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594 Guaymas to take the command of the expedition upon its arrival. Unfortunately, it was but too soon ascertained that the heat and the rocky bottom together, prevented the diving-bell from acting at any thing like the depth to which the native miners were accustomed to descend. One damaged pearl was the result of the first cruize, which lasted six weeks; and after a second attempt, equally long and equally unsuccessful, the scheme was abandoned as utterly hopeless. No blame attaches to the gentleman entrusted with the management in Mexico: the fault lay in the principle, which was not properly inquired into here; and its failure may serve as an additional proof of the risk incurred by the application of new theories to the opposite hemisphere, where any miscalculation in the first instance must lead to disappointment, and may be attended with ruinous expence.

When I left Mexico, Lieutenant Hardy had not returned from the North. He was said to be wandering amongst the savage tribes of the Pimeria Alta, with whom he had contrived to establish a friendly intercourse; and he will probably in this way acquire a knowledge of a country hitherto unexplored by any white. A taste for such investigations has always been a remarkable feature in this gentleman's character. A few years ago, being out of employment, he took a passage on board a merchant-vessel to the vicinity of the Tierra del Fuego, (near Cape Horn,) where he was landed amongst the