The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1866-01-11

on which Bolivar planted bis artillery
and .scoppelIed the surrender Of tho
city. IA II
About half past eleven on the 9th
we went aboard tie coed steamship
Golden City. i was very agreeably
surprised to find it far superior to the
Ocean Qneen. 1t is much larger than
the boat on the Atlantic side, and is
gotten up on o scale so farin advance
of Easter n, things that ,beginVto take
some stock in what Californians call
Pacific enterprise" Thegong sound
cd for dinner, and here again / noticed
the difference in the two boats--cer-
tainly in favor of the Golden City,
though / must confess that the table is
far behind our Western steamboats,.
While we were at dinner the ship
steamed out into The great Pacific.
We hugged the shore, for which | as.
sure you 1 felt very grateful; All
along tho coast there was magnificent
mountain scenery, pleasantly diversi-
fed with beautiful little valleys; but,
for all practical purposes it might as
well havo been barren waste, for we
saw scarcely any evidences that this
beautiful country, rich in mineral and
undeveloped agricultural wealth, was
inhabited. Occasionally we would see
q little cluster Of half dozen. bamboo
huts, the property of native Indians.
Other than this we did not see the
merest indication of a settlement nn.
til we arrived at
Accdpulco-a Mexican town Of great
antiquity, now in possession Of the
French. 1t has a beautiful little land
locked harbor said to be the best on
this coast To the North and East are
high mountains completely shutting
|it off from the interior, except by
narrow pass W hich is held by the Mex.
icans-so that the French got very
little good out of their temporary pos.
session of the place. Sa
In the harbor there were a couple of
French vessels and an American man
Of war. / had a very poor opportunity
Of seeing the place as we didn't get
there till about z o'clock P, NJ, on the
Sd of October, and we left it early next
morning. John and Went and i hi.
red some of the natives to take us
ashore. We knocked about the town
TIL about 2 o'clock at night and then
returned to the boat.
AS VIC steamed out in the morning
the French war vessels saluted our
ship by lowering their flag three times
to which our vessel promptlyreplied by
a similar maneuver with the stars and
stripes. can assure you that thiswa
dono simply as matter of nautical
etiquette and not from inclination, and
to those who heard the grumbiing of
our Captain as he was obliged to sa.
lutte JOHNNY Crepand. it looked as il he
had much rather give them a prac.
tical lesson in the Monroe doctrinel
We were about twenty-six hours in
going from Acapulco to Manzanillo.
A few days before there had been ono
Of lhe most terrible storms ever known
on this coast. Had .wo been one day
further advanced on our Journey, we
would undoubtedly have encountered
it. Thanks to- the slow old Ocean
Queen. aSiH'v a1ps.4 Dij leYl2"5 b"
Though we were completely out of
the range Of tho wind yet we felt the
effects of the storm II sent us a heavy
sea which gave the shiparolling mo.
tion, and as a matter of course, made
me sick. .u.1. Et -aib.i-1s, ,il
In my youthful days, in that land
where tho aqueous elomont is hardly
as abundant as it is hercabouts, l re-
member that my ideas of water seldom
extended above and were almost uni
versally associated with dams, (mill
dams, of course) AS the waves rolled
higher l got sicker and lost great
deal Of my respect for this "wide waste
of waters" likewise some OF my din.
nor. and from sheer force of youthful
habit above mentioned, Imeptally as
sociated the briny ocean with so many
DAM (ns that it is likely to insure me
a very unhealthy hereafter. At Man
zanilo we stopped about 36 hours ta-
king in coal l'and water to last us to
San Francisco. The rest Of the trip
was not very interesting. Ono day on
a ship sjust like another, and the nov
city wouldn't last us clear through.
On tho 18th of Octoberwe landed
in San Francisco. 1 shall no. attempt
to describe the place from the simple
fact that ] couldn't Staid in San
Francisco two days ard one night
and turned my face eastward, Took
the stage line over the mountains and
began to travel toward homo again.
Unfortunately l went oycr. the noun
tains in the night. / arrived in Car
son on the 18th of October, just ono
month from tho day left New York.
Your Son, loz,
efmll CHAS. D.. CLARKE.