V 
500 WE ARRIVE AT SAN FRANCISCO, 
into our numbers and adding daily to the crowded sick- 
list. 
Finally, we ran into moderate weather, then through 
an ordinary gale, and, in the end, awoke one foar/u??j/ 
tine mor-r-ning,” according to Hartman, to find our- 
selves within a few hundred miles of the land. We then 
got up steam to help our sails, and were so fortunate as 
to enter San Francisco during the night of the 19th of 
October. We found the Vincennes and Cooper both in 
ahead of us by a week or more, and some of their oflicers 
boarded us that same night to offer their congratulations 
upon our safety and tell us the news of the last ten 
months. It seemed that very gi'ave fears were beginning 
to be entertained for the welfare of our miserable old tub. 
Who can tell how much we enjoyed those first few 
da^^s in a civilized port? There were our letters of the 
past year to be read, the news of the world to be talked 
over, and some of the finest beef, mutton, and vegetables 
of the world to be attacked : the very recollection of it 
all is glorious. Upon comparing notes as to the accom- 
plishments of the different vessels since our separation) 
it appeared that we had each done more than the other 
two had deemed probable. The Vincennes had touched at 
Petropolowski, skirted the shore of Asia up to Behring’s 
Straits, and there left Lieutenant Brooke, Mr. Kern, and 
a boat’s crew, to make astronomical observations, ■while 
she hei'self pushed on into the Arctic and obtained a 
higher latitude in a northwesterly direction than any pre- 
vious navigatoi'. Finally, she was arrested by vast masses 
of ice, which, combined with the wide-spread existence 
of scurvy among her crew, forced her to return to the 
