al days. The side of the mountain
towards the north-west, is perfectly flat and perpendicular for more
than half its entire height, as if the prodigious section had been riven
down by the sword of the San Miguel, and hurled with his foot among the
struggling multitude of summits below. So far, the old Padre is accurate
in every particular." In a note opposite this extract, written
perpendicularly on the margin of the manuscript, the writer says, "The
average breadth of the plain on this ridge of the sierra, (that is the
ridge on which they were then encamped for the night,) is nearly half a
mile, and exhibits before us a fine rolling track as far as we can see.
Neither birds, beasts, nor insects--I would there were no such
barranca!" On the tenth he says, "on the brink of the abyss--the
heaviest crags we can hurl down, return no sound from the bottom."

The next entry in the journal is dated May 15th.--"Recovered the body of
Sebastiano and the load of his mule; his brother is building a cross for
his grave, and will not leave it until famished with thirst and hunger.
All too exhausted to think of leaving this our first encampment since we
descended. Present elevation but little above that of the opposite ridge
which we left on the 11th, still, at least 3000 feet to climb." On the
19th, 4 o'clock, P. M., he records, "Myself, Sr. Hammond and Antonio, on
the highest summit, an inclined plain of bare rock, of about fifteen
acres. The Padre again right. Sr. Huertis and others just discernable,
but bravely coming on. Elevation, 9,500 feet. Completely in the clouds,
and all the country below invisible. Senor Hammond already bleeding at
the nose, and no cigar to stop it." At 10 o'clock, the same night, he
writes, "All comfortably asleep but myself and Sr. Hammond, who is going
to take the latitude." Then follows, "He finds the latitude 15 degrees
and 48 minutes _north_." Opposite this, in the margin is written, "the
mean result of three observations of different stars. Intend to take the
longitude to-morrow." Next day, the 20th, he says, "A bright and most
auspicious morning, and all, but poor Antonio, in fine health and
feeling. The wind by compass, N. E., and rolling away a billowy ocean of
mist, toward, I suppose, the Bay of Honduras. Antonio says the Pacific
will be visible within an hour; (present time not given) more and more
of the lower mountains becoming clear every moment. Fancy we already
see the Pacific, a faint yell