He came up the river a considerable distance, in the topsail schooner Invincible and made a further advance in his small boats.

The only guide he had to the navigation of the river was Hardy's book, referred to in a previous chapter, which assisted him a good deal.

He arrived at the mouth December 23, 1850.

"The land," he says, "was plainly discernible on both coasts of the gulf, on the California side bold and mountainous, but on the Mexican low and sandy." There could, therefore, never, have been any doubt in the minds of any of those who had previously reached this point as to the character of Lower California.

The Invincible sailed daily up the river with the flood tide, anchoring during the ebb, and they got on very well till the night of January 1, 1851, when the vessel grounded at the ebb, "swung round on her heel, and, thumping violently, was carried by the tide (dragging her anchor) some two or three miles, grounding finally upon the shoal of Gull Island.