my all; and think what a plight would mine have been on "Cape Disappointment," deprived of everything-. You will see the account of this disaster in the newspaper.[1]
Farewell. I am daily, in recollection, with you and your family, though so unfortunate as to be divided from you by half the diameter of the globe; still the thought of you affords me, in my lonely walks, an inexhaustible source of delight.
I thank Mr. Murray and Dr. Scouler for their kind letters; to both I mean to write in the spring, and shall send some articles of Comparative Anatomy to the latter.
- To Dr. Hooker.
Monterey, Upper California, Nov. 23, 1831.
In the absence of all individuals with kindred feelings, who can participate in our pleasures and console us in adversity, how cheering is the task of writing to them, and more especially when we have been long deprived of their conversation, and severed by a space of no less than half the diameter of the world! Greater still, however, is the delight with which the solitary traveller hears of the welfare of those who are dear to his remembrance in his native land. I am not ashamed to say that this pleasure stimulates me to exertion and lightens my labour. Though I have not written to you since last year, I am daily with you in thought, and were it not that I sometimes persuade myself that my feeble exertions in this country may, ere long, yield pleasure to my friends in enabling them to look at its beautiful plants, I could gladly return home, to insure you in person of my regard.
I have had only one letter from you, dated on "Christmas-day, 1829," for which I am abundantly thankful. From no other person have I received any news, and shall therefore trouble no one else with my scribbling.
On the 22d of December last (1830) I arrived here by sea, from the Columbia, and obtained leave of the Territorial Government to remain for the space of six months, which has been nearly extended to twelve, as the first three months were occupied in negociating this affair, which was finally effected to my satisfaction. I shall now endeavour to give you a brief sketch of my walks in California.
Upper California extends from the Port of St. Diego, lat. 32° 30' to lat. 43° N.. a space of six hundred and ninety miles from North to South. The interior is but partially known. Such parts of the country as I have seen are highly diversified by hills, covered with Oaks, Pines, Chestnuts, and Laurels, extensive plains, clothed with a rich sward of
- ↑ The Isabella, Captain Ryan, ran aground on Sand Island in 1830, and was abandoned by the crew. Bancroft's History of Oregon, v. I, p. 41. -Ed. Quaterly.
