No Sooner Had We Come
To Anchor, Than The Slip-Rope, And The Other Preparations For
South-Easters, Were Got
Ready; and there was reason enough for it,
for we lay exposed to every wind that could blow, except the
North-west,
and that came over a flat country with a range of more than a
league of water. As soon as everything was snug on board, the
boat was lowered, and we pulled ashore, our new officer, who had
been several times in the port before, taking the place of steersman.
As we drew in, we found the tide low, and the rocks and stones,
covered with kelp and sea-weed, lying bare for the distance of
nearly an eighth of a mile. Picking our way barefooted over these,
we came to what is called the landing-place, at high-water mark.
The soil was as it appeared at first, loose and clayey, and except
the stalks of the mustard plant, there was no vegetation. Just in
front of the landing, and immediately over it, was a small hill,
which, from its being not more than thirty or forty feet high, we had
not perceived from our anchorage. Over this hill we saw three men
coming down, dressed partly like sailors and partly like Californians;
one of them having on a pair of untanned leather trowsers and a red
baize shirt. When they came down to us, we found that they were
Englishmen, and they told us that they had belonged to a small
Mexican brig which had been driven ashore here in a south-easter,
and now lived in a small house just over the hill. Going up
this hill with them, we saw, just behind it, a small, low building,
with one room, containing a fire-place, cooking apparatus, etc., and
the rest of it unfinished, and used as a place to store hides and
goods. This, they told us, was built by some traders in the Pueblo,
(a town about thirty miles in the interior, to which this was the
port,) and used by them as a storehouse, and also as a lodging place
when they came down to trade with the vessels. These three men
were employed by them to keep the house in order, and to look out
for the things stored in it. They said that they had been there
nearly a year; had nothing to do most of the time, living upon beef,
hard bread, and frijoles (a peculiar kind of bean very abundant in
California). The nearest house, they told us, was a Rancho,
or cattle-farm, about three miles off; and one of them went up,
at the request of our officer, to order a horse to be sent down,
with which the agent, who was on board, might go up to the Pueblo.
From one of them, who was an intelligent English sailor, I learned
a good deal, in a few minutes' conversation, about the place, its
trade, and the news from the southern ports.
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