I should not know, from anything
I saw, that she was now a seaport of the United States, a
Part of the
enterprising Yankee nation, and not still a lifeless Mexican town.
At the same old house, where Seņor Noriego lived, on the piazza in
front of the court-yard, where was the gay scene of the marriage
of our agent, Mr. Robinson, to Doņa Anita, where Don Juan Bandini
and Doņa Augustia danced, Don Pablo de la Guerra received me in a
courtly fashion. I passed the day with the family, and in walking
about the place; and ate the old dinner with its accompaniments
of frijoles, native olives and grapes, and native wines. In due
time I paid my respects to Doņa Augustia, and notwithstanding
what Wilson told me, I could hardly believe that after twenty-
four years there would still be so much of the enchanting woman
about her.
She thanked me for the kind and, as she called them, greatly exaggerated
compliments I had paid her; and her daughter told me that all travellers
who came to Santa Barbara called to see her mother, and that she herself
never expected to live long enough to be a belle.
Mr. Alfred Robinson, our agent in 1835-6, was here, with a part of
his family. I did not know how he would receive me, remembering
what I had printed to the world about him at a time when I took
little thought that the world was going to read it; but there was
no sign of offence, only cordiality which gave him, as between us,
rather the advantage in status.
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