PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
585 
At the time of our arrival in Mexico political affairs were very un- CHAP, 
settled, and the property of British merchants was so much endangered 
that I was compelled to accede to a request of the merchants, made Dec. 
through the vice-consul of San Bias, that I would delay my return to 
England, and remain until they could collect their funds, and that I 
would receive them on board for conveyance to Europe. As it would 
require several weeks before this specie could be got together, I pro- 
posed to visit Guaymas, and to examine the eastern coast of the Gulf 
of Cahfornia ; but this was frustrated by the revolt of Bravo, the vice- jau. 
president of Mexico, and by the affairs of the state becoming so dis- 
organized that the merchants further requested me not to quit the 
anchorage until they assumed a less dangerous aspect. 
Shortly after our arrival we began to feel the effects of the un- 
healthy cHmate of San Bias, by several of the seamen being affected 
with intermittent fevers and agues, the common complaints of the 
place, particularly with persons who reside upon low ground, or who 
are exposed to the night air ; and I regret to add that we here lost 
Thomas Moore, one of our most active seamen. 
On the 27 th of January, 1828, the agitation occasioned by the 
revolt had subsided, but unfortunately too late for me to proceed to 
Guaymas. However, as the principal part of the specie was to be 
shipped at Mazatlan, we put to sea a few days earlier than necessary for 
that purpose, that we might examine the Ties Marias and Isabella 
Islands, of which an account wall be found in the Appendix. On the 
3d February w'e reached Mazatlan, a very exposed anchorage, in which Feb. 
ships are obliged to lie so close to the shore that there would be very 
great difficulty in putting to sea with the wind from the W. S. W. to 
S.E. In the course of our survey, a rock having only eleven feet water 
upon it was discovered nearly in the centre of the anchorage, and 
occasioned no little surprise that of the many vessels which had put 
into the port all should have escaped being damaged upon it. Mazatlan 
is more healthy than San Bias, and our people here began to recover 
from the disorders they had contracted at that place. 
F ebruary 7th Having embarked the specie on the 24th, we put to 
sea on our return to San Bias, and ran along the shore with a northerly 
4 F 
