Inch By Inch, As Fast As The Gale Would Permit, We Made Sail On The
Ship, For The Wind Still Continued A-Head, And We Had Many Days'
Sailing To Get Back To The Longitude We Were In When The Storm
Took Us.
For eight days more we beat to windward under a stiff
top-gallant breeze, when the wind shifted and became variable.
A light south-easter, to which we could carry a reefed topmast
studding-sail, did wonders for our dead reckoning.
Friday, December 4th, after a passage of twenty days, we arrived
at the mouth of the bay of San Francisco.
CHAPTER XXVI
SAN FRANCISCO - MONTEREY
Our place of destination had been Monterey, but as we were to the
northward of it when the wind hauled a-head, we made a fair wind
for San Francisco. This large bay, which lies in latitude 37° 58',
was discovered by Sir Francis Drake, and by him represented to
be (as indeed it is) a magnificent bay, containing several good
harbors, great depth of water, and surrounded by a fertile and
finely wooded country. About thirty miles from the mouth of the
bay, and on the south-east side, is a high point, upon which the
presidio is built. Behind this, is the harbor in which trading
vessels anchor, and near it, the mission of San Francisco, and a
newly begun settlement, mostly of Yankee Californians, called Yerba
Buena, which promises well. Here, at anchor, and the only vessel,
was a brig under Russian colors, from Asitka, in Russian America,
which had come down to winter, and to take in a supply of tallow
and grain, great quantities of which latter article are raised
in the missions at the head of the bay.
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