So Much For Our Petition For The Redress Of Grievances.
The Matter Was However Set Right, For The Mate, After
Allowing the
captain due time to cool off, explained it to him, and at night we
were all called aft
To hear another harangue, in which, of course,
the whole blame of the misunderstanding was thrown upon us. We ventured
to hint that he would not give us time to explain; but it wouldn't do.
We were driven back discomforted. Thus the affair blew over, but the
irritation caused by it remained; and we never had peace or a good
understanding again so long as the captain and crew remained together.
We continued sailing along in the beautiful temperate climate of
the Pacific. The Pacific well deserves its name, for except in the
southern part, at Cape Horn, and in the western parts, near the
China and Indian oceans, it has few storms, and is never either
extremely hot or cold. Between the tropics there is a slight haziness,
like a thin gauze, drawn over the sun, which, without obstructing or
obscuring the light, tempers the heat which comes down with perpendicular
fierceness in the Atlantic and Indian tropics. We sailed well to the
westward to have the full advantage of the north-east trades, and when
we had reached the latitude of Point Conception, where it is usual to
make the land, we were several hundred miles to the westward of it.
We immediately changed our course due east, and sailed in that direction
for a number of days. At length we began to heave-to after dark, for fear
of making the land at night on a coast where there are no light-houses and
but indifferent charts, and at daybreak on the morning of
Tuesday, Jan 13th, 1835, we made the land at Point Conception,
lat 34º 32' N., long 120º 06' W. The port of Santa Barbara, to which
we were bound, lying about sixty miles to the southward of this point,
we continued sailing down the coast during the day and following night,
and on the next morning,
Jan. 14th, 1835, we came to anchor in the spacious bay of Santa Barbara,
after a voyage of one hundred and fifty days from Boston.
CHAPTER IX
CALIFORNIA - A SOUTH-EASTER
California extends along nearly the whole of the western coast of
Mexico, between the gulf of California in the south and the bay of
Sir Francis Drake on the north, or between the 22d and 38th degrees
of north latitude. It is subdivided into two provinces - Lower or
Old California, lying between the gulf and the 32d degree of latitude,
or near it; (the division line running, I believe, between the bay of
Todos Santos and the port of San Diego;) and New or Upper California,
the southernmost port of which is San Diego, in lat. 32º 39', and the
northernmost, San Francisco, situated in the large bay discovered by
Sir Francis Drake, in lat. 37º 58', and called after him by the English,
though the Mexicans call it Yerba Buena. Upper California has the seat
of its government at Monterey, where is also the custom-house, the only
one on the coast, and at which every vessel intending to trade on the
coast must enter its cargo before it can commence its traffic. We were
to trade upon this coast exclusively, and therefore expected to go to
Monterey at first; but the captain's orders from home were to put in
at Santa Barbara, which is the central port of the coast, and wait
there for the agent who lives there, and transacts all the business
for the firm to which our vessel belonged.
The bay, or, as it was commonly called, the canal of Santa Barbara,
is very large, being formed by the main land on one side, (between
Point Conception on the north and Point St. Buena Ventura on the south,)
which here bends in like a crescent, and three large islands opposite
to it and at the distance of twenty miles. This is just sufficient to
give it the name of a bay, while at the same time it is so large and
so much exposed to the south-east and north-west winds, that it is
little better than an open roadstead; and the whole swell of the
Pacific ocean rolls in here before a southeaster, and breaks with
so heavy a surf in the shallow waters, that it is highly dangerous
to lie near to the shore during the south-easter season; that is,
between the months of November and April.
This wind (the south-easter) is the bane of the coast of California.
Between the months of November and April, (including a part of each,)
which is the rainy season in this latitude, you are never safe from it,
and accordingly, in the ports which are open to it, vessels are obliged,
during these months, to lie at anchor at a distance of three miles from
the shore, with slip-ropes on their cables, ready to slip and go to sea
at a moment's warning. The only ports which are safe from this wind
are San Francisco and Monterey in the north, and San Diego in the south.
As it was January when we arrived, and the middle of the south-easter
season, we accordingly came to anchor at the distance of three miles
from the shore, in eleven fathoms water, and bent a slip-rope and
buoys to our cables, cast off the yard-arm gaskets from the sails,
and stopped them all with rope-yarns. After we had done this,
the boat went ashore with the captain, and returned with orders to
the mate to send a boat ashore for him at sundown. I did not go in
the first boat, and was glad to find that there was another going
before night; for after so long a voyage as ours had been, a few hours
is long to pass in sight and out of reach of land.
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