We had now finished all our business at
this port, and it being Sunday, we unmoored ship and got under
weigh, firing a salute to the Russian brig, and another to the
Presidio, which were both answered.
The commandant of the Presidio,
Don Gaudaloupe Villego, a young man, and the most popular, among the
Americans and English, of any man in California, was on board when
we got under weigh. He spoke English very well, and was suspected
of being favorably inclined to foreigners.
We sailed down this magnificent bay with a light wind, the tide,
which was running out, carrying us at the rate of four or five
knots. It was a fine day; the first of entire sunshine we had
had for more than a month. We passed directly under the high
cliff on which the Presidio is built, and stood into the middle
of the bay, from whence we could see small bays, making up into
the interior, on every side; large and beautifully-wooded islands;
and the mouths of several small rivers. If California ever becomes
a prosperous country, this bay will be the centre of its prosperity.
The abundance of wood and water, the extreme fertility of its shores,
the excellence of its climate, which is as near to being perfect as
any in the world, and its facilities for navigation, affording the
best anchoring-grounds in the whole western coast of America,
all fit it for a place of great importance; and, indeed, it has
attracted much attention, for the settlement of "Yerba Buena,"
where we lay at anchor, made chiefly by Americans and English,
and which bids fair to become the most important trading place on
the coast, at this time began to supply traders, Russian ships,
and whalers, with their stores of wheat and frijoles.
The tide leaving us, we came to anchor near the mouth of the bay,
under a high and beautifully sloping hill, upon which herds of
hundreds and hundreds of red deer, and the stag, with his high
branching antlers, were bounding about, looking at us for a moment,
and then starting off, affrighted at the noises which we made for
the purpose of seeing the variety of their beautiful attitudes
and motions.
At midnight, the tide having turned, we hove up our anchor and
stood out of the bay, with a fine starry heaven above us, - the
first we had seen for weeks and weeks. Before the light northerly
winds, which blow here with the regularity of trades, we worked
slowly along, and made Point Año Nuevo, the northerly point of
the Bay of Monterey, on Monday afternoon. We spoke, going in,
the brig Diana, of the Sandwich Islands, from the North-west Coast,
last from Asitka. She was off the point at the same time with us,
but did not get in to the anchoring-ground until an hour or two
after us. It was ten o'clock on Tuesday morning when we came
to anchor. The town looked just as it did when I saw it last,
which was eleven months before, in the brig Pilgrim. The pretty
lawn on which it stands, as green as sun and rain could make it;
the pine wood on the south; the small river on the north side;
the houses, with their white plastered sides and red-tiled roofs,
dotted about on the green; the low, white presidio, with its soiled,
tri-colored flag flying, and the discordant din of drums and trumpets
for the noon parade; all brought up the scene we had witnessed here
with so much pleasure nearly a year before, when coming from a
long voyage, and our unprepossessing reception at Santa Barbara.
It seemed almost like coming to a home.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE SUNDAY WASH-UP - ON SHORE - A SET-TO - A GRANDEE - "SAIL HO!" - A FANDANGO
The only other vessel in port was the Russian government bark,
from Asitka, mounting eight guns, (four of which we found to be
Quakers,) and having on board the ex-governor, who was going in
her to Mazatlan, and thence overland to Vera Cruz. He offered
to take letters, and deliver them to the American consul at
Vera Cruz, whence they could be easily forwarded to the United
States. We accordingly made up a packet of letters, almost every
one writing, and dating them "January 1st, 1836." The governor
was true to his promise, and they all reached Boston before the
middle of March; the shortest communication ever yet made across
the country.
The brig Pilgrim had been lying in Monterey through the latter part
of November, according to orders, waiting for us. Day after day,
Captain Faucon went up to the hill to look out for us, and at last,
gave us up, thinking we must have gone down in the gale which we
experienced off Point Conception, and which had blown with great
fury over the whole coast, driving ashore several vessels in the
snuggest ports. An English brig, which had put into San Francisco,
lost both her anchors; the Rosa was driven upon a mud bank in
San Diego; and the Pilgrim, with great difficulty, rode out the
gale in Monterey, with three anchors a-head. She sailed early
in December for San Diego and intermedios.
As we were to be here over Sunday, and Monterey was the best place
to go ashore on the whole coast, and we had had no liberty-day for
nearly three months, every one was for going ashore. On Sunday morning,
as soon as the decks were washed, and we had got breakfast, those who
had obtained liberty began to clean themselves, as it is called,
to go ashore. A bucket of fresh water apiece, a cake of soap,
a large coarse towel, and we went to work scrubbing one another,
on the forecastle. Having gone through this, the next thing was
to get into the head, - one on each side - with a bucket apiece,
and duck one another, by drawing up water and heaving over each
other, while we were stripped to a pair of trowsers.
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