THE FIRST ALBATROSS EXPEDITION 261 



leons sailing from Manila and sending their treasures 

 overland to Vera Cruz for old Spain. Fort San Diego 

 looks much as it must have in those days, and is of 

 course to-day perfectly useless. It seems strange to me 

 to be here again. I spent six weeks here in '59, a young 

 chap with my whole life before me, and I remember 

 very distinctly the week I passed here again on my way 

 home to be married ; it seems only yesterday. Little did 

 I dream in those days of what I should have to go 

 through. I had everything to live for then, and it has 

 been pretty uphill work for a long time. But I ought 

 not to complain, or at least the world does not think 

 so. I have been in all I have undertaken most success- 

 ful from the world's point of view, but from mine it 

 has lost its charm long ago. 



My trip is now drawing to a close. We sail day after 

 to-morrow and should reach Guaymas the 25th. Then 

 I shall leave the Albatross and shall not be sorry to be 

 wending my way homeward. This will make nearly 

 three months at sea, and that is quite enough for one 

 season. I have, however, been most comfortable. The 

 officers have done all they could to make the cruise a 

 success, and I shall have accomplished a project I had 

 almost given up. It has not been quite what I antici- 

 pated, but has amply repaid me for the time spent* 



On leaving Acapulco the cruise continued up the Gulf 

 of California ; since the character of the bottom, as 

 given on the charts, indicated nothing different from 

 what had been dredged off the coast of Acapulco, the 

 ship steamed as far as Cape Corrientes without making 

 a haul. Here they brought up nothing but mud and 

 decayed vegetable matter, so they kept on up the Gulf 



