1871.] 297 [Grayson. 



we pulled out of the cove to the bark. Captain Abbott (her cap- 

 tain) treated us with genuine hospitality, and I shall always remem- 

 ber him with grateful feelings. He agreed to land us on the Tres 

 Marias Islands. I prevailed upon him to send the boat for some of 

 my things left behind which I prized the most, particularly the Natu- 

 ral History collections. But when the boat returned nothing could 

 be brought off but the two boxes of specimens ; the little boat came 

 near being stove against the rocks in this last attempt. 



"Thus the expedition was suddenly and unexpectedly brought to 

 an end. It was my intention, had we not been wrecked, to have 

 spent a much longer time in examining this as well as the adjacent 

 Island — but "diis aliter visum.'" Darkness had now begun to shut out 

 from view the lessening shores, as we sped on our course to the 

 Marias. The mountain and clouds were brightly illumined by the 

 flames of the burning grass and brush, which had spread in every 

 direction, recalling to the imagination the long ago, when the volca- 

 noes were in action, and the lurid lava blazed in all its desolation 

 over this solitary Island, where it still remains as these convulsions 

 have left it, in all its primitive grandeur and its wild solitude. Year 

 after year the grass springs up on its hills uncropped by the herd ; 

 the songs of the birds are only heard by their mates ; the fishes 

 gambol and sport in the little bays undisturbed, and old ocean, as in 

 countless centuries past, still roars and foams upon its lonely shore. 



"In three days we reached the Marias, where we remained four 

 days. I made daily excursions in the woods for birds, but found 

 nothing new, but what I had collected on a former visit to this 

 locality. 



"We sailed in a small schooner for San Bias, in order to get a 

 vessel for Mazatlan, where we arrived in twenty-four hours from the 

 Marias, ragged, dirty and without money. This place is noted for the 

 unhealthiness of its climate and the tormenting insects that infest it. 

 The natives, too, have a bad reputation, and it was much against my 

 will to go there, but it could not be avoided, and I cannot help but 

 feel, from the strange coincidents which had transpired, that a mys- 

 terious agency had directed us to this fatal spot, where my beloved 

 son should meet with an untimely and most cruel death, by the rude 

 hand of some unknown assassin. For what cause this shocking deed 

 was committed, and by whom, in this land where the murderer goes 

 free, will in all probability forever remain a profound mystery." 



