We Had Heard Much Of This Place, From
The Lagoda's Crew, Who Said It Was The Worst Place In California.
The shore is rocky, and directly exposed to the south-east, so that
vessels are obliged to slip and run
For their lives on the first
sign of a gale; and late as it was in the season, we got up our
slip-rope and gear, though we meant to stay only twenty-four hours.
We pulled the agent ashore, and were ordered to wait for him,
while he took a circuitous way round the hill to the mission,
which was hidden behind it. We were glad of the opportunity to
examine this singular place, and hauling the boat up and making
her well fast, took different directions up and down the beach,
to explore it.
San Juan is the only romantic spot in California. The country
here for several miles is high table-land, running boldly to the shore,
and breaking off in a steep hill, at the foot of which the waters of the
Pacific are constantly dashing. For several miles the water washes
the very base of the hill, or breaks upon ledges and fragments of
rocks which run out into the sea. Just where we landed was a small
cove, or "bight," which gave us, at high tide, a few square feet of
sand-beach between the sea and the bottom of the hill. This was
the only landing-place. Directly before us, rose the perpendicular
height of four or five hundred feet. How we were to get hides down,
or goods up, upon the table-land on which the mission was situated,
was more than we could tell. The agent had taken a long circuit,
and yet had frequently to jump over breaks, and climb up steep
places, in the ascent. No animal but a man or monkey could get up
it. However, that was not our look-out; and knowing that the agent
would be gone an hour or more, we strolled about, picking up shells,
and following the sea where it tumbled in, roaring and spouting,
among the crevices of the great rocks. What a sight, thought I, must
this be in a south-easter! The rocks were as large as those of Nahant
or Newport, but, to my eye, more grand and broken. Beside, there
was a grandeur in everything around, which gave almost a solemnity
to the scene: a silence and solitariness which affected everything!
Not a human being but ourselves for miles; and no sound heard but
the pulsations of the great Pacific! and the great steep hill rising
like a wall, and cutting us off from all the world, but the "world of
waters!" I separated myself from the rest and sat down on a rock,
just where the sea ran in and formed a fine spouting horn.
Compared with the plain, dull sand-beach of the rest of the coast,
this grandeur was as refreshing as a great rock in a weary land.
It was almost the first time that I had been positively alone - free
from the sense that human beings were at my elbow, if not talking
with me - since I had left home. My better nature returned strong
upon me. Everything was in accordance with my state of feeling,
and I experienced a glow of pleasure at finding that what of poetry
and romance I ever had in me, had not been entirely deadened by the
laborious and frittering life I had led. Nearly an hour did I sit,
almost lost in the luxury of this entire new scene of the play in
which I had been so long acting, when I was aroused by the distant
shouts of my companions, and saw that they were collecting together,
as the agent had made his appearance, on his way back to our
boat.
We pulled aboard, and found the long-boat hoisted out, and nearly
laden with goods; and after dinner, we all went on shore in the
quarter-boat, with the long-boat in tow. As we drew in, we found
an ox-cart and a couple of men standing directly on the brow of the
hill; and having landed, the captain took his way round the hill,
ordering me and one other to follow him. We followed, picking our
way out, and jumping and scrambling up, walking over briers and
prickly pears, until we came to the top. Here the country stretched
out for miles as far as the eye could reach, on a level, table surface;
and the only habitation in sight was the small white mission of San
Juan Capistrano, with a few Indian huts about it, standing in a
small hollow, about a mile from where we were. Reaching the brow
of the hill where the cart stood, we found several piles of hides,
and Indians sitting round them. One or two other carts were coming
slowly on from the mission, and the captain told us to begin and
throw the hides down. This, then, was the way they were to be got
down: thrown down, one at a time, a distance of four hundred
feet! This was doing the business on a great scale. Standing on
the edge of the hill and looking down the perpendicular height,
the sailors,
- "That walk upon the beach,
Appeared like mice; and our tall anchoring bark
Diminished to her cock; her cock a buoy
Almost too small for sight."
Down this height we pitched the hides, throwing them as far out
into the air as we could; and as they were all large, stiff,
and doubled, like the cover of a book, the wind took them, and they
swayed and eddied about, plunging and rising in the air, like a kite
when it has broken its string. As it was now low tide, there was
no danger of their falling into the water, and as fast as they came
to ground, the men below picked them up, and taking them on their
heads, walked off with them to the boat.
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