Mellowed By The Distance, And Heard Alone, At
Night, I Thought It Was The Most Melancholy, Boding Sound I Had
Ever Heard.
Through nearly all the night they kept it up, answering
one another slowly, at regular intervals.
This was relieved by the
noisy coati, some of which came quite near to my quarters, and
were not very pleasant neighbors. The next morning, before sunrise,
the long-boat came ashore, and the hides were taken off.
We lay at San Pedro about a week, engaged in taking off hides
and in other labors, which had now become our regular duties.
I spent one more day on the hill, watching a quantity of hides
and goods, and this time succeeded in finding a part of a volume
of Scott's Pirate, in a corner of the house; but it failed me at a
most interesting moment, and I betook myself to my acquaintances on
shore, and from them learned a good deal about the customs of the
country, the harbors, etc. This, they told me, was a worse harbor
than Santa Barbara, for south-easters; the bearing of the headland
being a point and a half more to windward, and it being so shallow
that the sea broke often as far out as where we lay at anchor.
The gale from which we slipped at Santa Barbara, had been so bad a
one here, that the whole bay, for a league out, was filled with the
foam of the breakers, and seas actually broke over the Dead Man's
island.
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