114 Ex. Doc. No. 41. 



old gun was mounted in this hovel, looking through an embrasure 

 ^o the westward. In this building I was told that I could stow my 

 party and my instruments safely, 



We preferred the open air and the muddy plaza, saturated with 

 all sorts of filth, to this wretched hole; but having no alternative, 

 our chronometers and instruments were stowed in it and guarded 

 by the indefatigable Mr. Bestor. I went off to accept from the hos- 

 pitality of a friend the first bed I had seen in many months. 

 About midnight there was one of those false alarms which ev^.r and 

 anon disturbed this goodly town. Four burly fellows rushed to 

 man this gun, but they found themselves unexpectedly opposed hj 

 Mr. Bestor and two or three of my party. But for this timely re- 

 sistance, my whole little stock of chronometers, barometer, «c., 

 would have been totally de^-troyed. In the morning, through the 

 kind exertions of my friend, Captain Gillespie, I was enabled to 

 get a house with two rooms, the only unoccupied quarters in the 

 town. Foreseeing employment of a different nature, my little 

 party occupied themselves busily in collecting and bringing up 

 the notes of our field-work. 



On the 28th December I received notification from General 

 Kearny to leave my party in San Diego and report to him for dutj, 

 as the acting adjutant general of the forces; Captain Turner, hrt 

 adjutant general, having been assigned by him to the command oi 

 the remnant of the company of the 1st dragoons. 



Mr. Warner was still too unwell, from the wounds received at 

 San Pasqual, to accompany us, or to commence the survey ot 

 San Diego bay. Wishing to have a secure place to deposite mj 

 Instruments, notes, &c., I applied to Captain Dupont to give the^ 

 a place on board the Cyane. He granted this request, and kindly 

 insisted that Mr. Bestor and Mr, Stanly should also go on board, 

 where they could pursue their work unmolested. 



I should be very ungrateful if I did not here make my acknow- 

 ledgments to Captain Dupont, and all the officers of the navy ^^^^ 

 whom we were thrown in contact, for the uniform kindness and tn 

 generous hospitality with which they always supplied our persona 

 wants, and the promptness with which they rendered assistance ifl 

 any public enterprise. . 



My work as topographical engineer maybe considered to enu 

 Ihis place; and that portion of the map embraced between S>^ 

 Diego and the Pueblo or Ciudad de los Angreles is compiled ir<^ 



existing maps, with slight alterations made by myself from a Tie 



of the ground, without the aid of instruments. , -j 



The coast is taken from tld Spanish charts, published in Madrid 

 in 1825, kindly furnished me by Captain Wilkes. The harbor oi 

 San- Diego has been surveyed by Captain, Sir Edward Belcher, o 

 the royal navy, whose determination of the longitude of the ^?^\}^ 

 the south of Punta Loma, published in his " voyage round tfl 

 world," has been adopted, in the absence of time or instrilments 

 enable me to make the requisite observations. t . 



The longitude of the same point by Malispina 117^ iTj a^^ : 



clironometric longitude brought by myself from my last sta^^^ 



