She Sails To-Day, And I Am Off, Steaming Among The
Great Clippers Anchored In The Harbor, And Gliding Rapidly
Round
the point, past Alcatraz Island, the light-house, and through the
fortified Golden Gate, and bending to the southward,
- All done in
two or three hours, which, in the Alert, under canvas, with head
tides, variable winds, and sweeping currents to deal with, took us
full two days.
Among the passengers I noticed an elderly gentleman, thin, with
sandy hair and face that seemed familiar. He took off his glove
and showed one shrivelled hand. It must be he! I went to him
and said, "Captain Wilson, I believe." Yes, that was his name.
"I knew you, sir, when you commanded the Ayacucho on this coast,
in old hide-droghing times, in 1835-6." He was quickened by this,
and at once inquiries were made on each side, and we were in full talk
about the Pilgrim and Alert, Ayacucho and Loriotte, the California
and Lagoda. I found he had been very much flattered by the praise
I had bestowed in my book on his seamanship, especially in bringing
the Pilgrim to her berth in San Diego harbor, after she had drifted
successively into the Lagoda and Loriotte, and was coming into him.
I had made a pet of his brig, the Ayacucho, which pleased him almost
as much as my remembrance of his bride and their wedding, which I
saw at Santa Barbara in 1836. Doņa Ramona was now the mother of
a large family, and Wilson assured me that if I would visit him
at his rancho, near San Luis Obispo, I should find her still
a handsome woman, and very glad to see me.
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