Owing to the disturbances he had the greatest difficulty in obtaining the necessary passports. At last, however, he succeeded, and set off for Vera Cruz with his wife and younger daughter Pauline, who was now seven years old.
He was provided with a guard of soldiers, which, however, proved to be too weak, or, what is far more likely, too faithless, to protect his goods. At a place called Tepeyagualo, in the valley of Rio Frio, the convoy was attacked by brigands, and he himself obliged to lie flat on his face while his baggage was plundered of a thousand ounces of gold--the savings of two and a half years' work. Not only this, but the men seized everything else which was of value: in fact, he was left with practically nothing save a small sum of money which he was carrying in a belt around his body.
After this disastrous experience Garcia and his family made their way to the coast, embarked at Vera Cruz, and finally arrived in Paris, without any financial result to show for all the time they had spent in America. The blow of losing £6000 in cash and all his properties affected him less than most men: his disregard for money and his love of work for its own sake were a byword among his friends.
Upon his return the elder Garcia made a few appearances at the Théâtre Italien in "Don Giovanni" and "Il Barbiere." His voice, however, was no longer what it had been. He was warmly welcomed by his old admirers; but these quickly perceived that his travels and misfortune, if not the advance of age, had much impaired his powers. He himself realised the change, and almost at once retired from the operatic stage, being in his fifty-fifth year, and devoted himself exclusively to the teaching which he had already started in Paris before leaving for America.
Among those who studied under him one may recall Mmes. Ruiz-Garcia, Rimbault, Favelli, and the Countess Merlin, who in later years was to publish a life of Maria Malibran, which can be looked on as little more than a fairy romance woven round a fascinating personality. Then there was Mme. Meric-Lalande, a brilliant stage soprano, who came to him as a natural singer of light opera, and after receiving some stricter training from the old teacher, was highly successful in Vienna, Paris, and the principal opera houses of Italy.