Set sail for Santa Barbara, where we arrived
on Sunday, the 28th. We just missed of seeing the California, for she
had sailed three days before, bound to Monterey, to enter her cargo and
procure her license, and thence to San Francisco, etc. Captain Arthur
left files of Boston papers for Captain T - - -, which, after they had
been read and talked over in the cabin, I procured from my friend
the third mate. One file was of all the Boston Transcripts for
the month of August, 1835, and the rest were about a dozen Daily
Advertisers and Couriers, of different dates. After all, there is
nothing in a strange land like a newspaper from home. Even a letter,
in many respects, is nothing, in comparison with it. It carries you
back to the spot, better than anything else. It is almost equal to
clairvoyance. The names of the streets, with the things advertised,
are almost as good as seeing the signs; and while reading "Boy lost!"
one can almost hear the bell and well-known voice of "Old Wilson,"
crying the boy as "strayed, stolen, or mislaid!" Then there was
the Commencement at Cambridge, and the full account of the
exercises at the graduating of my own class. A list of all
those familiar names, (beginning as usual with Abbot, and ending
with W., ) which, as I read them over, one by one, brought up their
faces and characters as I had known them in the various scenes of
college life. Then I imagined them upon the stage, speaking their
orations, dissertations, colloquies, etc., with the gestures and
tones of each, and tried to fancy the manner in which each would
handle his subject, *****, handsome, showy, and superficial; *****,
with his strong head, clear brain, cool self-possession; *****,
modest, sensitive, and underrated; *****, the mouth-piece of the
debating clubs, noisy, vaporous, and democratic; and so following.
Then I could see them receiving their A. Bs. from the dignified,
feudal-looking President, with his "auctoritate mihi commissâ,"
and walking off the stage with their diplomas in their hands;
while upon the very same day, their classmate was walking up
and down California beach with a hide upon his head.
Every watch below, for a week, I pored over these papers, until I was
sure there could be nothing in them that had escaped my attention,
and was ashamed to keep them any longer.
Saturday, March 5th. This was an important day in our almanac,
for it was on this day that we were first assured that our voyage
was really drawing to a close. The captain gave orders to have
the ship ready for getting under weigh; and observed that there
was a good breeze to take us down to San Pedro. Then we were not
going up to windward. Thus much was certain, and was soon known,
fore and aft; and when we went in the gig to take him off, he shook
hands with the people on the beach, and said that he never expected
to see Santa Barbara again.
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