INTRODUCTION.
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new state of existence, unincumbered with its cares, and unruffled by its passions and its strifes. But notwithstanding all hia efforts to produce a result which he so much wished, and for which he daily and hourly prayed to his Maker, health, and vigor, and life still clung to him—he could not shake them off. He sometimes contemplated suicide ; but the holy padres, to whom he confessed his thoughts, admonished him that that was damnation: he was a devout Christian, and would not disobey their injunctions. A lay friend, however, (his heir, probably,) with whom he daily consulted on this subject, at last advised him to a course which, he thought, would produce the desired result. It was to make his will, and other arrangements, and then travel into a foreign country. This suggestion was pleasing to our venerable Californian patriarch in search of death, and he immediately adopted it. He visited an adjoining country ; and very soon, in accordance with his plan and his wishes, he took sick and died. In his will, however, he required his heir and executor, upon pain of disinheritance, to transport his remains to his own country and there entomb them. This requisition was faithfully complied with. His body was interred with great pomp and ceremony in his own cemetery, and prayers were rehearsed in all the churches for the rest of his soul. He was happy, it was supposed, in heaven, where, for a long series of years, he had prayed to be ; and his heir was happy that he was there. But what a disappointment! Being brought back and interred in Californian soil, with the health-breathing Californian zephyrs rustling over his grave, the energies of life were immediately restored to his inanimate corpse ! Herculean strength was imparted to his frame, and bursting the prison-walls of death, he appeared before his cliapfallen heir reinvested with all the vigor and beauty of early manhood ! He submitted to his fale, and determined to live his appointed time. Stories similar to the foregoing, although absurd, and so intended to be, no doubt leave their impressions upon the minds of many, predisposed to rove in search of adventures and Eldorados.
A party of gentlemen from Baltimore, bound for  Santa Fe on a pleasure excursion, among whom were Messrs. Hoffman,
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