May.] 



FARALLONE ISLANDS, 



209 



greatest care is taken of all who are affected with any disease, and 

 every attention is paid to their wants. 



We found lying in the port of Monterey the Spanish ship Asia, of 

 sixty-four guns, which had sailed from the coast of Peru in the month 

 of December, 1824, bound to Old Spain, by the way of Manilla. The 

 Asia was employed to convey home as passengers the ex-viceroy of 

 Peru and suite, many Spanish merchants, and a few troops, returning 

 according to the terms of capitulation after the battle of Ayacucho, 

 which secured the independence of Peru. After passing the Sandwich 

 Islands, in her course to Manilla, a part of the officers and crew rose 

 on the others and took the ship, with a determination to turn back and 

 give her up to the Mexicans. Having thus obtained charge of the 

 vessel, the mutineers navigated her to the island of Guam, chief of the 

 Ladrones, where they landed the viceroy and suite, all the merchants, 

 and a good part of their property. They then steered to the north 

 until they took the fresh westerly wind, when they ran to the eastward 

 for the port of Monterey, where they arrived on Sunday, the 1st day 

 of May, four days before the Tartar. I afterward learned that they 

 left Monterey after taking on board the necessary provisions, and 

 sailed for Acapulco, a port of Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean, at which 

 place they gave themselves up to the Mexican government. 



May 1th. — My object in touching at Monterey was to obtain in- 

 formation of the coast to the north ; but I soon discovered that the 

 inhabitants here knew nothing of the subject, either north or south : I 

 therefore left them as wise as I came. On Saturday, the 7th of May, 

 we got under way, and continued examining the coast to the north and 

 west, with the wind from west-north-west to north-by-east, and fair 

 weather. 



May 1 1th. — On Wednesday, the 1 1th, we arrived at the Farallone 

 Islands, in lat. 37° 41' N., long. 122° 35' W. These are nothing but 

 a cluster of rocky islands, destitute of vegetation. The northernmost, 

 which is the largest, is about two miles in circumference, of an oblong 

 shape, lying east-north-east and west-south-west. On each end is a 

 hill, rising about three hundred feet, and declining to a valley in the 

 centre of the island, forming the appearance, when viewed from the 

 north or south, of a saddle. Many years ago this place was the resort 

 of numerous fur-seal, but the Russians have made such havoc among 

 them that there is scarcely a breed left. 



On this barren rock we found a Russian family, and twenty-three 

 Codiacks, or north-west Indians, with their bark canoes. They were 

 employed in taking sea-leopards, sea-horses, and sea-elephants, for 

 their skins, oil, and flesh ; the latter being jerked for the Russian 

 market, on the north-west coast. At the time of our visit they had 

 about fifty tons of this beef cured, and were then expecting the arrival 

 of a Russian vessel to take off the beef, and leave them a supply of 

 fresh water, there being none on the island. 



This island is of volcanic origin ; most of the rocks have evidently 

 been once in a state of fusion, and the lowland is covered with pumice- 

 stone. Aquatic birds, in considerable variety, resort hither for the 



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