288 



MEXICO. 



bound up the arm, he had stopped the artery, as 

 well as the vein, and no blood flowed until he had 

 loosened the bandage — then he relaxed it too 

 much — in short, the operation was perhaps never 

 less skilfully performed. The effect, however, was 

 in the end most satisfactory, for the girl gradual- 

 ly recovered as the blood flowed, till in the course 

 of five minutes, she regained her senses complete- 

 ly. Next day she was quite well ; and thus, in spite 

 of all my endeavours, my reputation as a doctor 

 was as fully established in San Bias, as if I had 

 graduated at Salamanca. 



As the treasure to be shipped on board the 

 Conway came at intervals of a week or ten days, 

 I took advantage of these leisure moments to erect 

 an observatory ; where my assistant Mr Foster^ 

 and myself, repeated the experiments made at the 

 Galapagos. The result gives the length of the 

 seconds pendulum at San Bias, 39.03776 inches, 

 and the ellipticity J 



The commandant at San Bias, greatly to our 

 comfort and happiness, was a remarkably sensible, 

 unprejudiced, and well informed old Spaniard : he 



* See Philosophical Transactions for 1823. 



