It was difficult to arrange for any decided plan of travel, but I intended, in the first instance, to visit the Navy Yards and observe what progress was being made with respect to ships and their armaments; and then to proceed to those parts of America where the principal works of the aboriginal tribes still remain. Finally, I hoped to be able to cross the Continent and go down the Mexican and Guatemalan coasts, and from one of the ports on the Western seaboard, cross Central America from the Pacific to the Atlantic towards Yucatan. Such was the outline of the direction that I proposed to follow, but which would be varied or changed as circumstances might require. We left Liverpool in the Samaria on the 15th of March, 1869, and reached New York late in the evening of the 28th, after having experienced a continuation of head winds and stormy weather, which made our passage across the Atlantic long and tedious. My first care, upon arrival, was to call upon Mr. Henry Grinnell,[1] whose exertions and services in prosecuting, at his own expense, the search for Sir John Franklin and the ships beset in the Arctic ice, are so well known. In the year 1850 Lady Franklin sent her appeal to the President of the United States, in which she urged the Americans, as a kindred people, to help in the enterprise of rescuing our sailors from perishing from cold and starvation in those Northern latitudes. The appeal was not unanswered, but in consequence of the unavoidable delays incidental to obtaining the sanction of Congress for the necessary expenditure, there was much risk of the season becoming too advanced for reaching the channels in time, and that, consequently, a whole year’s work would be lost. It was then that Mr. Grinnell, a leading merchant and shipowner, prepared and fitted out for Arctic service two of his own vessels. These ships, respectively called the “Advance” and the “Rescue,” were officered and manned by the Naval Department and reached the ice in time to do useful work. The fate, however, of Sir John Franklin and his crew was not ascertained, although traces of his winter quarters were discovered. At Washington, I found that Congress was sitting. Political affairs were in an unusually excited condition in consequence of the state of things resulting from the Civil War and the admission of negroes to the franchise. Soon after my arrival I attended the Levée of President Grant, and in the evening dined with our Minister, Mr. Thornton, at the Legation. Several members of the Diplomatic body were present, some of whom I had previously met in Europe.