ABSTRACT
For a great many reasons our stay in Acapulco was most agreeable. Not only because all the nearby mountains, which had been parched by the Sun last April, were now clothed in beautiful green and showed no sign of aridity and burning, but also because our arrival in this port also marked the end of a considerable part of our work, the reunion of absent companions, and the imminent departure from this coast. Nor did we appreciate it any less for the ease of unloading the ships at this place, the convenience of the observatory, the safety of the anchorage and the difficulty of desertion, all of which seemed to offer an unusual degree of rest and tranquillity. The purposes we intended for this stay, which would necessarily be at least two months long, were equally important. To the above-mentioned return of absent officers and the receipt of the money and flour we had asked for from San Blas must be added arranging the material from the past cruise, fitting out the schooner to be sent to the coast of Teguantepeque [Tehuantepec] and Guatemala, preparing a large quantity of salt pork, making the necessary repairs to the boats and casks, and, lastly, performing reliable repetitions of the pendulum experiments, 1 the results of which, during the previous stay in April, did not satisfy us at all when referred to the observations made in Port Mulgrave, Nootka and Monterey.
