A
couple of hours brought us to the _rancho_ of Senor Jose Dianza, who
received us as a band of pilgrims over the Plains, who, at the hands of
robbers and the elements, had lost everything but life, and helped us
on to the city of the land of gold.
It is needless to detain the reader with the particulars of our return.
They were such only as occur to thousands in the rough and circuitous
transit between San Francisco and New York. We came home by the Isthmus
route, and in ships that ploughed the honest waves. We explained our
absence to our disturbed families and friends as best we might; and
some will remember--and if they do not, they can refresh their
recollection by a reference to the public prints--that several missing
gentlemen of some importance in the world, about that time, suddenly
reappeared upon the stage of action.
We resolved that the whole affair in which we had been engaged should
remain forever buried in oblivion. But time and reflection have wrought
a change with me, though I shall not presume to disturb the veil which
covers my associates. I have come to consider the adventure quite too
good to be lost, and the experiment in aerial navigation, which came so
near proving successful, of too much importance to science to be
suppressed.
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