in mid ocean by the stopping of the engine. We soon
found the cause. The captain was about to try his sails so as to save
coal (which verified the reports about being short of coal). We made
some headway with the sails, but lost it again when the wind subsided,
by the currents of the ocean; so that project was abandoned, and after
some days we put into the port of San Blas, in Mexico, for fuel. There
was no coal there, so we laid in all the wood we could to try and reach
Acapulco (here we could not buy any thing with our $5 gold pieces, but
they were ready to sell for silver). The cholera had been there, they
said, but had left. The priests had had a procession, and, with their
incense boxes, had marched through the streets and driven it out. We
took in all the wood we could get and started to make the port of
Acapulco, the regular coaling port for all the steamers on that coast.
It was Sunday P.M. We could raise fuel enough to make only four knots an
hour. It was an iron steamer. We were burning what there was of the
woodwork of the vessel, for if we could not make the port before dark we
were lost. The officers were not acquainted with the coast. We had not
fuel enough to keep steam up all night, and we would be on the broad
Pacific ocean, six thousand miles across, without the remotest
possibility of meeting any other vessel, without any control of our
steamer, subject to be driven in any direction. I heard the mate talking
to the captain about the propriety of wrecking the vessel and saving
what lives they could, although we were in sight of land. The captain
said the under-tow was so great that none could be saved in that way.
It is twice as great on the Pacific as the Atlantic. There were no
female passengers. One man said he had $10,000 in gold with him; if his
wife and children only had that he would be content to meet his fate,
under the circumstances, but it was hard to leave them without it. All
the passengers had more or less gold, or they would not have been
returning.

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