Foreign Consuls and party were entertained on board. Saluted them on leaving. [Sidenote: Dec. 9.] Sent launch in charge of Lieutenant Oldfield to communicate with merchants at Guyamas. The pinnace in charge of C. H. Johnstone, mid, left for San Blaas. At Mazatlan we moored head and stern on account of tides, with no room to swing. Ciervo Island, close by, is a convenient place, on which we repaired our boats and landed the blacksmith’s forge, the men working under the eye of the officers on board. The centre of the island was tall bush, so that the opposite side could not be seen except from the masthead. [Illustration: _Sharks at Mazatlan._] [Sidenote: Dec. 22.] Departed this life George Fuller, A.B. He had been long lingering, and had an extraordinary twist in his backbone. He was buried at the back of the island with due honours. I was kindly entertained and had a room on shore, but by day was much away in the gig. [Sidenote: Dec. 24.] In the morning the First Lieutenant found the boatswain missing, and, later, the doctor. He began to smell a rat, but thought it advisable to say nothing. The dingey too was missing. On my coming on board Bowyear told me the surgeon, John Crawford, on hearing from his assistant of the death and burial of the poor fellow, whose backbone he coveted, was so excited that Bowyear stated that the ship’s company would not like to have the body disturbed; but the doctor was pertinacious, promising that he could manage it without anybody knowing. At midnight he and the boatswain landed in the dingey and hauled the small boat up on the beach. [Sidenote: Dec. 25.] When I got on board, at muster, nothing had been seen of either the dingey or the boatswain. At noon an American schooner, sailing near us with a cargo of sheep, hailed. Stating he “guessed” he had picked up one of our boats at sea, and casting off the painter, we received our dingey. Doctor and boatswain hid till midnight and got on board unseen. The lagoons which succeed one another for several miles in a line with the coast to the northward were full of wild game. It is difficult to imagine prettier shooting. The water is not above three or four feet deep, and sufficiently wide to enable a gun on each side to drive the game. Care should be taken to drop your birds on the land, as alligators are in possession of the water. One of the midshipmen and myself bagged fifty-two couple of ducks of various sorts in an afternoon. Snipe are also plentiful. To get at the river there is an extensive bar to cross, which troubled our boats till they got used to it. CHAPTER XLVII _MÆANDER_ [Sidenote: 1851. Mazatlan, Jan. 1.] Weighed and made sail, running to the southward to meet the pinnace, expected from San Blaas with treasure. [Sidenote: Jan. 2.]