In The First Place, It Was A Beautiful Day, And So Warm That We Had
On Straw Hats, Duck Trowsers,
And all the summer gear; and as this
was mid-winter, it spoke well for the climate; and we afterwards
Found that the thermometer never fell to the freezing-point throughout
the winter, and that there was very little difference between the
seasons, except that during a long period of rainy and south-easterly
weather, thick clothes were not uncomfortable.
The large bay lay about us, nearly smooth, as there was hardly a
breath of wind stirring, though the boat's crew who went ashore told
us that the long ground swell broke into a heavy surf upon the beach.
There was only one vessel in the port - a long, sharp brig of about
300 tons, with raking masts and very square yards, and English colors
at her peak. We afterwards learned that she was built at Guayaquil,
and named the Ayacucho, after the place where the battle was fought
that gave Peru her independence, and was now owned by a Scotchman
named Wilson, who commanded her, and was engaged in the trade between
Callao, the Sandwich Islands, and California. She was a fast sailer,
as we frequently afterwards perceived, and had a crew of Sandwich
Islanders on board. Beside this vessel there was no object to break
the surface of the bay. Two points ran out as the horns of the crescent,
one of which - the one to the westward - was low and sandy, and is that
to which vessels are obliged to give a wide berth when running out
for a south-easter; the other is high, bold, and well wooded, and,
we were told, has a mission upon it, called St. Buenaventura, from which
the point is named. In the middle of this crescent, directly opposite
the anchoring ground, lie the mission and town of Santa Barbara, on a
low, flat plain, but little above the level of the sea, covered with
grass, though entirely without trees, and surrounded on three sides
by an amphitheatre of mountains, which slant off to the distance of
fifteen or twenty miles. The mission stands a little back of the town,
and is a large building, or rather a collection of buildings, in the
centre of which is a high tower, with a belfry of five bells; and the
whole, being plastered, makes quite a show at a distance, and is the
mark by which vessels come to anchor. The town lies a little nearer
to the beach - about half a mile from it - and is composed of one-story
houses built of brown clay - some of them plastered - with red tiles on
the roofs. I should judge that there were about an hundred of them;
and in the midst of them stands the Presidio, or fort, built of the
same materials, and apparently but little stronger. The town is
certainly finely situated, with a bay in front, and an amphitheatre
of hills behind.
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