 afterwards showed, he was in advance to the government. 



The wages of common laborers employed at the port of San Diego suddenly rose to ^150 per 



month, and of carpenters to $10 per day. Subsistence of every kind rose in proportion ; the 



