You can imagine with what anxiety we watched every indication of the coast to see if there was any chance of us nearing the port.  Finally, toward night, we saw a high projection of land on the coast, and that was predicted that it was the entrance to the port.  If we could reach that point before dark, we might be saved.  The passengers went to work to break up any thing for the fires that would make steam.  The captain made no objections, but told them to burn all woodwork on the vessel to save their lives.  At dark we reached the point we had in view, and it was fortunate for us that it was the entrance to the port.  As the vessel turned to enter, you could see, coming over the waters of the ocean, a tropical storm, accompanied with wind, thunder and lightning.  Twenty minutes later it would have reached us, and we would have been lost.  As soon as we got safely in port (and it was very dark), I can hear now, in imagination, the sound of the anchor as it was let down in the water, which assured our entire safety.  It thundered and lightninged, and blowing a high gale, which was music in our ears, as we knew we were out of danger, and feeling the supreme gratification of knowing what we had escaped.  Blessed to us was the high mountains which surrounded the port.  The entrance to it is narrow, but when you get inside it is one of the safest harbors in the world, being perfectly land-locked.  The next day opened on a happy lot of passengers.  I felt as if I was commencing life anew.  We went ashore expecting to be there several days, as they proposed to take in a full supply of coal.  This place had been once quite a city, but many years ago had been partly destroyed by an earthquake.  It was said that the water went out of the bay most to the tops of the mountains, and then reacted to its usual level in the harbor; that there was a French ship carried up to the sides of the mountains, and when the water reacted, carried back in safety in the harbor.  Hundreds of buildings were destroyed, the ruins of which are now visible where the city once extended.

I was introduced to General Alvarado.  He was the most prominent man in Mexico, on the Pacific coast, at that time, and afterward became very prominent in the public affairs of his country.  On our return to the vessel that evening there was quite an excitement on board.  Among the passengers was a party of three who had been quite successful in Sacramento in the bottling of soda and summer beer, and peddling it out through the city.  They had picked up by chance an old acquaintance from Waterford who belonged to an aristocratic family there, and by his habits of dissipation was a mortification to them.  So when the California excitement broke out, they furnished him the money to go to the gold regions.  It would either reform him or they would get rid of him.  Of course, such men were no good in California, and he had spent his money and wanted to return.  These men came across him and told him they were going