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. We spent the day
on board in the usual avocations; but as this was the first time we
had been without the captain, we felt a little more freedom, and looked
about us to see what sort of a country we had got into, and were to
spend a year or two of our lives in.
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