In A Few Minutes Captain T - - -, With Two
Gentlemen And One Female, Came Down, And We Got Ready To Go
Off.
They had a good deal of baggage, which we put into the bows of
the boat, and then two
Of us took the señora in our arms, and waded
with her through the water, and put her down safely in the stern.
She appeared much amused with the transaction, and her husband was
perfectly satisfied, thinking any arrangement good which saved his
wetting his feet. I pulled the after oar, so that I heard the
conversation, and learned that one of the men, who, as well as I
could see in the darkness, was a young-looking man, in the European
dress, and covered up in a large cloak, was the agent of the firm
to which our vessel belonged; and the other, who was dressed in the
Spanish dress of the country, was a brother of our captain, who had
been many years a trader on the coast, and had married the lady who
was in the boat. She was a delicate, dark-complexioned young woman,
and of one of the best families in California. I also found that
we were to sail the same night. As soon as we got on board,
the boats were hoisted up, the sails loosed, the windlass manned,
the slip-ropes and gear cast off; and after about twenty minutes
of heaving at the windlass, making sail, and bracing yards, we were
well under weigh, and going with a fair wind up the coast to Monterey.
The Loriotte got under weigh at the same time, and was also bound up
to Monterey, but as she took a different course from us, keeping the
land aboard, while we kept well out to sea, we soon lost sight of her.
We had a fair wind, which is something unusual when going up, as the
prevailing wind is the north, which blows directly down the coast;
whence the northern are called the windward, and the southern the
leeward ports.
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