Los gringos; or, An inside view of Mexico and California
by H. A. Wise · English · Gutenberg #32178 · 799,711 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Los gringos; or, An inside view of Mexico and California
with wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia
Author: H. A. Wise
Release date: April 29, 2010 [eBook #32178]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32178
Credits: E-text prepared by Julia Miller, Martin Pettit, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
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LOS GRINGOS:
Or,
An Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings
in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia.
by
LIEUT. WISE, U.S.N.
New York:
Baker and Scribner,
145 Nassau Street and 36 Park Row.
1849.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1849, by
Baker and Scribner,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.
Printed by C. W. BENEDICT,
201 William street.
PREFACE.
The title--_Los Gringos_--with which this volume has been christened, is
the epithet--and rather a reproachful one--used in California and Mexico
to designate the descendants of the Anglo-Saxon race; the definition of
the word is somewhat similar to that of Greenhorns, in modern
_parlance_, or Mohawks in the days of the Spectator. Although many of
the scenes were passed in those countries, yet the narrative takes a
wider range, and embraces portions of the South American Continent in
Brazil, Chili, and Peru,--together with visits to some of the groups of
the Pacific at the Sandwich, Marquesas and Society Islands.
The sketches embodied in the narrative were all written on the field of
their occurrence: the characters incidentally mentioned are frequently
_noms de mer_.
It is not expected by the Author that even the most charitable reader
will wholly overlook the careless style and framing of the work, or
allow it to pass without censure; nor has it been his object to deal in
statistics, or any abstract reflections, but merely to compile a
pleasant narrative, such as may perchance please or interest the
generality of readers; and in launching the volume on its natural
element--the sea of public opinion--the Author only indulges in the
aspiration--whether the reader be gentle or ungentle--whether the book
be praised or condemned--that at least the philanthropy of the
Publishers may be remunerated, wherein lies all the law and the profits.
NEW YORK, _October, 1849_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
We sail from Boston, and how we felt.--Cure for
Sea-Sickness.--Delights of the Ocean.--Crossing the Equator.--What
the Mess was composed of.--We become reconciled to our Fate.--Pass
Cape Frio, and have no Inclination to bivouac on the Rocks. 1
CHAPTER II.
Rio Janeiro, and what is to be seen there.--Life in the
City.--Diamonds and Levites.--Police.--Cookery and Currency.--The
Omnibus Jehu to Boto Fogo. 9
CHAPTER III.
Gloria Hill.--Il Cateto.--Architecture.--Visit from a Scorpion,
and the Habits of other Reptiles.--The Opera.--The Emperor and
Court.--The Brazilians think of carrying the War into Africa. 16
CHAPTER IV.
We leave Rio, and march towards the Horn.--Man overboard and
drowned.--La Plata.--We take an Albatross.--Terra del
Fuego.--Pitch of the Cape.--A Marine dies.--How the Yankee
Corvette doubled Cape Horn.--What we did for Pastime.--Dr.
Faustus.--The Island of Chiloe. 20
CHAPTER V.
Valparaiso.--Bell of Quillota and Tupongati.--Where and how the
Town is built.--Birlochea.--Shops.--The Terraces.--El
Almendral.--Carmencita.--Creole Ladies.--Tertulias.--The
Samacueca.--Climate.--Dust.--The Doncella who caught a Flea, and
how she did it.--General Bulnes.--Army.--Government and
Resources.--True Elements of Happiness. 27
CHAPTER VI.
Weigh Anchor, with some Trouble and Broken Bones.--Bid adieu to
Pleasures of the Shore.--Islands of St. Ambrose and Felix.--We
lose some Shipmates.--Alta California.--Monterey. 39
CHAPTER VII.
Summary of Events Preceding our Arrival.--Difficulties between
Fremont and Castro.--Operations of Naval Forces.--Skirmish at San
Pascual.--Battles of San Gabriel and La Mesa.--The Volunteers
Disbanded. 41
CHAPTER VIII.
Town of Monterey.--Our First Impressions.--Days of
Barricades.--Sentinels.--The Rocky-Mountain Men.--Keg of Whiskey,
and the Use it was put to.--The Trapper's little Anecdote
concerning Old Ginger and the Indians. 47
CHAPTER IX.
Treaty of Los Angeles.--The Lady that had a Strange Taste In
Jewelry.--The Disregard of Soap in those Countries.--Visit to an
Extensive Establishment.--The Dona herself, with her Small Family
and Prospects. 53
CHAPTER X.
Mission of Carmelo.--Tramp in the Mountains.--Wolves and
Venison.--We become bewildered, but encounter a Guide.--Boudoirs
for Damsels.--The Fandango.--How the Gentlemen amused
themselves.--We take to Hunting for Pastime.--Climate.--Juaquinito
and his Mama.--Plains of Salinas.--Bill Anderson, his Windmill and
History.--Wild Geese.--Native Entertainment. 58
CHAPTER XI.
Maritime Alps of California.--Entrance to Bay of San
Francisco.--Yerbabuena.--Society.--Pranks on
Horses.--Saddles.--New York Regiment.--The Cannibal Emigrants, and
the Dutchman's Appetite; with Baptiste's Remarks thereon.--Perils
of Emigration. 69
CHAPTER XII.
Sousoulito.--The Belle of California.--The Bears of the same, who
chase us.--Angel Island.--Deer and Elk Shooting. 76
CHAPTER XIII.
Monterey again.--The Pioneer Newspaper, with the Editor, Dr.
Semple.--We Sail for the Mexican Coast.--Island of
Guadalupe.--Peninsular of Lower
California.--Jesuits.--Trade.--Ports and Resources.--We blockade
Mazatlan.--Reconnoissance, and the Ballet that ensued.--Yankee
Bombs.--The Ladies deceive us.--The Chased Diana. 82
CHAPTER XIV.
Cruise of the Rosita.--Anchorage of Venados.--The Oyster-boat.--We
received a Hostage in Doctor Barret, and learn his
Misfortunes.--Change of Position.--We take a Prize, and afterwards
nearly taken for another.--Set fire to the Dried Grass.--A False
Alarm.--The Fish that broke Pat's Nose.--Our Supper and
Attendants.--The Commodore orders us Home. 89
CHAPTER XV.
Period of the Blockade of Mazatlan.--The Commandante, Telles; his
Habits and Hospitalities.--The Frigate takes her Departure.--The
Shark.--Anchor in Monterey the Third Time. 99
CHAPTER XVI.
Dispatches and Equipments.--Californian Gamesters.--The
Vacuero.--Don Herman.--The Youthful Mother and her Gay
Deceiver.--We Sup on Eggs.--Murphy's Rancho.--Pretty
Ellen.--Picturesque Location.--Puebla.--Santa Clara.--Priests and
Indians.--Ladies drying Beef.--Reach Yerbabuena. 102
CHAPTER XVII.
Sail up the Bay.--Embarcadera of San Jose.--We sleep at a
Rancho.--Don Ignacio proves to be a Scamp.--Puebla.--Architecture
and Agriculture.--Mission of Santa Clara.--The Cannonier.--The
Padres.--The Dandies.--We attend Mass.--"The Forwardest Gall of
the Mission."--Bear Hunt with Dan Murphy.--Rustic
Politeness.--Mission of San Juan.--The Gascon.--Crescencia is
taken with Fits.--Empirical Practice.--Get back to Monterey. 111
CHAPTER XVIII.
San Francisco once more.--Head Waters.--Bay of San Pablo.--Village
of Sinoma. Vallejo.--Captain Swayback.--Hunting.--We Kill an
Antelope.--Straits of Carquinez.--City of Benecia.--Mares
Island.--Tulares Valley. 122
CHAPTER XIX.
California becomes tranquil, and the Columbus sails for
Home.--Sailors drilled on Shore.--We Return to Monterey.--Town
increasing.--The Reverend Alcalde, and how he collected
Treasure.--Indians hung.--Diet and Games of the same.--Merendas. 130
CHAPTER XX.
Final Adieu to Monterey.--Reach Cape San Blas, and San Jose.--We
visit Alcaldes, and how they passed their Leisure.--Our First
Search for the Enemy.--When we are offered a Baby, but
decline.--Watering Ship, and other Pleasantries.--A Small Garrison
landed to occupy San Jose. 136
CHAPTER XXI.
Demonstrations before Mazatlan.--Summons to Surrender.--We land
Sailor Troops, and occupy the Town.--Positions and Selections for
Defence.--Land Ordnance.--Ayuntamientos.--Mexican Morality.--Piety
of the People.--Climate and Diseases. 142
CHAPTER XXII.
Burning Launches.--Skirmishing.--A Reefer's Idea of Bullets.--The
Retreat.--We lose the Road, and are scared.--Affair at
Urias.--Ambuscade.--Escaramuza. Flight.--Burial of the Slain.--We
are presented with a Black Charger, and return to the Port. 150
CHAPTER XXIII.
Duties of a Garrison.--The Garita.--We Make a Night March, and
Surprise Ligueras.--The Killed.--Lady with them.--Our
Trophies.--The Commandante's Wife.--Is the Innocent Cause of
Murdering a Horse.--False Alarm.--Another Night Skirmish; when the
Guide gets a Bullet through his Head, and is Cursed by his Family. 159
CHAPTER XXIV.
How they Marry in Mazatlan.--Fights with Cuchillos.--The Man who
is divested of part of his Scalp and Ear.--Cures effected--Flying
Trip to Urias.--Where we take General Urrea's Orderly.--Who is
afterwards set free. 168
CHAPTER XXV.
Mexican Troop pronounce against their Leaders.--We become Poverty
Stricken.--Lancers attempt to run the Gauntlet, and carry away
some Buckshot.--Description of the Casa Blanca, and how we
behaved.--Madre Maria and Pretty Juana.--The Elite of the Town,
who praise us for not beating our Wives. 173
CHAPTER XXVI.
Dolores and her Lover; who is wounded; and who is a Coward.--Lola
dies and is buried. 182
CHAPTER XXVII.
El Tigre del Norte.--Mr. Bill
Foley.--Sociedads.--Circus.--Monte.--Golden
Toad.--Carnival.--Intercourse with Foreign Society.--Hauson and
the Hern Hutter. Don Guillermo.--While moralising one night we are
nearly impaled.--Our Little Housekeeper.--Pita.--Fandango de la
Tripa.--Where a Lepero abstracts our Sword and Pistols. 186
CHAPTER XXVIII.
News of the Peace.--The Outsiders become complimentary, and pay a
visit to Madre Maria.--With the Mounted Patrol and Captain Luigi
we ride to Venadillo, and disturb the slumbers of Senor Valverde,
who, with some hesitation, returns with us to the Port, being the
last Prisoner of the War.--A Man deserts, and we go to the
Presidio for him.--General Anaya and Officers.--Commissioners meet
and depart in Dudgeon. 194
CHAPTER XXIX.
Siege of San Jose.--Defences of Garrison.--The Summons and
Parley.--The Storming Party.--Mijares Killed with his Forlorn
Hope.--The Brave Whalemen.--Ambuscade and Prisoners.--The
Guerrillas begin the Second Siege.--Death of M'Lenahan.--The
Garrison Beleaguered.--Arrival of the Cyane.--Battle and Relief. 203
CHAPTER XXX.
We Begin a Journey to the City of Mexico.--Disembark at San
Blas.--Ride to Tepic.--Cotton Mills of Barron, Forbes &
Co.--Volcanic Masses.--Aquacatlan.--The Red-hot Patriot.--Wake of
Don Pancho.--Plan de Barrancas.--The Piece of
Ordnance.--Muchatilti.--Madelena.--How Horses are Hired in the
Republic.--Race with Banditti. 216
CHAPTER XXXI.
Guadalajara.--Senor Llamas.--The Lovely Senora.--Plaza and
Beauty.--The Great Bridge.--Old Cypriano's Superstition regarding
Horses' Souls.--Tepetitlan.--Pueblos del Rincon.--The Drowsy
Commandante.--City of Leon.--Knife Duel.--Mexican Mesons, and the
Society therein.--Illumination and Supper.--We take Coach and
reach Guanajuato.--The English Mint and
Machinery.--Gaming.--Scenic Views.--Pat is a Deserter.--Don
Pancho.--Escape from Los Compadres. 232
CHAPTER XXXII.
Queretaro.--Aqueduct.--Night ride by Post.--The United States
Escort.--City of Mexico.--We are refused a
Drive.--Cathedral.--Palace.--Plaza.--Museum.--Sacrificial
Stone.--Manners and Customs in the Hells of
Montezuma.--Chapultepec.--The Deep Spring where we bathed.--Moleno
del Rey.--Paseo. 251
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Bureau of Postes.--Depart from the Aztec Capital.--Exemptions of
Government Extraordinarios.--Livery Stable Woman at
Tepetitlan.--Invited to a Country Seat, and dine with Ladies.--We
are afterwards kicked by a Horse, but continue the
journey.--American Deserters.--Encounter Ladrons, and present our
Passport.--Somebody killed by Mistake.--Excitement in
Queretaro.--Traitors of San Patricio.--Official Visits.--The
Dignitaries of the Republic.--Breakfast with a Brilliant
Colonel.--The Alemeda.--We run a Joust.--Treaty signed. 260
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Senor Rosa forgets our Escort, and we are scared and nearly
coach-wrecked.--Mine of La Luz.--Pass through Guanajuato to
Lagos.--A Pronunciamento.--Padre Jarauta, who treats us with
contempt, and afterwards wishes to make an _ejemplo_.--We bid a
Hasty Farewell.--An Ambulating Pulperia.--San Juan de
Lagos.--Arrieros.--Puente Calderon.--Bathing in the Rio
Grande.--The Rayo. 275
CHAPTER XXXV.
Bull-fight at Guadalajara.--What Fools the Beasts are, and what
Brutes the Men are.--La Comedia.--Antique Guide.--Execution of
Robbers.--Tequilla.--Patron of the Meson and his
Daughters.--Endurance of Mexican Soldiers.--Adaptability of
Western Provinces for Military Operations.--La Nubarrada.--Horse
Jockeying.--We are made Unhappy.--Bathing in Tepic.--Rio Grande
and Santiago.--Shower of Water Melons.--Rio San Pedro.--Rosa
Morada.--Acaponeta.--High Mass.--Tierra Caliente, and Old Tomas,
the Poet.--We return to Mazatlan. 287
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Don Guillermo and Senor Molinero.--The Olas Altas, and the gay
scenes there enacted.--Thieves and Leperos.--How to learn
Castilian.--Evacuation of Mazatlan by the U. S. Forces. 307
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Sailing of the Squadron.--Cross the Gulf, and arrive in La
Paz.--Appearance of Vegetation.--How we amused
Ourselves.--Fandangos.--Ball on Shipboard.--Marine Pic Nic.--The
Carrera.--The Uncivil Vacuero and his Rude Cattle.--The Chowder
Party.--Perils and Pearl Fishing.--Hunting.--Game in Lower
California.--The Cove of San Antonio, and Escape from Boatwreck. 312
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
What the U. S. Government did to induce the Natives to lake up
Arms.--The Volunteer who shot his Wife.--Little Sam Patch.--Flying
Visit to Mazatlan, and Last Farewell. 326
CHAPTER XXXIX.
We leave Mexico.--Go to the Sandwich Islands, and anchor in
Byron's Bay, or Hilo.--Natives.--Scenery.--Constables.--Meeting
House.--Dialect.--Sermon.--We Depart for the Interior.--Half-way
House.--Society there, and how they cook Turkeys.--Volcano of
Kilauea.--Frozen Sea of Lava.--The Great Crater.--Sulphur
Banks.--Return to Hilo. 329
CHAPTER XL.
Hilo.--Education.--Fondness for Liquor.--Favorite dish of roasted
Dog, and process of fattening them.--Water Nymphs.--Rainbow
Falls.--The Wailuku.--The Three-Decker.--Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. 339
CHAPTER XLI.
Paipolo Passage.--Maui.--Lahaina.--Cocoanut Tree, and its
uses.--The Governor, James Young.--His Fortress.--Surf-Swimming
by Girls, who gave us Lessons. 348
CHAPTER XLII.
High School of Lahainaluna for Boys.--Other Institutions for
Girls.--Character of Hawaiians.--Their Crimes and Vices.--Board of
Presbyterian Missions.--Exaggerations upon Moral Condition of the
Natives.--Expulsion of Catholics. 355
CHAPTER XLIII.
Oahu.--Honolulu.--Rides and Drives in Vicinity.--Society.--The
Pali up the Nuana.--Saturnalia of Kanakas.--Rage for Horses.--Straw
Hamlets.--and Life within them. 362
CHAPTER XLIV.
King Kammehamma, or the Lonely One.--Ministers.--Presentation at
Court.--Furniture of the Palace.--Approach of
Royalty.--Speeches.--Costumes.--Princes of the blood royal, who
patronise us.--And what became of Moses. 368
CHAPTER XLV.
We sail from Sandwich Islands.--The Tar of all
Weathers.--Weather.--Currents and Passage to Marquesas. 376
CHAPTER XLVI.
Nukeheva.--Bay of Anna Maria.--Style of Head-dress in
Vogue.--Tattooing, and other Ornaments.--French
Garrison.--Physical Characteristics of these
Savages.--Bathing.--King's Residence, where we beheld a Nobleman
drunk with Arva. 380
CHAPTER XLVII.
Visit to a Distinguished Chief.--His House and Attendants.--Babies
Swimming.--Making Fire with Sticks.--An Ancestor
Embalmed.--Catholics.--Vagabonds and Deserters.--Whaling
Interests. 387
CHAPTER XLVIII.
Sail from Marquesas--for Society Group.--Tahiti.--Port of
Papeetee.--The Reef.--Shores and
Batteries.--Missionaries.--Melville. 393
CHAPTER XLIX.
Brown Road.--Semi-Civilization.--Excursion to Pomarce Country
House at Papoa.--The Queen and her Hen-coop
Habitation.--School.--Fondness for Flowers.--Native Dinner.--Jack
the Head Waiter.--Finger Glasses.--We sleep in the Palace, and are
Serenaded.--Visit from a Tahitian Noble, and how he conducted
himself.--Coral Groves in the Harbor.--Islet of Motunata. 400
CHAPTER L.
Trip to the Mountains.--Teina.--Ferry-Boat, By Toanni.--Lofty
Cascade, Fortress of Faatoar.--Losses by the French.--The
Diadem.--We spread a Banquet, and the Ladies have an
Appetite.--Soiree by French Governor.--Departure. 413
CHAPTER LI.
Leave Polynesia.--Accident to Topmen.--The Great Pacific.--Old
Harry Greenfield's Yarn.--The Royal Bengal Tiger, who had a
difficulty with the Cook. 421
CHAPTER LII.
Callao.--Appearance of the Place.--The Citadel.--Rodil.--Road to
Lima.--And what may be seen in the City.--Rimac.--Public
Edifices.--San Domingo. 426
CHAPTER LIII.
The Clergy Mingling in every-day
Panoramas.--Vespers.--Promenades.--Bull Fights.--Berlinas.--Sayas
y Mantas, and Speculations upon uses and abuses.--Youthful Lumps
of Gold, and Attachment to their Uncles. 433
CHAPTER LIV.
Cathedral.--Viceroy's Palace.--Plaza.--General
Castilla.--Museum.--Antiquities.--Portraits of
Pizarro.--Opera.--The Scene not in the Play. 439
CHAPTER LV.
Valparaiso Again.--El Dorado.--Rides.--The Yorkshire Dame at the
Post House.--Pic-Nics.--Our Lovely Country-Women.--The
Terraces.--Monte Allegro. 445
CHAPTER LVI.
Homeward Bound, and the Cruise is over. 452
CHAPTER I.
It was on the last day of summer, 1846, that a large vessel of war lay
in the stream of Boston Harbor; presently a dirty little steam tug, all
bone and muscle, came burroughing alongside. The boatswain and his mates
whistled with their silver pipes, like Canary birds, and the cry went
forth, to heave up the anchor. Soon the ponderous grapnell was loosened
from its hold, and our pigmy companion clasping the huge hull in his
hempen arms, bore us away towards the ocean; by and by, the unbleached
canvas fell in gloomy clouds from the wide-spread spars--the sails
swelled to the breeze--friends were tumbling over the side--light jokes
were made--hats waved--cheers given, whether from the heart, or not, was
a problem, and then there came a short interval in the hoarse roar of
steam, as the pigmy's fastenings splashed in the water--then all was
silent; and the stately ship, dashing the salt tears from her eyes,
turned her prow, in sadness, from her native land.
There were many, no doubt, of those six hundred souls on board, who
leaving home with the sweet endearments of domestic life fresh upon
them, were looking forward with blanched cheeks and saddened hearts, to
years of distant wanderings. And there were others, too, equally
indifferent, and regardless of the future--
"With one foot on land, and one on sea,
--To one thing constant never,"
who, perhaps, never had a home--tired of the shore--were eager for
change or excitement; but I question much, if there was one on board, of
all those beating hearts, who did not anticipate a safe and joyful
return. Alas! how many of these fragile aspirations were never realized.
Numbers found a liquid tomb beneath the dark blue waves, or died a
sailor's death in foreign climes, far away from friends and kindred, or
returned with broken constitutions, and wasted frames, enfeebled by
disease, to linger out a miserable existence on the native land they
still loved so well.
A fortnight we sailed moderately and pleasantly in a race with the sun
towards the equator. The pole star slowly but surely declined in the
north; faces began to assume a more cheerful aspect; we became
reconciled to our fate; to banish those hateful things called
reminiscences, which, even though pleasant, only make us regret them the
more, when gone forever. Thus we entered the tropic, and then lay
lunging and plunging in the doldrums--clouds dead and stupid, with the
sun making all manner of gay transparencies, at the rising, and most
particularly at the setting thereof. Then came another week of _una
furiosa calma_--a furious calm, as the Spaniards have it--bobbing about
in undulating billows, and the tough canvass beating and chafing in
futile anger. It was thus we learned, those of us who had not made the
discovery before, what a really animal existence one leads on shipboard;
a sort of dozing nonentity, only agreeable to those who have no
imaginative organizations desirous of more extended sphere of action.
It does passibly well to eat and sleep away life--that is, presuming
the dinners be hot and eatable, and nights cool and sleepable--in smooth
seas, and under mild suns; but when the winds are piping loud and cold,
the vessel diving and leaping at every possible angle of the compass,
with the stomachs of the mariners occasionally pitched into their heads,
as if they were dromedaries, with several internal receptacles apiece,
devised purposely to withstand the thumps and concussions of salt water;
when the ship is performing these sub-marine and aerial evolutions I
take it, as a reasonable being, there can be found a stray nook or two,
on hard ground, far more comfortable and habitable. And by way of
parenthesis, I beg leave to recommend to any and all unfortunate persons
given to aquatic recreation, and troubled with the disease whilom called
sea-sickness, to divest the mind and body of care and clothing, tumble
into a swinging cot, and on the verge of starvation sip sparingly of
weak brandy and water, nibble a biscuit, and a well-roasted potato. I
made this important discovery after being a sufferer ten years, and
pledge a reputation upon the strength of that martyrdom, of its
infallible virtues.
Indeed, there are but two kinds of sailing at all bearable. I allude, of
course, to those who take to it _con amore_, and are not compelled to
crowd all dimity to weather a lee shore and the almshouse; one where the
glorious trade wind fills the bellying canvas, and the vessel slips
quietly and swiftly along with the gentlest possible careening; without
hauling and pulling of cordage, nor heavy seas, nor heavy rains, but the
light, fleecy clouds flying gracefully overhead, the waves blue and
yielding, the watch dozing lazily in the shade, and the decks clean and
tidy--it is a pretty sight, to see a noble ship properly manoeuvred,
come swiftly up to tie wind, the sails laid rapidly aback, with lower
canvas brailed up in graceful festoons, and the buoyant hull rising and
falling on the gentle swell, like the courtesies of Cerito or Ellsler in
Sir Roger de Coverley, with all the drapery of dimity fluttering around
them. Then, again, in that blue sea of seas, the Mediterranean, where
more than half the year one may sail over level water, with none of the
ocean swell, with delightful breezes only strong enough to fan the light
and lofty sails to sleep, the shores of Italy or Spain lifting their
green-clad hills along the beam, or the ever varying islands of the
Grecian Archipelago coming and going, as you dart rapidly through their
straits. Ah! in those times, and in those seas, ships are possibly
endurable, but of all monotonies, that of shipboard is the dullest, most
wearisome and detestable.
Week after week passed away, one day like another, nothing to chronicle
save the birth of a sailor's pet in the shape of a tiny goat--taking a
shark--the usual pious Sunday homily, and on a certain occasion one Jem
Brooks, whose residence, in company with other cherubs, was somewhere
aloft in the main-top, whilst in the act of dropping a boat into the
ocean, some mishap attended the descent, and he dropped overboard
himself, thereby cracking the small bone of his leg, with a few other
trifling abrasions of skin and flesh. Iron life buoys that no one as yet
ever did comprehend the mechanism of, always fizzing off the port-fires
in broad day, and enshrouding themselves in utter darkness at night when
only needed, were instantly sent after the aforesaid Jem Brooks, who
imbued with the wit and tenacity of his species in extremis, seized one
of them, and in a short space returned pleasantly on board.
This was all that served to enliven our stupid existence. The winds
coquetted with all the perverseness of a spoiled beauty, at times
blowing provokingly steady, then we went reeling over the seas, with
piercingly blue skies above us, and all reconcileable elements to our
journeyings, excepting the breeze ever blowing so pertinaciously in the
wrong direction; at others we managed to cheat Eolus out of a puff, and
steal a march upon him, right into his breezy eyes, but then again he
gave a wink, distended his huge cheeks, and blew us far away to leeward.
It was truly trying to the nerves to be crying patience continually,
when there was no appeal--we could not exclaim with Dryden:
"The passage yet was good; the wind 'tis true
Was somewhat high; but that was nothing new,
No more than usual equinoxes blew."
There was naught new nor usual about it, wind and weather were a mass of
inconsistency; a few more revolutions of the sun, and we should have
found ourselves stranded in the Dahomey territory, or other equally
delightful regions, bordering on the Bight of Benin, in Africa; even the
good old captain of marines began to look worried and anxious, paid
nightly visits to the sailing master, and with the most earnest and
imploring tone, would ask--"Well, Master! how _does_ she head?" as if he
reposed full trust in his sagacity, and for God's sake to ease his mind,
and let him hear the worst at once. Surgeons, pursers and secretaries,
went off their feed, and from being rather over sanguine at times, burst
forth with lamentable wailings in the poignancy of their despair. The
captain of the ship, too, reviled creation generally, and was rather
snappish with officers of the watches; hinting that the yards were not
trimmed, ship steered properly, and other legal animadversions. Then the
lieutenants, kind souls, abused the master, taxing him with manifold
crimes and delinquencies for bringing adverse breezes, did those
sagacious creatures, and at other times becoming jocose, would advise
him to kick the chronometers several times around the mast to accelerate
or diminish their rates, and talked loudly of requesting the Commodore
to follow the first bark we might encounter, to the end that we should
get safely into port--in fact, we were all, morally speaking, in a state
of gangrene; morbid, morose and our circumstances getting more desperate
hourly; but the longest night, except in the winter season off Cape
Horn, has its dawning: the wind veered fair, whitening the ruffled water
to windward, the noble frigate recovered her long lost energy, and with
white sails swelling from trucks to the sea, shook the sparkling brine
from her mane, and left a foaming wake behind; the thick, mucky, sticky
atmosphere that clung to us upon entering the tropic, was quickly
displaced, by refreshing and grateful breezes.
We crossed the dividing line of the sphere, rushing and splashing down
the slope on the other side, carrying the whole ocean before us: myriads
of flying fish flashed their silver-tinted wings as they broke cover,
and flew upward at our approach. Porpoises and dolphins would dash
around the bows, try our speed, and then disappear, perhaps, with a
contused eye, or bruised snout from a sparring match with the cutwater;
on we bounded with the cracking trade wind, tugging the straining canvas
towards Brazil.
The mess was large, and composed of strange materials--men of gravity
and men of merriment, some who relate professional anecdotes and talk
knowingly of ships, and sails and blocks, and nautical trash generally,
others, would be literary characters, who pour over encyclopedias,
gazetteers and dictionaries, ever ready to pounce upon an indiscreet
person, and bring him to book in old dates or events; then there is the
mess grumbler, the mess orator, a lawgiver and politician, and always an
individual, without whom no mess is properly organized, who volunteers
to lick the American consul in whatsoever haven the ship may be, for any
fancied grievance, but particularly if he happen to be poor, and not
disposed to give a series of grand dinners upon his meagre fare of
office.
All these individual peculiarities we had sufficient leisure to indulge
in, and although I have asserted that ship-board is the most horrible
monotony in life, and hold to mine oath, yet Apollo tuned his lyre, and
old Homer took siesta, thus by example, if anything can relieve this
dulness, it is in the very contrast, where the mercury of one's blood is
driven high up by cheering prospects of favoring gales, and
anticipations of a speedy arrival, after a tedious passage.
Our amiability returned with our appetites--alas! too keenly for the
doomed carcass of a solitary pig, grunting in blissful ignorance of his
fate, in a spacious pen on the gun deck. Juicy and succulent vegetables
had long since vacated the mess table, and the talents of our
_cordon-bleu_, Messieurs Hypolite de Bontems, and Francois, were
constantly phrenzied with excitement, composing palatable dishes, from
the privacy of tins of potted meats, and hidden delicacies of the store
rooms. We all became sociable, quizzed one another good humoredly--some
declared they had been dreadfully spooney with some fair girls before
leaving home, but were better now, and thought the marine air wholesome
for those complaints. Others, again, still remained faithful, compared
their watches with the chronometers, to determine the exact difference
of time on certain periods designated beforehand, with may be a choice
collection of stars of the first magnitude, to gaze at by night.
Nevertheless, there was a radical change for the better; we became more
companionable, hobnobbed across the table, after dinner, heard with calm
delight orchestral music from the flutes and fiddles of papa Gheeks and
family--an old gentleman from _faderland_, whom the sailors, in their
ignorance of German, had baptized "Peter the Greeks," a soubriquet by
which he universally went--and one of our mess had the humanity to
inquire if the small French horn, or octave flute, had tumbled down the
hatchway, and whether he broke his neck or was merely asphyxic. We even
ceased grumbling at the servants, and to a man all agreed that the
passage had been of unexampled pleasantness.
Nothing checked our headlong speed, and the fiftieth day from Boston saw
us close to the high, desolate mountains of cape Frio, within plain view
of the little rocky nook where the English frigate Thetis made a futile
attempt to batter the island over, but went down in the struggle. 'Tis
said the gun room mess were entertaining the captain at dinner, who
somewhat oblivious to everything, save being homeward bound to merry
England with a ship laden with treasure, disregarded the sailing
master's wishes to alter the course, and the consequence was, after
night set in, the frigate struck, going eight knots--providentially the
crew were saved. The long Atlantic swell was rolling heavily against the
bluff promontories, and the surf lashing far up the black heights,
giving many of us a nervous disinclination to making a night expedition
among the rocks, going to sleep with a dirty shirt and mouthful of sand,
without even the consolation of being afterwards laid out in clean
linen, to make luncheon for vultures; but since it takes a complication
of those diversions to compose a veritable sea life, we banished
perspective danger, and indulged in speculations upon the pleasures of
port.
CHAPTER II.
"The far ships lifting their sails of white
Like joyful hands; come up with scattered light,
Come gleaming up, true to the wished for day,
And chase the whistling brine, and swirl into the bay."
REMINI. OF LEIGH HUNT.
The approach to Rio Janeiro, so far as God's fair handiwork is
considered, presents a bold, natural, and striking grandeur, and is,
perhaps, unsurpassed by that of any other land on earth. The mountains
spring abruptly from the sea, in massive, well-defined outline, assuming
at different points the most fanciful and grotesque shapes. Those to the
southward make in goodly proportion the figure of a man reclining on his
back, even to feet and eyes, while further inland are seen the narrow
tube-like cones of the Organ Mountains, shooting high up into the sky,
and then lower down, and around, are strewn lesser hills, sweeping and
undulating from vale to vale, in an endless succession of picturesque
beauty.
Passing the strait that opens into the bay, which appears narrower than
it really is, from the steep sides of adjacent heights, the river
expands, and stretching away on either shore, lie graceful curves and
indentations, whose snowy beaches are fringed with pretty dwellings,
half hidden beneath the richest tropical foliage. To the left stands the
city, built amidst a number of elevations, but like Lisbon, it has
neither spire nor dome to relieve the eye along the horizon. Yet this
drawback is in a measure lost sight of in contemplating the frowning
peak of La Gabia, which seems to hang over, and shade the town itself;
but take all in all there are few lovelier scenes the eye can gaze upon,
than Rio.
Just ten years had passed since I sailed from this noble bay, and
although I had been the wide world over, in stirring scenes, quite
sufficient as I indeed supposed to drive all recollections of it out of
my head, into dim obscurity and forgetfulness, yet as we approached the
harbor, every point and islet, fort, tower, reef, grove, and hamlet,
started vividly before me, as all appeared when I was a boy, and the
long years between dwindled away into minutes, and I fancied it but
yesterday since we had parted.
I greeted Lord Hood's nose like an old acquaintance, as it reposed in
gigantic outline, towering above the surrounding mountains; the small
island near the shore with the white tower that was then just begun; the
Sugar Loaf with its smooth surface of rocks, and on the other side the
Slaver's Bay--palmettos swinging their finger-like branches to and fro;
and beyond, the fortress of Santa Cruz, with the sickly yellow diamond
of Brazil, waving above; indeed, when the long speaking trumpet was
shoved through an embrasure, I knew the old soldier's melancholy howl by
intuition. At last the harbor's mouth was passed, we rolled up our sails
and sank peacefully to rest on the quiet bosom of the bay.
A mob of us tumbled into the boats; the ashen sails, plied by sinewy
arms, soon bumped us against what was once to me the Palace Stairs, but
either the water had receded, or land encroached upon the bay, for where
the waves once washed the sea wall, and where many a time I have sat
kicking my heels in the surf, sucking oranges the while, is now forty
feet from the beach, and the wall itself stands in the silliest manner
imaginable, quite in the middle of the square. To the left is a tall
modern range of warehouses and the hotel Pharou. Swarms of cigar-smoking
bipeds were lounging edgeways from the cafes and billiard rooms. I
recognized many old familiar faces of the boatmen, and among other rare
birds, the overgrown eunich organist, who used to be the wonder of my
boyhood--there he stood as of yore, exercising his curiosity in
scrutinizing the new comers.
The tenth of a century makes vast strides towards changing the
appearance of things in these electrical times, and although I
discovered no difference in beauties of dale, hill or mountain, for the
Organos still shot their needle-like peaks as high up into heaven, the
weather was quite as calm and hot in the mornings, and as breezy in the
afternoons, the same bells were heard ringing the most confused of
chimes, squares were as crowded, streets no wider, and negroes as
numerous and spicy as ever; yet what I mean is, the animus of the town
itself had been transmogrified. The beautiful bay was traversed by
hateful little beetles of steamers, drawing long lines of sooty black
smoke through the pure air, instead of multitudes of picturesque lateen
craft, with the musical chants and cadences of the negro oarsmen,
skimming and singing over the water. Then, too, streets were filled with
omnibii, cabs, gigs, gondolas, and all other conceivable inventions for
locomotion, serving to make one uncomfortable from the very strivings to
avoid it: I forgive the entire African races for whistling the latest
polkas, or rather _sistling_ through their closed teeth, for holding to
the ancient custom of affectionately interlacing little fingers, as they
come dancing, chattering and jabbering along the streets. Fleas, too,
were as lively and vigorous as ever, and I thought I recognised one
centenarian, who hopped on me with an ardor truly delightful, upon
stepping on shore at the palace stairs. The shopping Rua Ouvidor was
still the same incongruous assortment of French and German shops, with
here and there an unobtrusive counter, behind which some Levite
displayed ebony trays of twinkling brilliants, enough to make the mouth
water, eyes wink, and pocket bleed, should a purchase be thought of.
Black nurses still held their juvenile charges out from the lattice-work
doors and windows, with little bare legs dangling outside, to favor any
chance pedestrian with an eleemosynary kick, should he come within
reach. Then the same interminable lines of slaves, each a bag of coffee
on his head, preceded by a leading chorister, with small rattle, by way
of accompaniment to the harsh chorus, as they pass swiftly on with a
sharp jerking trot to the shipping or warehouses of the port. All this
was still the same to me, but in general it was not my Rio, not the spot
where my first and boyish impressions were formed, of the voluptuous,
luxurious life under tropical suns. The march of invention is rapidly
reducing everything to a standard of its own, and I could only sigh over
the innovations constituting refinement in civilization, where it seems
so little needed.
A very great improvement, in all praise be it said, had taken place in
the order and cleanliness of the city--we were not accosted once by
mendicants, when formerly they were as thick as lazzaroni in Naples. The
police was large, remarkably well organized, and the riots and
assassinations of former days were unheard of. The cafes and hotels have
kept pace with the times, where one may satisfy his gourmanderie with a
certain show of epicurianism, provided his palate be not too delicate
for many kinds of fishes and vegetables, with mayhap, at rare intervals,
a taste of monkey or paroquet. Yankee ice is very generally used, and a
philanthropic person had hung out a banner with "Mint Juleps" inscribed
thereon, but the thirst for these cold institutions is not so much felt
as in some parts of the United States; for here the weather, though hot
and enervating, has not the oppressiveness and lassitude of our summers,
and besides, fluids are made sufficiently cool and cooling, through the
medium of unglazed water jars, swung gently in the breeze.
We saw one deformed African attached to a small tray and sign, on which
was legibly painted "ginger-beer," evidently meaning ginger pop. We
execrated that monster on the spot, and said to ourselves, what is the
necessity for leaving home, if we are to be stared out of countenance by
our household gods, at the antipodes.
Another trifling peculiarity attracted our attention. I allude to the
trumpet-shaped water pipes, sticking boldly out from below every
balconied window, of all colors and sizes, reminding us of misshapen
angels, with puffed out cheeks, and trombones, invariably found in the
upper angles of miraculous, or scriptural paintings: fortunately there
was no rain, or we might have been gratified with a douche that the
great Preussnitz himself would have been proud of.
By no art or teaching can His Imperial Majesty, with "all the Senate at
his heels," be induced to give a respectable currency to the country.
The stamped paper of the empire in rais fluctuates like quicksilver at
the mart, and it is next to impossible to form any reasonable conjecture
what change may take place from day to day. In lieu of this, copper
coins, nearly the diameter of ship biscuits, valued from twenty to forty
rais, and commonly called "dumps," are used in every day traffic, but
should a person require more than one dollar at a time, it were
advisable to employ a negro and basket to transport them.
Among the devices before touched upon, in the way of ambulation, was one
which amused us excessively. Nothing less than a four-mule omnibus,
driven by the most remarkable Jehu ever beheld--evidently one who had
seen, or at least heard of, the natty style things were conducted at
Charing Cross before rails were laid. I had the honor to be propelled by
this individual a number of times, and it was well worth a "dump" to see
him pull on a very dirty buskin glove, the manner he handled the rope
reins, give his glazed hat a rap, and button up a huge box coat, with
the sun pouring down a stream of noonday fire; then an encouraging yell
to the leaders, swinging himself from side to side, away he rattled to
the astonishment of every wonder-loving person in the neighborhood. The
mules acted up to their natural propensities; at times dashing along the
sidewalks, and against houses; again coming to a dead halt, and favoring
each other with a few slapping salutes with their heels; then off they
clattered once more, until about to double a sharp corner, when if they
did not bolt into the pulperia opposite, like a Habanese volante, the
conductor, with the most imperturbable dignity, would crack his leathern
whip, shout like a devil, and do his possible to run over a covey of
miserable lame blackies, who would start up in great bewilderment, like
boys catching trapball, without knowing precisely in which direction
would be safest to dodge the eccentric vehicle. I always cheered my
friend with reiterated marks of approbation, as I look with leniency
upon the peculiarities of mankind, and ever make a rule to respect the
absurdities of others. The Jehu whose accomplishments I have so faintly
portrayed, can be regarded at any hour of the day, on the road to Boto
Fogo, and he will be found quite as interesting an object of curiosity
as the Falls of Tejuco, to say nothing of the fatigue and expense of the
journey.
CHAPTER III.
Much of my time was passed with friends on the shores of the bay, a
short distance beyond Gloria Hill, and I was in a certain degree
relieved from the banging and roaring of cannon fired in compliment to
distinguished personages, who appear to select Rio as the place of all
others, where they may smell powder to their noses' content; to say
nothing of being immured on ship-board after nearly two months' passage.
Escaping these disagreeables, I had leisure to stretch my limbs on
shore, and enjoy the perfumes of flowers and fruit from the stems that
bore them.
It is in the direction of the beach, or, as the Portuguese have it,
Praya Flamingo, on the road to Il Cateto, and the charming and secluded
little bay of Boto Fogo, that most of the diplomatique corps, and
foreign merchants reside. The houses are rarely more than two stories in
height, a combination of Venetian and Italian orders of architecture,
with heavy projecting cornice, balconies and verandas, and washed with
light straw or bluish tints.
The saloons are always spacious and lofty, with prettily papered walls,
and floors of the beautiful, dark polished wood of the country. Nearly
all those residences are surrounded by extensive gardens, blooming in
bright and brilliant foliage, only matured beneath the burning rays of a
vertical sun. There are no springs in Rio, and the grounds are irrigated
by miniature aqueducts, led from mountains in the rear; sufficiently
large, however, to float in their narrow channels, serpents and many
other noxious reptiles, enough to make one's hair stand erect. It is by
no means an uncommon occurrence to find the giracea, a venomous snake,
insinuating themselves within the sunny marble pavements of steps and
porticoes and I was assured by a resident, that one monster after having
some four feet cut off from his tail, ran away with head and remaining
half with a most cricket-like and surprising degree of celerity. Indeed
I was myself a witness to the intrusion of an individual of the scorpion
breed, who walked uninvited into the saloon, and was on the point of
stepping up a young lady's ancle, when, detecting his intention, with
the assistance of a servant, he was enticed into a bottle that he might
sting himself or the glass at pleasure. Being somewhat unaccustomed to
these little predatory incursions, I was particularly cautious during
the remainder of my stay, to examine every article, from a tooth-pick to
the couch, before touching the same. Another approximation to the same
genus is the white ant, possessing rather a literary turn, and I was
told, that it is not unusual for a million or two to devour a
gentleman's library--covers and all, in a single night. I have never yet
been able to conquer disgust for even docile, harmless, speckled-back
lizards, and indeed all the hosts of slimy, crawling reptiles I heartily
fear and abhor.
We found the town in a furor of enthusiasm in admiration of the song and
beauty of a French operatique corps. I went thrice and was well repaid
for the dollars, in sweet music of Auber and Donizetti--there were two
primas--for serious and comique--both, too, primas in prettiness. The
Academy of Paris Music had never, perhaps, seen or heard of Mesdames
Duval and her partner, but La Sala San Januario had been captivated
with both, and beauty covers multitudes of faults, particularly with
men, for what care we, if the notes touch the soul, whether a crystal
shade higher or lower than Grisi, or Persiani, so long as they flow from
rosy lips, that might defy those last-named donnas to rival, even with
the brightest carmine of their toilets.
The theatre itself is a very respectable little place, having three
tiers and parquette. The royal box faces the stage, hung with damask.
The whole interior of the building was quite Italian--every box railed
off with gilded fret work, and lighted with candles swinging in glass
shades. The Brazilians are fond of music, and all the world attended
each representation, including the Emperor, Empress and Court. As I had,
in times past, seen a good deal of Don Pedro, when he was a studious,
meditative boy, at the Palace of Boto Fogo, I was somewhat curious to
observe the effect of old time's cutting scythe on the Lord's anointed,
as well as on the rest of us clay-built mortals. His face and shape of
the head had changed very little, but he had grown immensely; tall,
awkward, and verging on corpulency even now, though I believe he is only
twenty-eight years of age. His Italian wife appeared much older. Both
were well and plainly dressed, attended by some half a dozen dames and
dons of the court.
The curtain rose as the imperial party took their seats, and there were
neither vivas, nor groaning manifestations to express pleasure or
disgust, from the audience. All passed quietly and orderly, like
sensible persons, who came to hear sweet sounds, and not to be overawed
by great people. I made the tour of the donas through a capital
lorgnette, and although like Mickey Free, fond of tobacco and ladies, I
must pledge my solemn assurances, that with the exception of something
pretty, attached to the French company, there was not a loveable woman
to be seen. I doubt not but there are rare jewels to be found in out of
the way spots, secluded from public gaze, but it was terra incognita to
me, and we saw none other than the light molasses-hued damsels, who are
fully matured at thirteen, and decidedly passee at three and twenty. In
the present age it is a questionable inference if saponaceous compounds
might not be judiciously used in removing some few stains that nature is
entirely innocent of painting; albeit, a lovely Anglo-Saxon of my
acquaintance was vastly horrified at thoughts of a friend espousing one
of these cream-colored beauties, valued at a _conto_ of rais, and
shiploads of coffee; and assured the deluded swain, with tears in her
eyes, that it would require more than half his fortune to keep his wife
in soap--supposing she should acquire the weakness or ambition to become
enamored of fresh water.
CHAPTER IV.
"Uptorn reluctant from its oozy cave,
The ponderous anchor rises o'er the wave."
FALCONER.
On the twenty-ninth of October, the anchors were loosened from their
muddy beds; a light land wind fanned us out of the harbor, and with a
white silver moon, we began our dreary march towards Cape Horn.
The following night the ship was dashing over the seas eleven miles the
hour. The bell had just struck eight, watch set, and the topmen came
dancing gaily down the rigging, here and there one, with a pea jacket
snugly tied up and held by the teeth, preparatory to a four hours'
snooze in the hammocks, when a moment after the cry, "Look out,
Bill!--Overboard!--Man overboard!" was cried from the main rigging, and
amid the bustle that ensued, the voice of the poor drowning wretch was
heard in broken exclamations of agony, as the frigate swept swiftly by.
Down went the helm, and sails were taken in as she came up to the wind,
but by the strangest fatality, both life buoys were with difficulty cast
adrift, and even then the blue lights did not ignite. A boat was soon
lowered, and sent in the vessel's wake. An hour passed in the search,
without hearing or seeing ought but the rude winds and breaking waves;
and this is the last ever known of poor Bill de Conick.
He struck the channels from a fall of twenty feet up the rigging, and
was probably either encumbered by heavy clothing, or too much injured to
be able to reach the buoys.
Friday, too, the day of all others in our superstitious calendar for
those "who go down to the sea in ships:" even amid a large crew, where
many, if not all, are utterly reckless of life, an incident of this
nature sheds a momentary gloom around, and serves to make many reflect,
that the same unlucky accident might have wrapped any other in the same
chilling shroud. There are few more painful sights in the world than to
behold the imploring looks, with outstretched hands, of a fellow being,
--"When peril has numbed the sense and will,
Though the hand and the foot may struggle still--"
silently invoking help, when all human aid is unavailing--before the
angry waves press him below the surface, to a sailor's grave. Aye, there
can be no more dreadful scenes to make the strong man shudder than
these. Yet it seems a wise ordination in our natures, that the sharp
remembrance of these painful incidents is so rapidly dispelled. This
very characteristic of the sailor, his heedless indifference to the
future, in a great degree makes up his measure of contentment in all the
toils and dangers that beset his course, unconscious that time,
"Like muffled drums, are beating funeral marches to the grave."
A fortnight flew quickly by, the good ship going at as lively a pace. We
passed the wide mouth of La Plata, buttoned our jackets, and slept under
blankets. As the weather became colder, mammy Carey and her broods, with
goneys, albatrosses, boobies and cape pigeons, swarmed around the wake,
to pick up the stray crumbs. Divers hooks and lines were thrown out to
entice them aboard, but for a long interval all efforts proved
fruitless, until one morning, an albatross abstractedly swallowed the
bait, and much to his surprise was pulled on board, like to a boy's
kite. He measured eleven feet four inches, with enormous quills and
feathers, and such a bed of down the monster had concealed about his
oily person, was never known nearer than an eider duck. He had large,
fierce, black eyes, too, with a beak sharp, and hard enough to have
nipped a silver dollar into bits. Whales favored us occasionally with an
inspection--rolled their round snouts out of water--tossed a few tons of
foam in the air--threw up their enormous flukes--struck the waves one
splashing blow, and then went down to examine the soundings. Thus we
sailed along the dull shores of Patagonia, with the long taper top
gallant masts replaced by stumps to stand up more obstinately against
the furious tempests of the "still vexed Bermoothes" of Cape Horn, the
bugbear of all landsmen, and the place of all others, where more yarns
are spun, wove, and wondered at, than from China to Peru. He was a bold
sailor any way, who first doubled the Cape, whatever others may be who
follow. At last came our turn, and on the afternoon of the sixteenth day
from Rio, the clouds lifting, we saw the dark, jagged, rugged bluffs and
steeps of Staten and Terra del Fuego. The next morning we rounded Cape
St. John, and were received by the long swelling waves of the sister
ocean. If the great Balboa when standing on the mountains of Panama,
regarding the placid waves of the equatorial ocean, could have known the
tempestuous gales and giant seas of the polar regions, sporting around
this snowy cape, he might possibly have been less overjoyed at his grand
discovery. Our pleasant weather and smooth seas clung to us, to the
last, and, as if loth to leave, gave one unclouded view of Staten Land,
like a casting in bronze, with the bleak, snow-capped heights, tinged
by the rising sun. An hour after the bright sky was veiled by mist, the
rising gale, from the west, brought hail and chilling rain. We lost
sight of land, reefed the sails close down, and then bid defiance to the
storm. Nothing venture nothing gain, is as true with ships' rigging, as
thimble rigging, and we staked all our hopes on a rapid passage. Sorry
work we made of it. The very birds were obliged to trim their pinions
with great nicety in beating to windward--even then a terrible gust
ruffled their plumes, and away they were driven, eddying, and screaming,
to leeward. Still we strove the tempests to disarm, by stout hearts, and
tough canvas, with partial success, too, for even with adverse winds, we
managed to get to the southward, besides making something in the voyage;
blessed, also, by a cool, bracing atmosphere, and day and twilight the
whole twenty-four hours. Though the sun in tracking his bright career in
either hemisphere is supposed to tinge the land and sea beneath his
blaze, with what is generally called summer, yet an exception to the
rule exists in vicinity of Cape Horn. The days, it is true, are longer;
in fact the night is day, but the sun diffuses no pleasant, genial
warmth, and is only seen peering out from behind the clouds, with a
careworn, desolate, blurred face, as if he was ashamed of his company,
and had marched entirely out of his beat.
In all this time hardly an incident occurred to make us even wink,
except, perhaps, the tumble of a topman from aloft, who was picked up
with a fractured spine; and a little sauciness, reproved by our stout
armorer, through the intervention of an iron rod upon the limbs of a
tall negro, thereby breaking his arm in two places. One's bones are
brittle in frosty weather, and young Vulcan was made to submit to severe
personal damages. I must chronicle also the sudden demise of a
venerable sergeant of marines, who departed this life one cold night,
while relieving the guard under the forecastle--the next day he was
consigned to the mighty deep, divested of all his worldly accoutrements,
save a hammock and a couple of round shot, to pull him into eternity. We
had not exchanged nautical salutations since leaving port, and well nigh
believed the ocean was deserted; however, one day there came looming
through the mist and rain, a large ship, with all her flaunting muslin
spread, running before the gale--the distance was too great to make out
her colors, but sufficiently near to cause some of us to wonder when our
bark's prow would be turned in the same direction, and the sheets eased
off for home. Speaking of ships, while at Rio an American vessel of war
arrived, and our sympathies were universally enlisted on learning that
she had been two long months trying to reach Valparaiso, but when off
the Horn, or in fact after having passed it, she experienced tremendous
hurricanes and giant waves, which blew the sails to ribbons, tore away
the boats, shattered the stern frame, and left her altogether in a most
distressing and heart-rending condition, consequently she put back. It
was worthy of remark, however, that she came buoyantly into the harbor,
tricked out in a bran new suit of clothes, and when a number of officers
went on board to survey her pitiable plight, they could find neither
leak nor strain, and very sensibly concluded she was one of the
staunchest and best corvettes in the navy, as indeed she was. John Bull
took back his mails and declared he would never take advantage again of
a crack Yankee sloop-of-war to forward important dispatches by.
Our pleasures were now limited, no one raised his nose above the
taffrail if not compelled; our chief resource was reading, and after
absorbing heaps of ephemeral trash drifting about the decks, we sought
the library and poured over ponderous tomes of physics, history or
travels. Books find their true value a shipboard--cut off from all
amusement of the land, we derive the full benefit by reading, for more
than reading's sake, or for the purpose of killing time in silly
abstraction, and many a stupid author is thoroughly digested, and many
labored narrations of voyages are carefully studied, whose narrators
have "compiled very dull books from very interesting materials," and
they should be grateful to governments for purchasing, and thankful for
indifferent persons to peruse them.
On the advent of Saturday nights, when the wind was blowing cold and
dreary, we sought the lowest depths of the frigate. _Facilis decensus
averni_, in other words, "'tis easy to dive into the cock-pit"--there in
a cozy state-room, we made a jovial little party, conducted on strictly
private principles, for the purpose of seeking medical advice. We
consulted a pot-bellied gentleman, with a small copper kettle on his
head, illumined by a spirit lamp, whilom, termed Doctor Faustus--unlike
the Sangrado practitioners, the Doctor constantly poured out instead of
in. One humorsome fellow, the President of our club, who was rather
stout on his pins, and _caree par la base_, poured forth wit and hot
water by the hour, diversifying both occasionally, by ravishing strains
on the violin, and chanting Virginia melodies, which acted on the heels
of one of our attendants, in a complicated series of jigs, called the
double shuffle.
At last the fates befriended us; a new moon appeared, and the west wind
having apparently blown itself out of breath, a breeze sprang up from
south-east and commenced blowing the sea and ourselves in an opposite
direction; snow fell thick and fast, driving the thermometer below
freezing point, and barometer running rapidly up. As the flakes fell and
adhered to rigging and sails, the entire mass of ropes, spars and
hampers were soon clothed in icy white jackets. The sun broke out for a
moment and converted a showering cloud of snow into a magnificent bow.
Rainbows of sun and moon are beheld by the million, but seldom a novelty
like a _snow-bow_! The ship was hurried along at great speed on the
sixtieth parallel, until reaching the meridian of eighty, when we bore
away to the northward. Congratulating ourselves with the hope that the
clerk of the weather had forgotten to announce our arrival to the court
of winds in the great South Pacific; faint delusion!--off the gusty isle
of Chiloe, we had a hug from a gale, which, however, exhausted itself in
a few hours, and then left us to flounder about on the mountainous backs
of waves as best we might--then there was an interval of rain and
squalls from all quarters, when the breeze again came fair, and on the
second of December, we anchored at Valparaiso, just five weeks from Rio
Janeiro.
CHAPTER V.
There can be no greater satisfaction to a wind-buffetted rover, than
sailing into a new place, and the consolation of knowing there are still
others behind the curtain. It was thus we felt, and after rounding the
Point of Angels, and casting anchor in the Bay of Paradise, fancied
ourselves quite in altissimo spirits, if not precisely in cielo.
On approaching the Chilian coast, the eye of course seeks the
white-robed Cordilleras, and well worthy the sight they are--forty
leagues inland, cutting the sky in sharp, clear outlines, with peaks of
frosted silver, until the attention is fairly arrested by the stupendous
peak of the Bell of Quillota, and Tupongati, the colossus of all,
tumbling as it were, from the very zenith--then nearer, diminuendoing
down to the ocean, are generations of lesser heights, each, however, a
giant in itself, until their bases are laved by the Pacific. It is a
grand _coup d'oeil_ at rise or set of sun; but there is a sameness
about masses of reddish rocks, ravines and mountains of the foreground,
and one is apt to doubt the immense height of those beyond, from the
gradual rise around. Moreover, there is nothing striking or diversified,
as with their tall brothers in Switzerland or Asia; snowy tops without
glaciers; frightful chasms, and sweeping valleys, without torrents or
verdure; all this is nature's design, but the decorations have been
forgotten, and bare walls of mount and deep is all that appears
finished.
Little can be said commendatory of Valparaiso; and truly I think the
most rabid of limners would meet with difficulty in getting an outside
view from any point; for, owing to formation of the land, furrowed into
scores of ravines by the rush and wash of creation, with the town
running oddly enough along the ridges, or down in the gullies, it
becomes a matter of optical skill, for a single pair of eyes to compass
more than a small portion at a glance.
The houses are mean; streets narrow and nasty; the former are built of
adobies--unbaked bricks of great thickness--or lathed, plastered and
stuccoed; the latter paved with small pebbles no bigger than pigeons'
eggs, and only those running with the shores of the bay, are at all
walkable. A little way back in the _quebradas_, or broken ground, is
like stepping over angular Flemish roofs, and with a long leg and short
one, to preserve an equipoise, you may walk along these inclined planes
without any serious personal danger, save what consists in liquids
thrown on your head, and the torture endured by your corns.
There is not a single public edifice in Valparaiso worthy of even
passing admiration. The custom house is most conspicuous, facing the
port; the theatre fronts one of two small squares, and but a few meanly
built churches are to be found, packed away, out of sight, under the
steep hills back of the city. Improvements, however were planned, and
rapidly progressing. The port for many years had been steadily rising in
wealth and population, under the sure incentives of a large foreign
trade, and the enterprise of foreign residents; and all that appears
necessary to make the city much in advance of other commercial rivals
in the Pacific, is that Dame Nature should play excavating Betty on the
next earthquake, and remove a few of the obtrusive hills that encroach
so abruptly upon the bay.
There is an unusual bustle pervading the quay and streets, for a Spanish
Creole town. As ships cannot approach the unprotected shores to
discharge their cargoes, the port is crowded with multitudes of lighters
and whale boats, constantly passing to and fro, while porters, bending
under packages of goods, copper, and produce, are moving from the
_duana_, or warehouses, to the mole and beach. Videttes of mounted
police are posted at every corner, and small guards of soldiers in the
streets, supervising the exertions of gangs of convicts at work for the
authorities. In emulation, also, of the means of locomotion in vogue at
Rio, there has been introduced a ricketty contrivance, of the cab genus,
called _birloches_, to which is attached a horse within the shafts, and
another to caper at the side, similar to a Russian drosky, until a relay
is required, when they are changed. They rattle through the town with
reckless speed, urged by lash and spur of the driver mounted on the
outside beast. The same system is pursued on the longest journeys, with
merely the addition of a larger drove of animals to make up their own
posts from the cavalcade--the only respite from labor remaining in the
privilege of travelling at the same rate without the load.
Shops are sufficiently numerous, filled with manufactured goods from
Europe and the United States, with lots of gimcrackery from China. In
the old _plaza_ at night, almost every inch of ground is occupied by
itinerant venders of wares, toys, shoes, combs, fried fish, fruit, and
_dulces_; each squatted on his own cloth counter, with paper lanterns at
the sides. The proprietors of these ambulating establishments are women
and children. A fine band discourses delightful music, on alternate
evenings, and when one feels disposed to say pretty speeches to pretty
damas, moving gracefully around, and enjoy what is in reality a touch of
Spanish life, it were as well to saunter an hour on the _plaza_.
Valparaiso is extremely disproportioned in breadth to its great length,
necessarily so, from the jutting elevations that hang over it.
Immediately back of the heart of the city are a number of these salient
spurs, on one of which is planted the Campo Santo--foreign and native
cemeteries--while those to the right have been, by trouble and means of
the foreigners, cleared away into small esplanades, having neat and
pretty cottages, surrounded by shrubbery--one, the flora pondia, a very
beautiful, but diminutive tree, blossoms luxuriantly, with delicate,
white flowers, shaped like inverted cones, or bells, and although
shedding no odor during the day, yet at night it fairly renders the air
oppressive with perfume. These lofty turrets command fine views of bay,
shipping, and port, fully repaying the fatigue of getting up, in the
absence of dust, dirt and noise.
To the left, bordering close upon the harbor, is a long curving
promenade, called _El almendral_--almond grove--for no other reason
possibly than that there is not a vestige of trees or verdant leaves to
be seen. Away at the southward, in the opposite extremity of the city,
on what the sailors designate as the fore and main tops, is another
succession of sharply riven ravines, filled and faced with clusters of
one storied dwellings, from the summits down to the narrow gorges
between. It requires some geographical knowledge to explore these
regions, and though the toil of clambering about the uneven chasms and
numerous lanes, be not pleasant, yet one is recompensed while mounting
the steep acclivities by the most novel and striking views of the sea
or city at every turn--never being able to determine where the next
flight will lead--whether but a few yards from the spot just left, with
a bird's eye view of the shipping, or shut up in small causeways between
redly-tiled roofs, with the scene closed by barriers of whitewashed
walls, and even after attaining another airy eminence, under the belief
of having the broad ocean spread out at your feet, one is startled to
find himself gazing quite in another direction. These tops, with the
_quebradas_ between, are portions of the terrace, where we spent some
pleasant hours, dancing the _samacueca_, or fandangos, to the tinkling
of guitars, swept by nimble fingers of sloe-eyed Chilians. We were
always received courteously and sincerely, and in making ourselves
particularly agreeable, have been occasionally treated to a sip of weak
rum negus.
Once, accompanied by a friend in these exploring rambles, we had the
good fortune, through the medium of cigarillos, smiles, and a smattering
of Castilian, to make the acquaintance of a hospitable old lady and her
two pretty daughters. Carmencita was my favorite--lovely Carmencita! She
was very pretty--large, very large black eyes, half shut with roguery,
or coquetry; an adorable plump little figure, and what with a fairy
touch of the guitar, a soft, plaintive voice, and a fondness for
cigarillos, we thought her one of the most enchanting amourettes
imaginable. Poor Carmen! She had just lost by the fell destroyer her
lover, who was a superintendent of mines in San Felipe, but who had the
generosity during his last moments, to leave his tender sweetheart a
handsome legacy, a letter to the French consul, and his blessing. Pretty
Carmen! She preserved each and all of these interesting relics, with
great care, and although, "Souvent femme varie, bien fol est qui s'y
fie," she resisted all further assaults upon her heart--confessed that I
had _buen sentimientos_, but, nevertheless, she had resolved to live and
die within the severest rules of platonism.
I know not how or why, but there certainly is an irresistible charm,
that floats like a mist around Spanish creoles; indeed, creoles of all
nations have a style of fascination peculiarly their own, which renders
them truly bewitching, with the power of retaining their spells as long,
and as strong as any. Not that their features are more beautiful, eyes
brighter, or manners even as refined as those in older countries, for
they are not; but still they have soft, languishing eyes, rich, dark
hair, and pliant, graceful forms, combined with the greatest possible
charm in woman, earnest, unaffected, and amiable dispositions.
It is to be wondered at, too, that in remote countries, where so few
advantages are attainable in education, knowledge of the world and
society, that they should be so well supplied with pretty airs and
graces. It can only be attributable to that sublimated coquette Nature
herself, who provides those little goods the gods deny.
We had the pleasure of attending a number of _tertulias_, or evening
parties given in the houses of native residents, and witnessing the
dances of the country. The _tertulia_ is easy and sociable, without form
or ceremony. The _bayles_ are more staid affairs, where ladies are
seated in silent rows by themselves--men very hairy and grummy--taking
advantage of intervals in dancing to lounge on the piazzas, swallow a
few mouthfuls of cigar smoke, (not a bad institution this in warm
weather,) and exclaim, _dios que calor_! (how hot.) At one of these
assemblies we first saw a minuet called the _samacueca_. It was
undertaken by a beautiful young married lady, in company with a rather
corpulent old gentleman, and danced in a very sprightly, rogueish
manner. The prelude and music is similar to that of fandangos, but the
movements and _motif_ are far more indelicate, and it is by no means a
matter of difficulty to divine the meaning. Although these innocent
ballets would no doubt shockingly jar the nerves of a more refined
audience, and many a performer might be considered "too fine a dancer
for a virtuous woman," yet I am convinced that among these unaffected
creoles, naught is seen in the least degree improper, but they are
regarded from infancy as the harmless customs and amusements of their
country. As an individual I am fond of a notion of cayenne to existence,
and only clapped hands, or cried, _brava! buena! bonita!_
The opera was in full blast--the house large and convenient, with very
pretty scenic displays, and quite a brilliant constellation of Italian
stars to illumine the proscenium, but on no representation did there
appear evidence in the boxes that the manager's purse was filled. We had
the honor of being presented to the primo basso, Signor Marti, who
conversed pleasantly with a melodramatic voice from apparently very low
down in his boots. We listened to his sweet _seguadillas_ with rapture.
We found the climate truly delightful. It was the summer of the southern
ocean--pure, pleasant breezes with the sun, and clear, calm, sparkling
nights by moon or stars. Little or no rain falls, except in the winter
months, and as a consequence where the soil is fine and dry, dust covers
everything in impalpable clouds, at the same time affording a desirable
atmosphere for that lively individual, the flea!
On the coast of Syria the Arabs hold to the proverb that the Sultan of
fleas holds his court in Jaffa, and the Grand Vizier in Cairo; but so
far as our experience went in Valparaiso, we could safely give the lie
to the adage. As an unobtrusive person myself, I have a constitutional
antipathy to the entire race, and invariably use every precaution to
avoid their society--all to no purpose. They found me in crowds or
solitudes--alighted on me in swarms, like the locusts of Egypt,
destroying enjoyment on shore, and I fully resolved never to venture
abroad again, of mine own free will, until some enterprising Yankee
shall invent a trap for their annihilation.
I remember one mild afternoon sauntering on the almendral, when my
attention was drawn to a lithe, young damsel on the sidewalk, who,
whilst tripping along with a dainty gait, suddenly gave her foot a
backward twist, with a dexterous pinch at the pretty ancle, and again
went on like a bird. She had captured a flea! but it was a style of
piedermain worthy of the great Adrien; a feat I was prepared to believe
nearly equal to mounted Cossacks picking up pins from the ground with
their teeth, at full speed--in fact, something really wonderful, and
although I was quite confounded, and almost speechless with amazement,
yet I followed mechanically in order to see what she could or would
accomplish next. Nor could I repress some audible expressions of
encouragement; but the fair _doncella_, unconscious of having performed
anything remarkable, gave me a look, as much as to say, in the language
of a touching nautical ballad--
"Go away young man--my company forsake."
So not wishing to appear intrusive, I returned pensively to mine inn.
Fashions in ladies' dress are similar to those in Europe or the United
States, and even among the lower orders the bonnet is worn; but to my
way of thinking, a Spanish girl's forte is in a black satin robe and
slippers, a flowing _mantilla_, fine, smooth jetty tresses, and a waving
fan to act as breakflash to sparkling eyes!
Of the men of Chili, or at least those of them whom transient visitors
encounter in the usual lounging resorts of _vaut-riens_,--theatres,
cafes, tertulias, plazas, and other purlieus, they cannot be said to
compare with their captivating sisters--for a more indolent, hairy,
cigar-puffing race of bipeds never existed. In dress they ape the faded
fashions of Europe, retaining, however, the native cloak costume of the
_poncho_. It is a capital garment for either the road or the saddle,
leaving free play to the arms, and at the same time a protection from
dust or rain. It is worn by all classes, and composed of the gaudiest
colors, occasionally resembling a remarkably bright pattern of a drawing
room carpet, with the head of the wearer thrust through a slit in the
centre.
The President of Chili during our visit was General Bulnes, a soldier of
distinction in the civil wars of his own state, with a laurel or two won
in numerous bloody blows dealt upon the neighboring Peruvians. As the
hero of Yungai, his Excellency was elevated to his present position by
the bayonets of the troops, but latterly he evinced a keen sagacity in
reducing to a small force this army of vagabonds, who are prone, in
South American republics, in the absence of more agreeable occupation,
to amuse themselves with hatching conspiracies for the purpose of
slitting the throats of their former coadjutors.
There was but one regiment of infantry, and a few hundred cavalry in
Valparaiso. The militia system, as with us, had been partially
introduced throughout the provinces. It answered every purpose at much
less expense than regular troops, indeed excellently well, as a police,
and to the credit of Senor Bulnes' subalterns, good order was most
strictly and promptly enforced in his sea-port.
Every one subscribed to the opinion that the government was firmly
established, which may have been attributable, in some measure, to the
decided argument suggested by the President. Shooting, instead of
talking, down all opposition. By these decided proceedings he has been
enabled to keep turbulent spirits in check, and under fear of his
displeasure, there had not been a revolution for a long time, which was,
in itself, surprising.
Chili undoubtedly possesses resources within herself to become one of
the most prosperous and flourishing of the independent states of the
South American continent; and could the government be induced to take
proper steps to invite a more general emigration, and make it the
interest of emigrants to settle permanently in the country, by their
vigor and enterprize, the true development of the mining and
agricultural wealth might be easily accomplished, and this communion of
interests might be the means of securing Chili from the doom which seems
destined to await her sister republics. But notwithstanding the rapid
strides of liberality throughout the world, it appears that the rulers
of all the rich soil of America, washed by the Pacific, still maintain a
cramped policy, actuated by religious intolerance, and an indolence
unknown elsewhere. Destitute of energy themselves, the voracious
foreigner soon fattens on their resources, and in the end, having no
ties to bind him to a country where the religion precludes his forming
closer domestic relations, embarks his easily acquired fortune, to end
his days under an enlightened government.
It is indeed melancholy that such baneful influences do prevail, when
the whole universe is subscribing to more liberal notions, but as I do
not purpose preaching a capucinade for or against the Chilians, or take
any extraordinary measures to discover vice or follies, what might be
termed the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, and apprehensive
lest any one should entertain ideas of me widely at variance to my real
and confirmed opinions, I simply assure them, I have long since given
over all philanthropic researches for that which does not affect my
heart or digestion. I once lived with a Russian, who was blessed with a
stomach and organs durable as the platina of his native mines, and he
ever assured me, after first finishing a flask of absinthe, that hard
hearts and good digestions were the only true elements of happiness in
life. Becoming a convert to this doctrine, I care not for the foibles or
follies of mankind, so long as people do not pick my pockets, or tread
on my toes. I take more delight in seeing a child skip the rope, a
monkey at his tricks, or a fish jump out of water, than all the palaces
or churches on earth, and I had much rather chat an hour with a pert
_dame de comptoir_, than dine with Senor Bulnes--nor were my spirits
affected by learning the vast amount of copper exported, or the quantity
of tea and tobacco smuggled; neither dispensations reduced the price of
billiards, or induced laundry women to lave linen a whit the whiter;
thus the truth being apparent that I am an indifferent worldly person, I
make the merit of my necessities, in striving to live the space allotted
me in the world, and not for it.
And now, if I be forgiven for venting this egotistic digression and
harangue, I promise to make my mouth a _mare clausum_ in future, for all
personal grievances.
CHAPTER VI.
We were aroused one morning at peep of day by the heavy, booming report
of a gun from the frigate, and on tearing open our eyelids, saw the
chequered cornet flying at the fore, the signal of sailing.
Anathematizing ships and seas, we shook fleas and dust from our heels,
and repaired forthwith on board. Breakfast over, the shrill whistles of
boatswain and mates called up anchor; much easier said than done, that
ponderous instrument being loth to leave his bed. And it was not until
after a tremendous amount of cursing and heaving had been expended, that
it deigned to be roused out at all; even then, the ship under topsails,
with a fresh breeze, and forty fathoms water, the strain was
enormous--when by a sudden surge, owing to a number of nonsensical
contrivances of iron teeth biting the breathing cable, they let go their
gripe, and out flew the chain, making the whole vessel tremble from its
quivering jar and whirl. When its fury was a little exhausted, the
brawny compresses were drawn, and the unruly gentleman brought to a
stand. Then great apprehensions were felt for the seamen in the chain
lockers. They were pulled out alive, with only a broken leg, and a
multitude of painful contusions. How they escaped being torn into atoms,
in a confined box; six feet square, during the frightful contortions
and vibrations of the immense iron snake, was little less than a
miracle.
At noon we were clear of the harbor, and as the sun went down, he gave
us a last glimpse of the Bell of Quillota, and his tall companion,
Tupongati. The wind was fair, we murmured that beautiful saline
sentiment, "The ship that goes, the wind that blows, and lass that loves
a sailor." I sighed adieu to Carmencita, ordered my valet of the
bedchamber, Giacomo, to arrange my four poster of a hammock, and then in
dreams forgot the past.
The fourth day out we passed near to a cluster of desolate, uninhabited
islands--St. Ambrose and Felix--the first about two miles in length, and
rising abruptly from the ocean, to the height of fifteen hundred feet.
Numbers of queer-shaped, pointed, rocky islets, white with guano, were
grouped along the base of the island, and through one was cut, by some
action of the water, a well-defined arch, open to the sea, like a
telescope.
Pursuing an undeviating track, with glorious seas, skies and winds, on
the last day of the year we crossed the equator, in a longitude of 110 deg..
During this period there were two deaths; one a good old man from
Deutschland, named Jerry Wilson. On being asked an hour before he
expired, how he felt--"First rate," said Jerry, and no doubt he is now,
if not then. The other was a youth named Tildon, caused by a spasmodic
affection of the throat, so as to prevent swallowing food, until he
absolutely starved to death. He made his last plunge as the sun went
down. The stately frigate, careless of all, went flying with
wide-stretched pinions, towards her destination, at a speed of Jack the
Giant-killer's boots. On the 20th of January, land ho! Alta California!
For forty-eight hours, we sailed lightly along the base of a compact
ridge of mountains that rose like a sea wall, seamed into ten thousand
furrows, the summits fringed with lofty forest trees, and not a cloud
visible in high heaven, then appeared a green, shelving point, of waving
pines and verdure, terminated by a reef of fearful, black rocks. Giving
this a wide birth, we shortly entered a wide, sweeping indentation of
the coast, in shape of a fish hook, with the barb at the southern end,
furled our sails, and moored ship in the Bay of Monterey, forty days
from Valparaiso.
CHAPTER VII.
Before resuming the thread of this narrative, it may be as well to give
a brief summary of events that had transpired previously to our arrival.
Pending disturbances between the United States and Mexico, when the
quarrel had not reached an open rupture, much excitement prevailed in
Upper California, through the agency of a few foreigners, who wished to
revolutionize the country. At this epoch, Mr. Fremont, of the U. S.
Topographical Engineers, was in the heart of California, engaged upon
scientific explorations, ostensibly in relation to the practicability of
the best route for emigration to Oregon. There is reason to believe,
also, that he was instructed to feel the geographical pulse of the
natives, as well as the mountain passes. Be this as it may, Mr. Fremont
was encamped near Monterey, with sixty followers, when Jose Castro, a
Mexican officer in command of the province, issued a proclamation,
ordering Fremont to leave the territory immediately, and at the same
time threatened to drive every foreigner away also. Fremont and his
party, after holding Castro's bombast in contempt, and his troops at
bay, at last began to march, quite leisurely, towards the northern route
for Oregon: these occurrences happened early in the spring of 1846. On
the 13th of June the first movement began, on the river Sacramento,
near Sutler's Fort, and one of the tributaries to the head waters of San
Francisco. This attack was composed of a few lawless vagabonds, who,
carrying a banner of white, with a red border and grizzly bear, styled
themselves the "Bear Party:" they were of all nations, though claiming
citizenship in the United States. After stealing a drove of horses,
belonging to the Californians, their numbers were increased by other
marauding gentry to forty, when moving rapidly around the northern
shores of the Bay of San Pablo, they surprised and captured the little
garrison of Sonoma, under charge of General Guadalupe Vallejo. Then they
committed excesses, without the slightest recognized authority, but
purely, it appears, from love of a little independent fighting and
thieving on their own private accounts. Meanwhile a large naval force
had been hovering on the Mexican coast for a year previously, awaiting
the first blow to be dealt on the other side. Intelligence of the
battles on the Rio Grande reached Mazatlan in June, and Commodore Sloat,
who was there at the time, sailed for Monterey with the squadron,
arrived in July, and on the 7th hoisted the American flag, and took
formal and legitimate possession of the territory. The same course was
pursued at San Francisco. A week afterwards the frigate Congress
arrived, and Sloat, transferring his pennant to Commodore Stockton,
returned home. The new Commander-in-Chief then sailed for San Pedro,
three hundred miles down the coast; where disembarking a force of three
hundred seamen and marines, he marched towards the capital of Upper
California, Pueblo de los Angeles, a town some thirty miles inland. On
the route, he found a body of five hundred men, under Pico, and Castro,
the military governor of the territory. The Californians broke up their
camp and dispersed, before getting a glance of the sailors' bayonets.
Stockton occupied Los Angeles, received the submission of the native
authorities and citizens, placed a small garrison, returned to San
Pedro, where he re-embarked for San Francisco; in the interim the
settlements of the valleys of Santa Clara and Sonoma were occupied by
American forces.
Fremont overtaken on his way through Oregon by Lieut. Gillespie,
retraced his steps to California, and learning the U. S. flag had been
hoisted in Monterey, proceeded with a battalion of settlers to the lower
country, where they were duly enrolled. At San Francisco news reached
Stockton that the natives, six hundred strong, had risen after his
departure. The Savannah sailed to aid the small garrison, which,
however, had been obliged to capitulate, and Captain Mervine, with three
hundred men, was beaten by a much smaller force.
The Commodore sailed again in the beginning of November, and landed at
San Diego with about 500 men. While at this place, General Kearny with
100 dragoons arrived from a toilsome march of nearly three months from
Santa Fe. At the Pass of San Pascual, he fell in with a Californian
force under Andreas Pico, and after a severe skirmish, beat them off,
though with great loss to himself--eighteen of his saddles were emptied,
including three officers, and as many more badly wounded. Forming a
junction with Commodore Stockton, they left San Diego for San Angelos.
After a toilsome march of 150 miles, through a broken and mountainous
country, on the 8th and 9th of January, their passage was opposed by
Governor Pico and Castro, at the river San Gabriel and plains of La
Mesa, heading a body of 500 cavalry and four field guns; after an
obstinate resistance, the Californians were put to flight. Subsequently,
they fell back upon Colonel Fremont, who, with the volunteers, were en
route to unite with the naval forces from San Siego. The Californian
leaders again capitulated and signed an armistice. This was the position
of affairs on our arrival at Monterey--a few days later General Kearny
arrived, after his difficulties with Commodore Stockton and Fremont, in
relation to the governorship of the territory.
The news we received was by no means inspiriting, nor even the
perspective view of matters becoming better. Among minor details, the
wreck of the schooner Shark, at Columbia river--the drowning of a launch
load of sailors and two officers, in San Francisco, and a host of more
trivial misfortunes. The vessels of the squadron were dispersed up and
down the coast, necessarily scattering men and officers at different
posts, for the purpose of retaining and subjugating the country; but of
course rendering the ships generally inefficient, from the great
diminution of their complements. The natives had been confounded and
bewildered by speeches and proclamations--relays of fresh
commanders-in-chief, who, amid their own official bickerings, never
ceased forming new governments, organizing armies, appointing officers,
civil and military--but what served in a great degree to urge matters to
a crisis, was the banding together of a few mongrel bodies of
volunteers, who enhanced the pleasure of their otherwise agreeable
society, by pillaging the natives of horses, cattle, saddles, household
utensils, and the like, in quite a maraudering, buccaneering,
independent way; all of course under the apparent legal sanction of the
United States' government, and not a doubt but demanded by the
imperative necessity of their patriotic plunderers themselves. The
result was easily foretold. These miserable Californians, who at first
were not averse to subscribe to our laws, and to come under the flag
peacefully and properly, were soon screwed up to such a maze of fear,
uncertainty, and excitement, as to make all future arrangements an
affair of exceeding difficulty. Besides, another important obstacle
intervened; they were to be convinced that the Americans really intended
to hold permanent possession of their country, and not to make another
revoke, as could be reasonably inferred from the invasion of a few years
previous, when we so quickly resigned the conquest--a tergiverse
proceeding, which they, as well as more enlightened nations, were
somewhat at a loss to comprehend. Thus judging from experience of the
past, they had no desire to make themselves obnoxious to their Mexican
rulers, in case a like event should occur again; and consequently, in
the absence of a sufficiency of those convincing arguments done up in
military jackets and trousers, with muskets by their sides, to overawe
even a thin population over so great an extent of territory, the
natives, even those at first most favorably disposed, seized the lance,
took a decided stand, and with the prospect of doing more fighting than
was originally contracted for.
These were the causes principally instrumental in bringing about the
last outbreak. But the Californians, without organization, arms, or
competent leaders, though with all the elements to prolong the contest,
seeing fresh arrivals of ships and troops appear on their coast, were
induced to throw by the lance for the lasso, and agree to an honorable
capitulation. Milder influences prevailed; steps were taken to
tranquilize people's minds by a spirit of conciliation dictated by good
sense. Useless and annoying restrictions were abolished, property of
every description was returned or liberally paid for, prisoners
discharged, paroles annulled, the blue jackets, playing soldiers on
shore, were ordered to their respective ships, and the volunteers
disbanded. All this tended in a great measure to reassure the natives of
an amicable endeavor on our part to make the new yoke rest as lightly as
possible on their shoulders.
CHAPTER VIII.
The rain came down in a steady drizzle, as we anchored in our new haven,
but as the falling water thinned, and rolled partially along the land,
we discerned an endless succession of green gentle slopes and valleys,
with heights of just a medium between hills and mountains, rising
gradually from the shores of the bay, clothed and crowned with
magnificent vegetation. We did not call to mind any land naturally so
picturesque and beautiful. Afterwards, when our excursions had extended
for many leagues in all directions, we were ever amazed to perceive on
every side the loveliness of plain, hill, and valley still the same.
Indeed, for leagues in some directions it presented the appearance of
extensive artificial parks, decked and brilliant with a carpeting of
rich grasses and flowers, shaded by noble clusters of wide-spreading
oaks, all entirely free from undergrowth.
The town of Monterey, if it could be dignified by the title, we found a
mean, irregular collection of mud huts, and long, low, adobie dwellings,
strewn promiscuously over an easy slope, down to the water's edge. The
most conspicuous was the _duana_--Custom House--a spacious frame
building near the landing, which unquestionably had in times past been
the means of yielding immense revenues to the Mexican exchequer, but now
its roomy store-houses were empty and silent. Neither men nor
merchandise disturbed its quiet precincts. Notwithstanding the rain,
numbers of us resolved to dare the moisture, and I, for one, would wade
about on land, up to my neck in water, at any time to get quit of a ship
after forty days aquatic recreation; but here there was no resisting the
gratefully green appearance of the shores around us: we were soon stowed
in a boat--the oars dipped smart and strong in the water, and we went
merrily towards the land. Indeed I have invariably observed that
men-of-war's men are wont to use their arms with much vigor, on first
pulling on shore in a strange port; a physical characteristic which I am
led to attribute to a desire on their part to test the virtues of any
liquid compounds to be met with in the abodes of hospitable publicans.
The anchorage was barely half a mile from the shore, and in a few
minutes we disembarked at a little pier, that only partially served to
check the rolling swell from seaward; but what's a wet foot in a fit of
enthusiasm, or a heavy shower! Nothing, certainly, so we scrambled up
the slimy steps, and while on the point of giving a yell of delight, to
announce our arrival in California, my pedal extremities flew upwards
and down I sank, making a full length _intaglio_ in the yielding
mud--this was my first impression, but after getting decently scraped by
Jack's knives, I became less excitable, and took intense delight during
the course of the afternoon, in beholding my companions going through
precisely the same performances. By cautious navigation we reached the
main street, then our progress was dreadfully slow and laborious. The
mud--a sticky, red pigment, lay six good inches on the dryest level, and
at every step our feet were disengaged by a powerful jerk, and a deep,
gutteral noise from the slippy holes; occasionally, too, we were forced
to climb ungainly barricades of timber, with here and there a piece of
ordnance gazing ferociously out into the surrounding country. Although a
casual observer might naturally have supposed that the mud would have
offered a sufficient barrier to all the armies ever raised, still, as
trouble had been brewing, and most of the garrison withdrawn for an
expedition into the interior, these precautions were quite an imposing
display, which was, no doubt, all intended. At last, by dint of
perseverance, we attained a firm foothold in the barracks, and then had
breath and leisure to look around.
Monterey, before the war, contained about five hundred people, but on
our advent there was scarcely a native to be seen: all the men had gone
to join their belligerent friends in the southern provinces, leaving
their property and dwellings to be guarded by their wives and dogs; even
their ladies bore us no good will, and our salutations were returned by
a surly _adios_, extorted from closed teeth and scowling faces. The dogs
were more civil, and even when showing their fangs, were sagacious
enough to keep beyond the chastening reach of Yankee arms. There were a
goodly number of sentinels on the alert, prowling about, with heavy
knives in their girdles, and the locks of their rifles carefully
sheltered from the rain; and at night it became a matter of some bodily
danger for an indifferent person to come suddenly in view of one of
these vigilant gentlemen, for with but a tolerable ear for music he
might detect the sharp click of a rifle, and the hoarse caution of "Look
out, thar, stranger;" when if the individual addressed did not speedily
shout his name and calling, he stood the merest chance of having another
eyelet-hole drilled through his skull.
All this at the first rapid glance gave us no very bright anticipations;
everything looked triste and cheerless. Upon inquiring, too we were
shocked to learn there was nothing eatable to be had, nor what was yet
more melancholy, naught drinkable nor smokable: everybody was so much
occupied in making war, as to have entirely lost sight of their
appetites. We began to indulge the faintest suspicions that somehow or
other we had gotten into the wrong place, and that California was not so
charming a spot as we had been led to believe; however, there was no
appeal, and fortunately for our health and spirits, as we were leaning
listlessly over the piazza of the barracks, staring might and main at
the little church in the distance, we beheld a body of horsemen coming
slowly over the Verdant plains, and soon after they drew bridles, and
dismounted before us. The _cavallada_ of spare horses were driven into
the corral near by, and we were presented in due form to the riders. It
was the most impressive little band I ever beheld; they numbered sixty,
and, without exception, had gaunt bony frames like steel, dressed in
skins, with heavy beards and unshorn faces, with each man his solid
American rifle, and huge knife by the hip. With all their wildness and
ferocious appearance they had quite simple manners, and were perfectly
frank and respectful in bearing. Their language and phraseology were
certainly difficult for a stranger to comprehend, for many of them had
passed the greater portion of their lives as trappers and hunters among
the Rocky Mountains; but there was an air of indomitable courage
hovering about them, with powers to endure any amount of toil or
privation--men who wouldn't stick at scalping an Indian or a dinner of
mule meat;--and you felt assured in regarding them, that with a score of
such staunch fellows at your side you would sleep soundly, even though
the forests were alive with an atmosphere of Camanche yells. They were
the woodsmen of our far west, who on hearing of the disturbances in
California enrolled themselves for service in the Volunteer
Battalion--more by way of recreation, I imagine, than for glory or
patriotism. In truth, the natives had good reason to regard them with
terror.
We soon became quite sociable, and after a hearty supper of fried beef
and biscuit, by some miraculous dispensation a five-gallon keg of
whiskey was uncorked, and, after a thirty days' thirst, our new-found
friends slaked away unremittingly. Many were the marvellous adventures
narrated of huntings, fightings, freezings, snowings, and starvations;
and one stalwart bronzed trapper beside me, finding an attentive
listener, began,--"The last time, Captin, I cleared the Oregon trail,
the Ingens fowt us amazin' hard. Pete," said he, addressing a friend
smoking a clay pipe by the fire, with a half pint of corn-juice in his
hand, which served to moisten his own clay at intervals between every
puff,--"Pete, do you notice how I dropped the red skin who pit the
poisoned arrer in my moccasin! Snakes, Captin, the varmints lay thick as
leaves behind the rocks; and bless ye, the minit I let fall old Ginger
from my jaw, up they springs, and lets fly their flint-headed arrers in
amongst us, and one on 'em wiped me right through the leg. I tell yer
what it is, hoss, I riled, I did, though we'd had tolerable luck in the
forenoon--for I dropped two and a squaw and Pete got his good
six--barrin' that the darned villians had hamstrung our mule, and we
were bound to see the thing out. Well, Captin, as I tell ye, I'm not
weak in the jints, but it's no joke to hold the heft of twenty-three
pounds on a sight for above ten minits on a stretch; so Pete and me
scrouched down, made a little smoke with some sticks, and then we moved
off a few rods, whar we got a clar peep; for better than an hour we seed
nothin', but on a suddin I seed the chap--I know'd him by his
paintin'--that driv the arrer in my hide; he was peerin' around quite
bold, thinkin' we'd vamosed; I jist fetched old Ginger up and drawed a
bee line on his cratch, and, stranger, I giv him sich a winch in the
stomach that he dropped straight into his tracks; he did! in five jumps
I riz his har, and Pete and me warn't troubled agin for a week." With
such pleasant converse we beguiled the time until the night was somewhat
advanced; when, finding a vacant corner near the blazing fire, with a
saddle for pillow, I sank into profound slumber, and never awoke to
consciousness until the band was again astir at sunrise.
CHAPTER IX.
The time passed rapidly away. The rainy season had nearly ended,--we
were only favored with occasional showers, and by the latter part of
February, the early spring had burst forth, and nothing could exceed the
loveliness of the rich, verdant landscape around us. After the treaty
and capitulation had been signed by the Picos at Los Angeles, their
partizans dispersed, and all who resided in Monterey shortly returned to
their homes. Every day brought an addition to the place--great ox-cart
caravans with hide bodies, and unwieldy wheels of hewn timber, came
streaming slowly along the roads, filled with women and children, who
had sought refuge in some secure retreat in the country. Cattle soon
were seen grazing about the hills. The town itself began to look
alive--doors were unlocked and windows thrown open--a cafe and billiards
emerged--pulperias, with shelves filled with aguadiente appeared on
every corner--the barricades were torn down--guns removed--and the
Californians themselves rode blithely by, with heavy, jingling spurs,
and smiling faces--the women, too, flashed their bright eyes less
angrily upon their invaders--accepted pleasant compliments without a
sneer, and even Dona Angustia Ximenes, who took a solemn oath upon her
missal a few months before, never to dance again, until she could wear a
necklace of Yankee ears, relented too, and not only swept gracefully
through waltz and contra danca, but when afterwards one of our young
officers became ill with fever, she had him carried from the tent to her
dwelling, watched him with all a woman's care and tenderness, as much as
though she had been the mother that bore him, until he was carried to
his last home. Yes, bella Senora, you may swear the same wicked oaths
forever, and still be forgiven by all those who witnessed your
disinterested devotion to poor Minor.
Gradually these good people became aware that the Yankees were not such
a vile pack of demonios as they first believed, and thus whenever
guitars were tinkling at the fandangos, or meals laid upon the board, we
were kindly welcomed, with the privilege of making as much love, and
devouring as many _frijoles_ as may have been polite or palatable. Upon
visiting the residences of the townspeople, true to the old Spanish
character there was no attempt made in show or ostentation--that is
always reserved for the street or alemeda, but a stranger is received
with cordiality, and a certain ease and propriety to which they seem to
the "manner born." With the denizens of Monterey, even the wealthiest,
cleanliness was an acquirement very little appreciated or practised, and
I should presume the commodity of soap to be an article "more honored in
the breach than the observance." For being given to cold water as a
principle of lady-like existence I was something shocked on one
occasion, to find a nice little Senorita, to whom I had been playing the
agreeable the night previous, with a chemisette of a chocolate hue
peeping through a slit in her sleeve; her soft, dimpled hands, too, made
me speculate mentally upon the appearance of her little feet, and I
forthwith resolved, in the event of becoming so deeply infatuated as to
induce her papa to permit a change of estate, to exact a change of
raiment in the marriage contract.
The occasion of inspecting the arena of this young woman's vestments was
during a visit to her portly mamma, and I may as well, by way of
example, describe my reception. The dwelling was a low, one story pile
of adobies, retaining the color of the primitive mud, and forming a
large parallelogram; it enclosed a huge pen, or corral, for cattle, over
which guard was carefully mounted by crowds of _gallinazos_. There were
divers collections of Indian families coiled and huddled about beneath
the porticoes and doorways, each member thereof rejoicing in great
masses of wiry shocks of hair, quite coarse enough to weave into bird
cages on an emergency; there were some bee-hive shaped ovens also, from
the apertures of which I remarked a number of filthy individuals
immersed neck deep, taking, no doubt, balmy slumber, with the rain doing
what they never had the energy to perform themselves--washing their
faces. This much for externals--men and beasts included, merely
premising that the whole affair was situated in a quiet detachment by
itself, a few hundred yards in rear of the village. My guide, though a
good pilot, and retaining a clear perception of the road, was unable to
convoy me safely to the house, without getting stalled several times in
the mire; however, I reached terra firma, thankful to have escaped with
my boots overflowing with mud, and then we marched boldly into the
domicile. We entered a large, white-washed _sala_, when, after clapping
hands, a concourse of small children approached with a lighted tallow
link, and in reply to our inquiries, without further ceremony, ushered
us by another apartment into the presence of the mistress of the
mansion. She was sitting _a la grand Turque_, on the chief ornamental
structure that graced the chamber--namely, the bed, upon which, were
sportively engaged three diminutive brats, with a mouse-trap--paper
cigarritos--dirty feet, and other juvenile and diverting toys. The Dona
herself was swallowing and puffing clouds of smoke alternately--but I
must paint her as she sat, through the haze. "Juana," said she, calling
to a short, squat Indian girl, "_lumbrecita por el Senor_,"--a light for
the gentleman--and in a moment I was likewise pouring forth volumes of
smoke. She wore her hair, which was black and glossy, in natural folds
straight down the neck and shoulders, dark complexion, lighted by deep,
black, intelligent eyes, well-shaped features, and brilliant, white
teeth. I saw but little of her figure, as she was almost entirely
enveloped in shawls and bed clothes; the arms, however, were visible,
very large, round and symmetrical, which of themselves induced me to
resign all pretensions to becoming her son-in-law. She excused herself
on the plea of indisposition for not rising, and it being one I surmised
she was a martyr to every year or so, I very readily coincided in
opinion, but in truth I found the Senora Mariqueta sensible,
good-humored, and what was far more notable, the mother of fourteen male
and five female children--making nineteen the sum of boys and girls
total, as she informed me herself, without putting me to the trouble of
counting the brood; and yet she numbered but seven and thirty years, in
the very prime of life, with the appearance of being again able to
perform equally astonishing exploits for the future. She named many of
her friends and relatives who had done wonders, but none who had
surpassed her in these infantile races. In Spain she would receive a
pension, be exempted from taxes and the militia. On being told this she
laughed heartily, and gave her full assent to any schemes undertaken in
California for the amelioration of the sex. Her husband, who chanced to
be absent, was a foreigner, but the whole family were highly
respectable, and universally esteemed by their fellow citizens. After an
hour's pleasant chat we took leave, with the promise on my part of
teaching the eldest daughter, Teresa, the Polka, for which I needed no
incentive, as she was extremely graceful and pretty.
CHAPTER X.
One morning, at break of day, I left Monterey for a tramp among the
hills; the natives by this time had become pacifically disposed, and
there were no serious apprehensions of getting a hide necklace thrown
over one's head, in shape of the unerring lasso, if perchance a Yankee
strayed too far from his quarters. The war was virtually ended in
California: there was no further hope for gold chains or wooden legs;
the glory had been reaped by the first comers; and I made the time and
shot fly together, ranging about the suburbs. With a fowling-piece on my
arm, and a carbine slung to the back of an attendant, we pursued a
tortuous path, through a gap in the hills, to the southward, and after a
four or five miles' walk we found ourselves at the Mission of Carmelo.
It is within a mile of the sea, protected by a neck of land, close to a
rapid clear stream of the same name. A quaint old church, falling to
decay, with crumbling tower and belfry, broken roofs, and long lines of
mud-built dwellings, all in ruins, is what remains of a once flourishing
and wealthy settlement. It still presents a picturesque appearance,
standing on a little rise, above a broad fertile plain of many acres,
adjacent to the banks of the river, and at the base a large orchard of
fruits and flowers. Following up the stream for some leagues, through
the same rich level, crossing and re-crossing the pure running water,
with noble salmon flashing their silver sides at every fathom, we soon
bagged as much game as we could stagger under: wild ducks, quail,
partridges, hares of a very large size, and rabbits. Not contented with
this we left the valley, and struck through a narrow gorge of the
adjoining hills. Here I caught a glimpse of a trio of _coyotes_ and
instantly blazed away with the carbine, which brought one of them
tumbling down the steep, but much to my surprise his two friends
followed, and actually bolstered up their wounded comrade, and assisted
him out of sight before I could send another bullet. They were as large
as wolves, of a light yellowish brown, with long sharp snouts, bushy
hanging tails, and a gait like the trot of a dog. They are very
disagreeable customers to sheep and other small fry, and, as I
discovered subsequently, that when badly wounded, they have a very
unpleasant way with their teeth. Continuing onward, and hardly recovered
from my astonishment at the rencounter with the _coyotes_, when up
bounded, within thirty yards, three large deer, and with the coolest
impudence stared me full in the face. _Maldito!_ the carbine was again
in the hands of my companion, some distance behind, but I could not
resist the temptation of giving a strapping buck a hail-storm of fine
shot between the eyes. Even this only made the party a little frisky,
kick up their heels, toss their heads, and wag their short tails. I was
in hopes the carbine would reach me in time to send the lead more in a
lump, but in another moment they sprang off like the wind, and the next
seen of them was in company with a large herd, a mile away, with their
graceful bodies and limbs standing in clear relief against the blue sky,
I had not a doubt but that they were relating my chagrin as a capital
buckish joke. By this time we had penetrated so far from ravine to hill
as to have completely lost our bearings, and becoming quite bewildered,
I began to entertain serious ideas of seeking some place of shelter for
the night. My attendant, too, had fallen down two or three times from
exhaustion, the sun was rapidly declining, and I was not at all pleased
with the wild appearance of the hills and valleys that encircled us.
Throwing away the greater part of our game, we made a toilsome effort,
and reached the crest of an adjacent height, in hopes of getting a
glimpse of the plains of Carmelo. Again we were disappointed; and while
on the point of making the best of our bargain, by risking a hug from
grizzly bears or panthers during the night, I espied a horseman slowly
winding his way beneath us in the gorge. By discharging a barrel of my
piece, and continued shouts, we soon attracted attention, and thus being
encouraged by the sight of a fellow-being, we sprang briskly down the
steep. However, our ally evinced no violent affection for us, and in a
trice wheeled his horse up the opposite face of the acclivity; there he
paused, well out of gun-shot, and presently I heard a shrill voice
crying, "_Que es lo que quiere?_" "We are lost," I replied; "will you
assist us?" With many a wary glance and movement, he at last came
frankly towards us, and I then discovered an intelligent little fellow,
about ten years of age, astride a powerful animal, which he guided by a
single thong of hide. Slipping from the saddle, and letting his lasso
fall on the ground, he doffed his broad glazed _sombrero_, and stood
awaiting my wishes. On learning our situation he gladly volunteered to
guide us, and in return told me that he had been all day seeking stray
cattle among the mountains, that the bears were very numerous, and that
we had described a wide circuit around the hills, and were within a
short league of the Mission. This last was highly gratifying
information, and mounting my worn-out attendant on the horse, our
little guide took the bridle, and led the way towards the valley. It was
quite dark on reaching the stream, and I felt thoroughly knocked up, but
a few minutes bathe in the chill water gave me new life, and shortly
after we were housed in the great hall of the Mission. It chanced to be
Sunday evening, moreover, during carnival, and there were preparations
for a more brilliant fandango than the usual weekly affair generally
produced. A few horses were picketted about the great _patio_, and two
or three ox-carts with hide bodies were serving for boudoirs to damsels,
who had come from afar to mingle in the ball. But the company had not
yet assembled in the old hall, that had once served the good _frayles_
for a refectory; and on entering I was kindly welcomed by the Patrona
Margarita, and her handsome coquettish daughter, Domatilda, who were the
liege and lady hostesses of the Carmelo Mission. With her own hands the
jolly madre soon prepared me an _olla podrida_ of tomatoes, peppers, and
the remains in my game bag. Then her laughing nymph patted me some
_tortillas_; and after eating ravenously, and draining a cup of
aguadiente, the hospitable old lady tumbled me into her own spacious
couch, which stood in an angle of the hall, and giving me a hearty slap
on the back, shouted, "_Duerma usted bien hijo mio hasta media
noche_"--Sleep like a top until midnight. I needed no second bidding,
and in a moment was buried in deep sleep. Unconscious of fleeting hours,
I was at length restored to life, but in the most disordered frame of
mind; suffering under a most complicated attack of nightmare, of which
bear-hugs, murders, manacles and music present but a slight idea of my
agony; and indeed, when after pinching myself, and tearing my eyelids
fairly open, I had still great difficulty in recalling my erring
faculties. I found my own individual person deluged with a swarm of
babies, who were lying athwart ships, and amid ships, fore and aft,
heads and toes, every way; and one interesting infant, just teething,
was sucking vigorously away on the left lobe of my ear, while another
lovingly entwined its little fingers in my whiskers. Nor was this half
the bodily miseries I had so innocently endured. A gay youth, with a
dripping link, nicely balanced against my boots, was sitting on my legs,
with a level space on the bed before him, intently playing _monte_, to
the great detriment of the purses of his audience. On glancing around, I
beheld the lofty apartment lighted by long tallow candles melted against
the walls, whose smoke clung in dense clouds around the beams of the
lofty hall; the floor was nearly filled, at the lower end, with groups
of swarthy Indians and paisanos, sipping aguadiente, or indulging in the
same exciting amusement as the gentleman sitting on my feet. On either
side were double rows of men and women, moving in the most bewildering
mazes of the contra danza: turning and twisting, twining and whirling
with unceasing rapidity, keeping time to most inspiriting music, of
harps and guitars; whilst ever and anon, some delighted youth would
elevate his voice, in a shout of ecstasy, at the success of some
bright-eyed senorita in the dance: _Ay, mi alma! Toma la bolsa!
Caramba!_--Go it, my beauty! Take my purse! Beautiful!--It took me but
an instant to appreciate all this; and then, being fully roused to my
wrongs, I gave one vigorous spring, which sent the _monte_ man, candle,
cards, and coppers, flying against the wall, and bounding to my feet I
made a dash at the Patrona, drank all the _licores_ on the tray, and
seizing her around the waist, away we spun through the fandango. Long
before rosy morn I had become as merry and delighted as the rest of the
company. I bought a dirty pack of cards for a rial, and opened a monte
bank, for coppers and paper cigars, and although a select party of
Indios did their best to impose upon my youth and inexperience, yet on
receiving their treasure of _centavos_, winning a hatful of cigarritos,
and only paying half a one for _importas_, I comprehended by their
gutteral exclamations that their _compadre_ was not so verdant a person
as they at first imagined. Thus I left them to their reflections, and
busied myself swearing love, and sipping _dulces_ with the brunettas;
vowing friendship to the men; drinking strong waters; promising to
redress all grievances, to pay all claims out of my own pocket for the
government; and ended by repudiating the Yankees, and swearing myself a
full-blooded Californian. However, these ebullitions were partially
attributable to the heated rooms, and _licores_ of Madre Mariqueta; but
when the golden sun came streaming into the house, the links had formed
heavy stalactites against the walls; and notwithstanding the earnest
solicitations of my new made friends, I jumped up behind my little guide
of the evening previous, and galloped off towards Monterey.
Thus passed my first visit to Carmelo, and scarcely a week went by that
I did not enjoy a supper of one of the Patrona's capital ollas, with may
be a little wholesome exercise to digest it, at the evening fandango--it
was the only place where could be seen a dash of native life, but even
this lost its charm. During carnival, I made my homage to all who were
docile enough, and I must add clean enough to receive it; but whether
owing to a want of tact, fervor, or devotion, I failed to keep the
mercury up to boiling point, and after presenting one slim little dona
with a two shilling brooch of great magnitude and brilliancy--crushing
dozens of variegated eggs on the shining tresses of others, and nearly
driving a horse distracted through the agency of enormous spurs, in
hopes to show my skill and win a smile from one in particular--I at
last, through weariness and disgust, gave up the chase, and became a
devoted lover of chasing still wilder game in the beautiful regions
around. For days and weeks I did naught but ride and hunt, and became so
inured to long fatiguing tramps and night bivouacs, that with the
ever-varying excitement of the sport, I not only slept the sounder in
the open air, but enjoyed better health than I had before known. The
climate of the interior is far dryer, clearer and more salubrious than
by the sea. On the coast we were frequently for many successive days,
annoyed by raw, foggy weather, and on one occasion there was a light
fall of snow, but every league inland gives a more genial invigorating
temperature. There are very few unhealthy spots in either Central or
Lower California. On the low banks and tributaries of the Bay of San
Francisco, fever prevails to a great extent during the summer and fall,
but elsewhere all epidemic disorders are extremely rare. The summer
subsequent to our arrival in Monterey, a malignant fever attacked and
carried off a number of foreigners, but this, although not severe upon
the natives, was regarded as something extraordinary.
In these hunting excursions I was often attended by some friendly
hunter, whose time hung heavy on his hands, but usually by the same
little fellow who had been my pilot through the Carmelo mountains; his
name was Juaquin Luis, and by far the most intelligent, handsome boy in
the place. On Sundays, with his gala dress of blue velvet trowsers, red
sash, glazed hat and silver rope around it, he was quite a picture. His
knowledge of all the roads, most intricate paths and passes for many
leagues, was remarkable, and at times I was almost confounded at his
apparently instinctive sagacity--he knew the haunts and habits of game,
was a capital shot, rode a horse like part of the animal, never daunted,
never dismayed, never without an expedient, he was the most perfect
child of the woods conceivable, and quite won my heart by his
intelligence. He was always delighted to be my companion, for not being
one of those wise children who knew their sires, his home was none of
the pleasantest, for his dame was living with a cross-grained cobler, in
_relatione_, or as the youngster expressed it, she was wedded, _detras
la iglesia_--behind the church--or in other words, had cheated the
priest out of his marriage dues, and being, I fancied, rather given to
aguadiente, the domestic felicity of the mansion was somewhat marred;
consequently the boy was left to thrive upon his own resources.
Sometimes the old lady endeavored to detain him from accompanying me,
but I threatened to stop her grog, by reporting her conduct to the grave
and reverend alcalde of the place, and thenceforth she contented herself
by extorting a few rials from her child's store, at my expense.
On passing the hut on the outskirts of the town and giving a shrill
whistle, out sprang Juaquinito, with his little black head and sparkling
eyes shoved through the slit of his _serapa_, swinging the lasso in
steady circles, and noosing his horse in the corral, the next moment
would leap on his back, take the carbine or rifle, and off we sallied.
At night we made fire, ate broiled partridges without stint, and slept
under the same blanket. One of our excursions was to the river and
plains of Salinas, about fifteen miles in a northerly direction, along
the shores of the bay. These plains vary from ten to twenty miles in
width, and extend fifty or sixty into the interior, and like the great
plain of Santa Clara, have evidently at some former period been the
beds of large lakes or rivers. The Salinas is walled in by compact
ridges of mountains running transversely towards the ocean, from the
main Sierra Madre of California. The river is a muddy rapid stream,
subjected to heavy freshets during the melting of the upland snows, and
coursing close along the southern edge of the plains. On approaching the
heights above the plain, I suddenly checked the reins, perfectly
transfixed with surprise; for never in my life had I beheld such a
magnificent vista of its kind; one broad dead level extending far as the
eye could compass, like a solid brilliant sea of grass and flowers,
dotted here and there by vast flocks of sheep and cattle, with the
margins of the stream marked out for many a league, with fringes of
drooping willows. Descending the hill, we swam the river, and after a
short ride along the verge of the plain, came to the _molino_--mill--and
rancho of one Bill Anderson, who, with his head powdered by flour, like
a lord of the olden time, received me cordially, and being furnished
with fresh horses, away we started to slaughter wild geese. They were
congregated in myriads, both white and grey, feeding on the rich short
grasses, and when disturbed, the noise of their wings and throats was
truly deafening--they were excessively shy, and finding even buck-shot
not efficacious in doing its work from a fowling-piece, I was obliged to
throw single balls among the masses, from the carbine; by which method,
in a few hours, we had collected a respectable horse load; they were
quite fat, and resembled the tame goose with us in every particular,
except the bill being much sharper and smaller. During the wet seasons,
a great number of natural canals intersect these lovely plains, and are
filled with swans, wild ducks, snipe and curlew, besides multitudes of
quails and cranes, with now and then a large eagle to fatten on them. As
night set in, and the wolves were beginning to cry and howl melodiously
after the wounded or sleeping birds, we returned to the rancho.
Our host, the afore-mentioned Bill Anderson, was a Cockney: very
hospitable, very much given to the bottle, and withal a great talker and
liar. His history was a simple one. Leaving England as ship-boy, he
deserted and drifted about the islands of the Pacific, until at last he
found himself stranded on the shores of California. Here he shortly
became a man of importance, from having been summarily carried out of
the country, with the Graham party, who, like our Bear friends, had
rendered themselves highly obnoxious to the native population. In course
of time Bill was released, and returned; established a mill on the
plains, married a Californian wife, and then got drunk at his leisure
and pleasure. Bill received me again most civilly, as he also did a
bottle of brandy. Whether attributable to my arrival, or necessity, I
did not pause to inquire, but certain it is that a bullock was slain
immediately thereafter; and, I presume in compliment to the carcass, an
inundation of dependents of both sexes and of all hues and colors, had
dropt in to share the feast. Bill and I, with little Juaquin retired to
an inner apartment, which happened to be laid with a plank floor, and a
good fire in the place; there was a very respectable preparation for
supper, and being much too famished to mind the filth, I shut eyes,
opened mouth, and ate away voraciously. Dogs soon licked the plates
clean, in readiness for breakfast, probably; and in a couple of hours my
thirsty host, from a too frequent application of the brandy to his
parched lips, became very gloriously tipsy; and after indulging me with
a full confession of many sins, and all his grievances, moreover his
utterance becoming somewhat indistinct, I bade him adios, while about
relating what he would observe to the "English Secretary of State, if
he only had him there,"--pointing with the bottle to his dozing sposa.
My shake-down was in a small receptacle for rubbish, fleas, and other
lively furniture, which in getting at, I was obliged to pass a large
room, laid out with about five-and-twenty of the servitors--men, women,
and children--all in heaps. There were a number of limbs obstructing the
passage, and I was obliged to push them aside, rather unceremoniously, I
fear, for I was greeted by a volley of Indian gutteral curses, sounding
quite like a person who had swallowed a collection of shells, and was
anxious to get them up more expeditiously than was possible. Being too
tired and drowsy to heed their complaints, with Juaquinito I betook
myself to mat and blankets, and never moved until break of day; when I
arose, kicked up an Indian, and sent for fresh horses, and continued
shooting geese and curlew, until the morning was far advanced; then,
after swearing devoted friendship to Bill Anderson, his bullocks, and
his wife, we departed for the port.
CHAPTER XI.
We remained two months at Monterey; and then upon the assembling of the
squadron, and the arrival of a new Commodore, rather than play segundo
violo, and have the blue pennant of a Commander-in-Chief flaunting its
folds in face of our red, we were glad to lift the anchors, and sail for
the waters of San Francisco. Steering too far from the land, a northerly
gale arose, and although the distance is but eighty miles, we were a
week in gaining our destination, on the 29th of March.
The face of the coast presents the same general aspect as that to the
southward of Monterey--one great sea-wall of mountains, split into deep
ravines, and tufted with towering pines. Many of these trees that fringe
what Humboldt terms the maritime Alps of California, are of enormous
magnitude. A German naturalist, employed in scientific pursuits in the
country, assured me that he had measured pines in the Santa Cruz
mountains fifty-seven feet in girth at the base, and carrying the lofty
tops upon a clear shaft for two hundred and seventy feet without a
branch!
I have also seen, in my Californian rambles, pines of immense growth,
taking root in the wild glens of rich and sheltered mountain gorges,
shooting up straight and clear as javelins, with symmetrical columns
that would make too taunt masts for the tallest "amiral" that ever
floated.
Near to the mouth of San Francisco the land recedes, and passing through
the narrow jaws of the Straits, which are framed in by bold,
precipitous, and rocky cliffs, where violent currents are sweeping and
foaming in eddying whirls around their base, you soon debouch into the
outer bay. It is like a great lake, stretching away right and left, far
into the heart of California. To the north another aperture, and still
another, leads into the Bays of San Pablo and Sosun, washing the valleys
of Sinoma and Tulares, and fed by the rivers Sacramento and San Joaquin,
after passing over the golden sands of the rich mines beyond. To the
southward the waters are not so extended, and the bay laves the garden
of California in the beautiful vale of Santa Clara. Green islands adorn
the bosom of these vast estuaries, and everywhere are found safe and
commodious harbors.
Our anchorage was near the little village of Yerbabuena, five miles from
the ocean, and within a short distance from the Franciscan Mission and
Presidio of the old royalists. The site seems badly chosen, for although
it reposes in partial shelter, beneath the high bluffs of the coast, yet
a great portion of the year it is enveloped in chilling fogs; and
invariably, during the afternoon, strong sea breezes are drawn through
the straits like a funnel, and playing with fitful violence around the
hills, the sand is swept in blinding clouds over the town and the
adjacent shores of the bay. Yet with all these drawbacks the place was
rapidly thriving under the indomitable energy of our countrymen.
Tenements, large and small, were running up, like card-built houses, in
all directions. The population was composed of Mormons, backwoodsmen,
and a few very respectable traders from the eastern cities of the
United States. Very rare it was to see a native: our brethren had played
the porcupine so sharply as to oblige them to seek their homes among
more congenial kindred. On Sunday, however, it was not uncommon to
encounter gay cavalcades of young paisanos, jingling in silver chains
and finery, dashing into town, half-a-dozen abreast; having left their
sweethearts at the Mission, or some neighboring rancho, for the evening
fandango. Towards afternoon, when these frolicsome _caballeros_ became a
trifle elevated with their potations, they were wont to indulge in a
variety of capricious feats on horseback--leaping and wheeling--throwing
the lasso over each other;--or if by chance a bullock appeared, they
took delight while at full speed in the _carrara_, in catching the
beasts by a dextrous twist in the tail; and the performance was never
satisfactorily concluded until the bullock was thrown a complete
summerset over his horns. These paisanos of California, like the guachos
of Buenos Ayres, and guaso of Chili, pass most of their existence on
horseback; there the natural vigor of manhood seems all at once called
into play, and horse and backer appear of the same piece. The lasso is
their plaything, either for service or pastime; with it, the unruly wild
horse, or bullock, is brought within reach of the knife. Ferocious Bruin
himself gets his throat twisted and choked, and with heavy paws spread
wide apart, is dragged for miles, perhaps to the bear-bait,
notwithstanding his glittering jaws, and giant efforts to escape.
Without the horse and lasso, these gentry are helpless as infants; their
horses are admirably trained, and sometimes perform under a skilful hand
pranks that always cause surprise to strangers. I once saw a band of
horses, at General Rosa's quinta, near Buenos Ayres, trained to run like
hares, with fore and hind legs lashed together by thongs of hide; it
was undertaken to preserve the animals from being thrown by the Indian
bolas, and the riders, as a consequence, lanced to death. But I was far
more amused one afternoon while passing a fandango, near Monterey, to
see a drunken _vaquero_--cattle-driver--mounted on a restive, plunging
beast, hold at arms length a tray of glasses, brimming with aguadiente,
which he politely offered to everybody within reach of his curvettings,
without ever once spilling a drop. I thought this better than Camille
Leroux, in the polka, or a guacho picking up a cigarritto with his
teeth, at a hand gallop! It is remarkable, too, how very long the
Californian can urge a horse, and how lightly he rides, even when the
beast appears thoroughly exhausted, tottering at every pace under a
strange rider; yet the native will lift him to renewed struggles, and
hold him up for leagues further. Nor is it by the aid of his enormous
spurs, for the punishment is by no means so severe as the sharp rowels
with us; but accustomed to the horse from infancy, he appears to divine
his powers, and thus a mutual and instinctive bond is established
between them. The saddles here, as well as those along the southern
coasts, partake in build of the old Spanish high peak and croupe, and
are really intended for ease and comfort to the rider. In Chili the
pillion is used--a soft material of rugs, smooth and thick, thrown over
the saddle frame; but it distends the thighs too greatly. The
Californian is both hard and heavy, and murderous to the horse. The
Mexican is best,--less cumbersome, more elegant in construction, and a
great support to the rider. The stirrups of all are similar--weighty
wooden structures--and the feet rest naturally in them.
There is nothing either pleasing or inviting in the landscape in the
vicinity of Yerbabuena. All looks bare and sterile from a distance, and
on closer inspection, the deep sandy soil is covered with impervious
thickets of low thorny undergrowth, with none of the rich green herbage,
forests or timber as in Monterey. The roads were so heavy that the
horses could hardly strain, nearly knee deep, through the sand, and
consequently, our rides were restricted to a league's _pasear_ to the
mission, or across the narrow strip of the peninsular to the old
presidio; but in the town we passed the hours pleasantly, became
conversant with the Mormon bible and doctrine, rolled ten-pins, and
amused ourselves nightly, at the monte in the _casa de bebida de Brown_;
still there was a great stir and bustle going on. A number of large
merchant ships had arrived, bringing the regiment of New York
volunteers, and the beach was strewn with heavy guns, carriages, piles
of shot, ordnance stores, wagons, tents and camp equipage, whilst the
streets were filled with troops, who belonged to the true democracy,
called one another mister, snubbed their officers, and did generally as
they pleased, which was literally nothing. However, in due time, they
were brought into the traces, and properly buckled to their duty, when
their services were exerted in planting a battery of long 24-pounders,
to command the straits, and their excitable spirits kept under control
at their quarters in the presidio.
This was Yerbabuena as we found it on our first coming--rapidly
springing into importance, and bidding fair at some future day, even
without the advantages to be derived from the mines which were then
unknown, to become the greatest commercial port on the Pacific.
Previous to our arrival in the waters of Francisco, a frightful incident
transpired amidst the Californian mountains, which goes far to surpass
any event of the kind heard or seen, from the black hole of Calcutta,
to smoking the Arabs in Algeria. It relates to a party of emigrants,
whose shocking inhuman cannibalisms and sufferings exceeded all belief.
The news first reached us in Monterey, and also that a party had been
despatched to succor them. From an officer of the navy in charge of the
expedition, and from one of the survivors, a Spanish boy, named
Baptiste, I learned the following particulars: The number of emigrants
were originally eighty; through a culpable combination of ignorance and
folly, they loitered many weeks on the route, when, upon gaining the
sierra, the snows set in, the trails became blocked up and impassable,
and they were obliged to encamp for the winter; their provisions were
shortly exhausted, their cattle were devoured to the last horse's hide,
hunger came upon them, gaunt and terrible, starvation at last--men,
women and children starved to death, and were eaten by their
fellows--insanity followed. When relief arrived, the survivors were
found rolling in filth, parents eating their own offspring, denizens of
different cabins exchanging limbs and meat--little children tearing and
devouring the livers and hearts of the dead, and a general apathy and
mania pervaded all alike, so as to make them scout the idea of leaving
their property in the mountains before the spring, even to save their
miserable lives; and on separating those who were able to bear the
fatigue of travelling, the cursings and ravings of the remainder were
monstrous. One Dutchman actually ate a full-grown body in thirty-six
hours! another boiled and devoured a girl nine years old, in a single
night. The women held on to life with greater tenacity than the men--in
fact, the first intelligence was brought to Sutter's fort, on the
Sacramento, by two young girls. One of them feasted on her good papa,
but on making soup of her lover's head, she confessed to some inward
qualms of conscience. The young Spaniard, Baptiste, was hero of the
party, performing all labor and drudgery in getting fuel and water,
until his strength became exhausted; he told me that he ate Jake Donner
and the baby, "eat baby raw, stewed some of Jake, and roasted his head,
not good meat, taste like sheep with the rot; but, sir, very hungry, eat
anything,"--these were his very words. There were thirty survivors, and
a number of them without feet, either frozen or burnt off, who were
placed under the care of our surgeons on shore. Although nothing has
ever happened more truly dreadful, and in many respects ludicrously so,
yet what was surprising, the emigrants themselves perceived nothing very
extraordinary in all these cannibalisms, but seemed to regard it as an
every day occurrence--surely they were deranged. The party who went to
their relief deserved all praise, for they, too, endured every hardship,
and many were badly frostbitten. The cause of all this suffering was
mainly attributable to the unmeaning delay and indolence attending their
early progress on the route, but with every advantage in favor of
emigration, the journey in itself must be attended with immense
privation and toil. The mere fact, that by the upper route there is one
vast desert to be travelled over, many hundred miles in width, affording
very little vegetation or sustenance, and to crown the difficulty,
terminated by the rugged chain of Californian mountains, is almost
sufficient in itself to deter many a good man and strong, from exposing
his life and property, for an unknown home on the shores of the Pacific.
CHAPTER XII.
Tarrying a fortnight at Yerbabuena, we then crossed the bay and dropped
anchor beneath the lofty hills of Sousoulito, where we busied ourselves
filling up with fresh water. This anchorage is a great resort for whale
ships, coming from the north-west fishing grounds, for water and
supplies; the procurante of which was an Englishman, for many years a
resident in the country, and possessing myriads of cattle, and a
principality in land and mountains; among other valuables, he was the
sire of the belle of California, in the person of a young girl named
Marianna. Her mother was Spanish, with the remains of great personal
charms; as to the child, I never saw a more patrician style of beauty
and native elegance in any clime where Castillian donas bloom. She was
brunette, with an oval face, magnificent dark grey eyes, with the
corners of her mouth slightly curved downward, so as to give a proud and
haughty expression to the face--in person she was tall, graceful and
well shaped, and although her feet were encased in deer skin shoes, and
hands bare, they still might have vied with any belles of our own. I
believe the lovely Marianna was as amiable as beautiful, and I know her
bright eye glancing along the delicate sights of her rifle, sent the
leaden missive with the deadly aim of a marksman, and that she rode like
an angel, and could strike a bullock dead with one quick blow of a keen
blade, but notwithstanding these domestic accomplishments and
anglo-Saxon lineage, she held the demonios Yankees in mortal abhorrence;
but who could blame her, they had murdered a brace of her handsomest
lovers, and this in California, where lovers were scarce, was a crime
not to be forgiven.
One morning I shouldered a rifle--indebted to Don Ricardo for horses,
and his beautiful daughter for a cup of water, and being attended by a
little truant ship-boy as guide, who had been left to cure hides during
the absence of his vessel, we dashed inland. Crossing a belt of
mountains, we struck the sea shore, and turning to the northward,
ascended a succession of steep hills, until we had gained a rocky
table-land above--there was no timber to be seen, and except the stunted
undergrowth netted together in valleys and ravines, all was one rolling
scene of grass, wild oats and flowers. Near by was a small sheet of
fresh water, caught by the rain and held in by a narrow plateau,
swarming with water fowl, and framed by broken masses of huge rocks. It
was a great resort for deer, and I found them herding in large bands of
thirty and forty together, but from the nature of the country, so open
and free from foliage, it required the utmost caution to approach within
striking distance. However, I managed to pop the death billets into the
hearts of two noble bucks, and while creeping down a gully for a shot at
a third, I was startled by the shouts and gestures of the boy, "Here's a
grizzly a-coming! here's a grizzly." Gott in heimmell, I mentally
ejaculated--there is going to be a race. Away I clambered and ran to the
nearest height--there was a huge black monster, the size of a bullock,
coming from the direction of the lake, and tearing up the opposite ridge
towards where the horses were picketed. The frightened beasts scenting
their enemy, were plunging and snorting terrifically, until at last
they broke their _riatas_, and plunged like mad down the steep--the boy
was making his heels fly as if provided with a steam engine in his
trowsers; then looking upon the mission as fully accomplished, I
tightened my belt, and leaped in the tracks of my companion. I have no
accurate means of determining the rapidity of my flight, but should any
one feel disposed to test the full capacity of his lungs and legs, he
can do so to the utmost, with a grizzly behind him. I little thought,
the last time I saw one at the _Jardin des Plantes_, and took such
interest in watching children feeding him with sweet buns, enclosing
nice bits of tobacco, or a pinch of snuff, that I should encounter one
of his brethren among the wilds of California, with the joke entirely
the other way. We never halted until a good mile lay between Bruin's
paws and our own, then we could see him lazily walking along the crest
of a hill, with a saddle of venison in his dainty jaws. One of the
horses in his anxiety to be foremost in the race, leaped over the boy,
inflicting an unpleasant hoof tap on the ribs--fortunately the injury
was not serious, and we contrived to catch one and lasso the other; but
may the devil catch that bear, I was obliged to leave my strapping bucks
to his tender mercies, and return to the ship, scared and chagrined
beyond measure--laughed at, of course; still I deemed it far preferable
than to be hugged to death, with the only consolation left in knowing
that what part of one is not devoured will be carefully buried,
according to custom, for another meal.
There is scarcely a resident in the mountains of Upper California who
has not, at one time or another, been attacked by these formidable
beasts. I saw the scars, left by the claws of one, on the broad back of
a fine old Irishman; and he informed me, that after being torn from the
saddle, he feigned death, until his friends, who were in sight, came
up, and drove some balls into the beast, who never for a moment before
removed his powerful jaws from within two inches of his victim's face.
They are extremely hard to kill, and unless the bullets take effect in
the head or heart, are only rendered the more infuriated.
Previous to the adventure at Sousoulito, I had been in the habit of
expending all my powder and prowess on Angel Island. It is a very
picturesque little spot, about three miles in circumference, rising to
the height of near eight hundred feet, and radiating in numberless
ridges and ravines down to the water's edge. There are many fertile
slopes luxuriating in fine trees and vegetation, and on all sides pure
rills of water leaping into the bay. Lying in a wide sweep of the San
Francisco, within a mile of the main land, the deer resort there in
great numbers, to feed on the palatable herbs growing on the northern
sides, and also for the close shelter afforded, beneath multitudes of
the densest network of tangled thickets that ever man or quadruped has
explored. Angel Island will for ever be a bright oasis in my hunting
career, as it was the ground of my maiden prowess. Nor shall I soon
forget the day, when, tired as possible after a long unsuccessful tramp,
I happened to glance down a gentle ravine and beheld a sturdy buck
nibbling daintily at the young shoots. Blazes! how the blood and
excitement came dancing back through veins and wearied frame, even to
the extremity of my trigger-joint! Up came the heavy tube! Click!
crack!--and at the instant, the wounded deer sprang convulsively in the
air and fell back dead;--down the gully--heels up;--the edge of a
sheath-knife made a very respectable slip athwart his throat; and the
same evening he was quietly reposing, among less gamey meats, under the
eye of the sentinel, on the frigate's gun-deck. I have killed many a
one since, but I shall never again feel the same thrill of triumph as
that I experienced in this my first effort.
I also had the good fortune to slay an elk on the same island, and I
believe the only one ever found there. On seeing him rush past, I at
first mistook him for a horse, but on perceiving the short cocked-up
tail, small elegant head and branching antlers, I quickly changed my
opinion; and as he paused a second on the brow of a projection below, to
honor me with an inspection, I returned the compliment by laying my
cheek to the rifle. Crack! Away he trotted--none but the does
bound--apparently unhurt, and I followed in the wake; the next bullet
made him squirm, and at the third I noticed a crimson stream pouring
from his mouth; then feeling satisfied there was some essential injury
done to his digestion, and coming again within range, about a mile from
the last shot, I pitched another ball right through the spine: three or
four frightful leaps, and down he went, plunging, groaning, and
bleeding, to the foot of the slope. As I came up, he sprang to his feet,
and with painful meanings attempted to give me a taste of his horns, so
I let him have the _coup de grace_ crashing through the brains. Upon
examination, every shot was within four inches diameter, near the centre
of the back, as I was each time compelled to fire, as he stood or ran,
from below. It required the full strength of six stout men, with ropes,
to drag the carcass to the beach--weighing, when dressed, over six
hundred pounds, and we found him most delicious eating. This was my
crowning achievement, the pleasure enhanced by entertaining no fears
that the bears could rob me of the prize before getting to the boat;
nevertheless, there were many speculations volunteered by malicious
gentry on board, who, from the hair being somewhat rubbed off, in the
transit to the beach, insisted that I had massacred a pack-mule, which
was in itself mendacious slander.
CHAPTER XIII.
Having completed watering at Sousoulito, we left San Francisco and
returned to Monterey. Even during the short period of our absence a
rapid improvement was visible. Many Mormons had arrived, the streets
were cleansed, and vehicles of a civilized build were occasionally
beheld in the town. Some companies of the Volunteer Regiment were
encamped on the slopes of the hills, and the artillery were busily at
work throwing up fortifications on a pretty eminence, overlooking the
town and harbor. Grog shops were thriving apace--handsomely patronized
by Jack and the soldiers,--and monte banks and gaming were following _en
suite_. Stone buildings were under construction; and among others,
through the excellent management of the Alcalde, a large school-house
presented a bold front to the uneducated natives; thus we had the vices
and virtues hand in hand--no existing without them. There was also a
little newspaper published weekly; for, with the usual enterprise of our
countrymen, and their naturally saturnine dispositions, they had pounced
upon a fount of types, carefully secreted beneath the font of the
church, and instead of being applied to their original purpose of
disseminating the authority of Mexican rulers, they were made to preach
the true republican doctrine to all unbelievers among the astonished
Californians. The editor of this infantile journal was Dr. Semple, who
although supposed to have been connected with the famous Bear party,
wielded the editorial pen with the same facility as his rifle, and
merits all praise for having been the pioneer of civil and religious
liberty in the country. I only trust the Doctor may live to fill his
ample pockets with gold dust, even though they be lengthy as his legs or
editorials.
Remaining barely long enough to take in provisions, we left Monterey on
the 19th of April, and beating clear of Piney Point, with a spanking
breeze, turned our prow towards the Mexican coast. A few days
afterwards, during the night, we discovered the Island of Guadalupe,
laid down in the charts more than half a degree too far south,[1]
though, singularly enough, correct in longitude. Fortunately we had
changed the ship's course previously, for as the night was dark and
cloudy we stood a chance of making a nearer acquaintance than would have
been satisfactory to the noble frigate: in fact at all times we labored
under great disadvantages in being destitute of maps of sufficient
accuracy for the commonest purposes of navigation, and those at all
useful we were obliged to compile ourselves from the rough sketches and
experience of navigators frequenting the coast; still we made great
speed, and the flying fish flew from before us as we entered the tropic.
At midnight, on the 26th we doubled Cape San Lucas, the extreme southern
point of that long finger-like Peninsular of Lower California.
Lower California embraces an extent of territory seven hundred miles in
length, and varies in breadth from thirty to eighty miles; broken up
into barren mountains four or five thousand feet in height, verging
close upon the shores of sea and gulf. The country is very unproductive,
and only serves to subsist a small population of probably not over ten
thousand. There are a few narrow valleys, watered by the condensation of
clouds and mist in the dry season from the naked heights, which serves
for fertilizing strips of rich soil below, producing maize and fruits.
The Jesuits have, centuries ago, even in these sterile regions, planted
the banners of their faith, and the missions and villages that sprang up
around them still exist. The principal places are Todos Santos, on the
sea coast; San Antonio, in the interior; San Jose, La Paz, and Loretta,
the capital, lying on the shores of the inland gulf. There are two
excellent harbors--the Bay of La Paz, and another higher up called
Escondida; both places having deep anchorage, and fresh water, for the
largest vessels.
There is but little trade carried on with the Peninsula: a few small
craft exchange country-made cheese and soap for domestic goods in San
Blas and Mazatlan. Near Cape San Lucas had been found by the whalers a
resort for a new species of fish, producing an oil supposed to be
suitable for paints. One or two ships were filled, but we heard
subsequently the material did not answer the desired purpose. There is
the island of Carmen within the gulf, which contains vast lakes of salt,
as inexhaustible as the guano beds on the Peruvian coast. This salt is
of excellent quality; it is cut out in large blocks, stacked, and left
to be washed by the rains, when it becomes ready for shipping. These are
all the known inducements for trade, of the Peninsula and the Adriatic
of the Pacific. Guaymas, situated nearly at the head of the gulf, and
Mazatlan abreast the southern cape, though neither possess such safe
havens, with so good fresh water ports, still have positions more
adaptable for commerce on the main shores of Mexico.
At daylight we were boarded by one Ritchie, who played the _role_ of
marine postmaster for our squadron; and then steering for thirty miles
along the high, barren, sterile coast, we hove-to off the little bay of
San Jose; communicated with one of our ships-of-war; again filled away,
and lazily fanned across the Sea of Cortes to our destination. This
occupied, at a snail's pace, three long days, and the next morning we
awoke within the scorching lines of the tropics--one-half the horizon
bounded by a dull monotonous ripple of sea, and hazy sky, and the other
faced by the high sierras framing the grand plateau of Mexico, and
nearer a line of hot rugged rocks, and islets, and white sandy beaches,
together with ranges of houses bordering upon the shores, and upon the
hills; which was the goodly town of Mazatlan. We anchored, as it were,
at sea, off the bluff promontory of Creston; an island itself, divided
by a narrow strait from the main, and resembling a sleeping lion, with
paws tossed before him. The British frigate Constance, a French
corvette, another of our own, with two merchant vessels, comprised the
entire nautical coterie. Our arrival caused some excitement in the town,
and we were in hopes the authorities would either strike for
independence, or declare themselves neutral, and thus open the port, as
at the time we had no serious intentions of molesting them; but we were
disappointed in our anticipations, and found there was naught to do save
maintaining a dull, idle, passive blockade for a long month to come.
The day after our arrival, two armed boats were sent to make a
reconnoissance of the old harbor, for the purpose of selecting a
suitable berth for the ships, in case an attack should be made. Not
perceiving any bustle or stir pervading the town, we pulled warily in,
until, on passing out from cover of the corvette's guns, we
unconsciously raised the most infernal din imaginable. Drums rattled
incessantly, dirty soldiers formed in companies; the Governor and suite
attended by a guard of cavalry galloped up and down the beach. Consuls
run up their national flags, women and children ran up the hills; all
evidently in great consternation at the anticipation of a hostile
invasion. On comprehending the true state of the case, we amused
ourselves out of musket shot, by making feints to land, and by this
method we kept three or four hundred filthy villains in a violent state
of fatigue and perspiration, running and scampering from point to point
to oppose us. No sooner did they get comfortably posted, and weapons in
readiness on the cliffs, than in we would dash for the beach. At last
the whole garrison turned out, and getting a field piece under way,
manned by three jackasses, rather than give them the laugh against us,
we thought advisable to edge out of range, and thus when they had
cleverly pulled the piece into a commanding position, they could only
greet us with a volley of execrations instead of grape shot. However, we
completed our work by taking the requisite bearings and planting a buoy,
which was cut adrift the same night for a large reward, and carried
about the town in great triumph and procession, and generally believed
to be a Yankee bomb. Indeed, these Mazatlanese were extremely wroth and
patriotic during the blockade, and it was only a week preceding our
advent, that they had illuminated the town in honor of Santa Anna's
victory at Buena Vista. The fact was, the Mexican general's dispatch was
not altogether so clear as the circumstances of the case demanded, and
it admitted of a variety of constructions.
Still, after escaping the bolts of Mars, we came near being sacrificed
to the cestus of Venus, for, on pulling towards a rocky ledge, we
discovered two sunny-faced maidens, one attired in a red camisetta, and
the other waiving a _manta_, in a most enticing and beguiling manner.
Intercourse with fashionable society impelled me, from politeness, to
regard them through a glass, and a capital spy-glass it proved to be,
for I was able to discern thirty or forty of their admirers temporarily
ensconced behind the rocks, and each, too, adorned with a musket. We
halted, made a low obeisance, and retreated rapidly on board, leaving
them the opportunity of forwarding a despatch by express, to
head-quarters, narrating how _los Yankis eran repulsados en varios
puntos_--how the Yankees were put to flight.
On the following morning was captured the first prize--a miserable
little schooner from San Blas, laden with plank and plaintains,
rejoicing in the classic appellation of Diana, and having given the
boats a smart pull, she was christened the chased Diana. The Patron was
Italian, who wept like a pump--talked of his utter ruin, and starving
_bambinos_ to such an extent, that after taking and paying liberally for
his fruit and lumber, he was permitted to depart; he afterwards proved
to be an arrant rogue, and turned an honest penny while the war lasted,
by smuggling powder to the Mexicans. He was too wily to be caught the
second time.
At night there were always signal fires burning on the hill tops around
the town, as a warning to vessels approaching the coast; but with all
their vigilance and caution, our boats after being out all night,
generally returned with some indifferent prizes--at best it was but
pin-hook business, for we cared not to make war upon the poor, causing
us constant annoyance, and after all the trouble the little prizes were
released with lightened cargoes, and heavier pockets of the owners, for
which no doubt, the scamps would have been pleased to be captured daily.
In a few days our consort received orders to blockade Guaymas, a port of
some commercial importance, nearly at the head of the gulf of
California, and she accordingly sailed, leaving a small prize tender, a
schooner of about forty tons, to be "turned over," in a professional
sense, to the flag-ship--there being no more enterprising person than
myself who cared to assume so imposing a command, I was at once
installed in the skipper ship and was immediately paddled on board.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The correct latitude is 29 deg. 14'.
CHAPTER XIV.
Leaping over the taffrail of the Rosita, without the aid of an
accommodation ladder, I found myself the monarch of a peopled deck of
fifteen trusty sailors, and a small boy, to whose trust, from sad
experience, I confided nothing uncorked or unlocked. There were the same
number of carbines, pistols, pikes, cutlasses, fishing lines and a few
other etceteras, pitched in bulk on the floor of a small cabin, just
sufficiently bunkish to stow my very worthy first lieutenant, Mr. Earl,
and my own rather unportly self. This, I believe, comprised all the
equipage that was to add dignity to the flag of so tall an admiral.
Hoisting all sail in the afternoon, and bobbing about a number of hours,
we came to anchor during the night under lee of the Venados
Islands--piles of rugged red rocks, five hundred feet high,--steep,
precipitous, parched, and arid: their situation was within a mile from
the main land, and ten times that space from the frigate's anchorage; an
excellent position for intercepting small craft, bound from the Gulf
into the old port of Mazatlan. We soon had the little Rosa clean and
trim; got up new spars, and on their tapering stems spread loftier
muslin than those she had been accustomed to carry, which, in the
absence of proper materials, the sailors had quickly fashioned out of
duck frocks. Then we scrubbed her bottom, re-arranged the stowage, put
on a new coat of paint, so that she worked like a top, sailed tolerably
well, and with her Yankee pennant and flag might fairly make her old
masters on the shore right proud of the little craft, and indulge, as
they did, in some yearnings to get hold of her again. Our life was not
one of quiet repose, nor were we overburthened with luxuries and
comforts, but anything is better than the insufferable monotony of a
ship of war, even though one loses in comfort by the exchange; for we
had variety and excitement, which of itself is preferable to the tame
stupidity of the quarter-deck of a big ship, or uninterrupted yawnings
in the gun-room.
We were boarded the first morning by three drunken Englishmen, in a
whale-boat, who informed us that the frigate's boats had captured a fine
schooner called the Correo. They also brought off what is consularly
termed "a distressed American," a very sombre-hued person, who, by his
own showing, gave us reason to believe him a Carolina nigger, whose
asperities of wool and color had been somewhat softened by being
engrafted on a more distinguished stock in the city of Boston. His
profession was that of cook, and the most urgent cause of bidding
farewell to a large and extensive assortment of friends in Mazatlan, was
that he became involved by some unforeseen mercantile transaction to the
amount of nine dollars, over and above his comeatable assets; for this
dereliction from the paths of honesty, he was offered a choice of being
half starved in the _carcel_ or entirely starved out of it, with a
musket in his embrace fighting the enemies of the republic. Amid so
serious an accumulation of horrors, not being troubled with heavy
baggage, he ensconced himself within the Englishman's boat, and was
exhibited to us on the memorable occasion of his presentation, attired
in a white beaver hat and trowsers of but one leg. A few words we caught
of his opening address was to the effect that,--"bress de Lord, he was
wunce more under de country's flag, and if dem Mexikers kotched him
agin, dey'd have to fotch him dead." The following morning doctor Barret
appeared newly skinned, in old clothes the crew had furnished, busy as a
demon in the mysteries of the caboose; hinting his capacity for the
office by proclaiming that he had been "head bottle-washer of a
Liverpool liner, with glass nubs on de cabin doors!" The doctor soon
became oracle of the schooner, and, albeit, tickled our palates with the
most savory of messes.
For a day or two we did nothing but cruise pleasantly around the
islands, within sight of the Mexican pickets, sometimes landing on the
larger Venado, and scooping up, from a natural bowl, a few gallons of
fresh water that was distilled from the dew, and trickled down between
crevices of the rocks. The climate, though excessively damp, was yet
delightfully agreeable, tempered by the most regular succession of
diurnal sea breezes. It never rains out of season, and were it not for
the heavy night dews, the very birds would famish. Until now we had made
no prizes, saving quantities of excellent fish jerked out of old
Neptune's bosom, without going through the forms of condemnation by a
court of admiralty. Once we made a swoop on a small shallop, manned by a
couple of Frenchmen, but finding nothing for the trouble, and the Patron
swearing he would, under cover of night, bring us on board something
green and eatable, we set him at liberty, after whispering in my ear the
request that Messieurs would discharge a carbine over his boat to
preserve his honor; which mild compliment we promised to comply with.
All this did very well, and we had begun to be quite happy in our
independence. We discovered the best fishing rocks, clearest bathing
beach, and purest pool of water, when the powers above us, kind souls,
judged we were too far removed from the parental protection of their
guns; talked about the possibility of our being cut out, and cut up, and
so forth; and the little Rosa was ordered to take a nearer station by
the Flag-ship. There we lay rolling and tumbling in the worst possible
sea and humor, within a cable's length of the Constance, keeping a
bright look-out on the town, and a brighter still on a surf chafing rock
near our counter. Then again, we would run round little Creston, which
forms a sort of gate-post to the new port, and get in comparatively
smooth water, and bathe twice a day; eat sparingly, per force, and do
anything to fill up the crevices of indolence; until at last we were
again ordered to resume our former position, and the Rosa gladly
stretched her wings, and the same day dropped her anchors at the old
birth, under shelter of Venados.
At the faintest crack of dawn the next morning, a sail was seen creeping
close along the main land; in a few seconds we were springing away in
the whale-boat, most of us sans culottes. The chase was a large
sloop-rigged launch, with a great big sail, swelling to the land wind,
and urging the vessel rapidly towards the harbor. She had a long start,
but then eight ash oars acting on a light whale boat will make it skim
like a gull over the water. We were upon them before they knew it, but
on becoming aware of our proximity, and finding themselves within a
stone's throw of the _garita_, they raised their voices in shrill notes
for assistance from the garrison. I felt quite assured, however, that
Mexican soldiers were not given to early rising. As a last resort the
Patron put the helm down, hauled aft the sail, with intention of
running, what I considered to be our property, on the beach. This
proceeding laid me under the necessity of attracting attention, and
covering his red shirt with a carbine, I shouted, _Mira!_--look out! He
dropped as if actually shot, the sail caught aback, the launch fell off
from the wind, and in an instant we were alongside. By this time the
guard on shore were getting their eyes open, but before they
comprehended the true state of the case, the distance was so wide
between us, that burning powder would have been an utter waste of
bullets; very possibly they consoled themselves, as did the Patron and
crew, with paper cigars. The prize proved to be from La Paz, with a
cargo of sugar, dried fruits, and cloth; but what was far more valuable
in our estimation a few sacks of potatoes, upon which we levied tribute,
and then sent the vessel to the Flag-ship. We had very little reason to
plume ourselves upon this exploit, for the same afternoon we were placed
in a nearly similar predicament. Whilst beating between the islands and
main, with baffling light breezes, we became embayed, within a little
indentation of the coast; and shortly afterwards a dozen Indian girls
ran along the beach, making most polite and hospitable offers of
service, if we chose to disembark. At the same time we could not help
remarking the heads of numbers of desultory Mexicans, peeping out from
the under growth that lined the banks. Our position was certainly
somewhat critical, for the schooner had missed stays, and was sagging
slowly into the rollers; and we became painfully alive to the fact that
the little Rosa would inevitably return to her former masters. But, many
thanks to San Antonio, the breeze freshened, and getting out sweeps, and
using them with a will, we got the little lady's head off shore; the
sails filled, and away we danced across the straits. This lucky change
in our fortunes was not so well relished by our acquaintances on the
shore, for immediately a troop of thirteen dragoons, with an officer,
rode down to the beach, flourishing their long spears, in what we now
thought a very furious and funny style, and then galloped and pranced
along the shore, to our entire satisfaction. We saluted them graciously,
by hoisting the American ensign over the Mexican, and thus bid them
adios. From one of the lofty eminences of the islands, which commands an
extensive view of the plains, and suburbs of Mazatlan, we perceived,
near the scene of our escape, an encampment of about two hundred
soldiers; so we resolved to run no more risks in future, merely for the
sake of being lanced to death for their diversion.
The next day we had another sail, and anchored near the upper island,
dipped the last pint of fresh water from the basin, and, with one of the
sailors I took a tramp over the hills--but such a parched, burning,
suffocating promenade can be found no where else: here and there were
dense, impassable thickets of cactus and aloes, and the air reeked with
the odor of pelicans and nests swarming with young; while the newly
fledged birds bore a strong resemblance to slim old gentlemen enveloped
in yellow flannel morning gowns. On reaching the beach we were glad to
plunge in a tepid bath, within a clear briny pool, shaded by a straight
wall of rocks. Much refreshed, we rowed over to the windward _venado_,
and having heard that deer had been seen, we started in pursuit. This
island is less abrupt than its neighbor. On the eastern side there is a
wide slope, and at the time of our visit it was covered with tall dry
grass. Leaving a party to haul the seine and broil our breakfast, on the
beach, we commenced the ascent, and seating ourselves on a pile of
rocks, about the summit, we perceived that the prairie beneath had been
set on fire, and was flying towards us with the most amazing rapidity.
We quickly gained a rocky acclivity thirty feet above the ground, and
had the satisfaction of seeing the red flames lick the naked rocks at
our feet, scorch the undergrowth to cinders, and then pass like the wind
coursing towards the other end of the island, leaving us nearly
suffocated with smoke, but thankful to have escaped the flames. This
incident was sufficiently amusing, without indulging in the excitement
of the chase; and we retraced our steps over the charred and blackened
soil to the beach, even then rather wanting in appetite for breakfast.
The same evening, after a delightful surfy swim, and while my pleasant
confrere was getting the arms recapped, nettings triced up, and all in
readiness for the night's vigil, preparatory to a sip of cold grog,
incited by fumes of a cigar, we saw a rocket let off from the main, and
being presently followed by a long stream of fire, terminating in a
bright galaxy of stars from the frigate, we supposed it to be intended
to answer a signal from us for assistance, which proved to be the case;
for in a few hours a large cutter, filled with men, came dashing
alongside to aid us. We were grieved to thwart their anticipations of a
skrimmage, and not so grateful as we should have been for the extreme
solicitude exercised for our well-being on board, for it was the means
next day of telegraphing us down to the ship. "Come within hail," said
the bunting; "anchor where you can comfortably." So it was up helm, and
in the dusk, the Rosita crept stealthily under the sombre shade of
Creston, and let go the _killick_ at the gap beneath the signal-tower.
We were neither so quiet nor secret in our movements as not to attract
attention from the town, and shortly we could discern boats stealing
along the shadows of the bluff, evidently reconnoitering. We had no fear
of a surprise, for there was always three pair of eyes on the look-out,
and a man at the mast-head. Mr. Earl and myself having no fancy for
being overrun by mice and cockroaches, snoozed away on deck, always on
the qui-vive; besides, the arms were constantly in perfect readiness,
and the men to handle them as determined a set of matelots as ever
grasped a cutlass; and notwithstanding we were lying within point blank
distance of a contemptible three-gun battery, we took the precaution to
anchor in line of the English frigate, feeling assured that our Mexican
friends would be exceedingly loth to pitch a round shot at us, with the
probability of hitting Mr. Bull on the horns; consequently, so far as
mere safety was concerned, it did not in the least affect our repose.
The next morning, after capturing old Jack's oyster-boat, which was of
daily occurrence, in a friendly way, at two dollars the hundred, in
company with the Correo, Captain Luigi, we sailed thirty miles down the
coast, but finding the ocean deserted, and not so much as a canoe to be
seen, we beat back; the next day made our official respects to the
frigate, and thence returned to Venados. Here again, in the absence of
more agreeable excitement; we trapped crabs, shot curlew, paddled about
the beach, or amused ourselves hauling the seine. One afternoon, after
taking immense quantities of fine fishes, of every size, shape and
color, one scaly mullet of plethoric caliber, weighing some forty
pounds, leaped five feet out of the net, clearing seine and floats, and
terminated the performance by running a joust full tilt at a big burly
Irishman, breaking the bridge of his nose, and keeling him over and over
in the water like winkin'. "Take him off, be Jasus!" shouted Paddy,
accompanied by fearful struggles in the water. It was rather a ludicrous
incident to all except the sufferer. The same evening we had another
visit from the oystermen, and the trio were more than usually groggy.
Contrary to our advice, Jack determined to face the town once more,
brave the captain of the port, and have a lark, as he said, off the two
hundred and more _pesos_ made on board the Yankee frigate. Away he went,
but, owing to his faculties being somewhat obscured, and mistaking the
channel, the boat got among heavy breakers, was capsized, and stove to
atoms. One man was drowned, old Jack himself water-logged, and drifted
on shore without a dollar, and the next morning was consigned to the
_carcel_ for trading with the enemy. The remaining companion was picked
up at daylight on a reef of rocks, and taken on board our ship; but he,
too, poor follow, met with a violent death eighteen months later.
However, unconscious of old Jack's misfortunes, it did not prevent us
from feasting on his oysters; and the fires of the caboose were soon
sparkling under broiling mullets, roasted potatoes, and what was to be a
_chef d'oeuvre_ of Doctor Barret--a steaming chowder. We were about to
begin a series of naval entertainments. Even our little French
goblin-faced valet, Gashe, devoted his energies for once in his life to
the matter in hand; and, by the way, if ever a being on this earth was
gifted with ubiquity, this youth was he: there was no mischief dreamed
of that he was not an adept in. When not attempting some unknown method
of loading or priming a carbine or pistol, he was perched on the
fore-truck, swinging on the main-gaff, stealing sugar in the pantry,
smoking himself sick with a pipe, or playing pranks on the sailors; and
on a certain occasion, when he tumbled on deck from the
fore-cross-trees--a height that would nearly have killed a mere
mortal--we all treated it as such a capital joke, and laughed so
unmercifully, that the imp sprang to his feet, jumped overboard, and
swam on shore.
The little Rosa was lying calmly at anchor--watch and lookouts at their
stations--awnings closely tented, and veiled around the
quarter-deck--arms and ammunition glittering beneath the light from a
lantern swinging beneath the main boom, while the arrangement for the
banquet was spread in two exact rows, along the lid of an arm-chest,
with camp-stools ranged around. Captain Luigi and his mate brought their
own spoons and white sugar. Our worthy boatswain, Mr. Mills, who came as
lord of the seine, was our common guest, and was spooned and fed from
the general contribution. We fell to and did full justice to the feast,
pleasantly diversified by a narrative from Doctor Barret of his dark
true-love in Boston, and a pitched battle that suddenly arose towards
the close of the entertainment, between Monsieur Gashe and Captain
Luigi's butler, a youthful Swede, called Baron Stockholm, who
incautiously accused the valet of surreptitiously secreting divers
table-knives and crockery, belonging to the Correo. Thereupon the fight
ensued, and when finally concluded, much to the regret of the audience,
our guests withdrew to a canoe, and paddled to their vessel.
Soon after daylight the next morning, the report of a gun came booming
from the Commodore. A large ship was lying becalmed in the offing; by
the aid of the glass we could see the little bright-colored flags
talking to the stranger, and presently our number was displayed, and the
telegraph said, "Prepare to give up the schooner." Alas! shorn of our
honors, we slowly hove up the anchor--made all sail--spliced the
main-brace--and thus ended our fortnight's cruise in the Rosita.
CHAPTER XV.
During the period of our blockade, which lasted but thirty-four days,
there were no demonstrations made by the authorities of Mazatlan, to
pronounce against their government, nor any steps taken on our side to
compel them to do so. Finding there was no intention of molesting them,
the alarm excited by our arrival soon subsided, and with the exception
of exchanging a few musket shots occasionally, between the boats and
shore, everything went on as quietly and peacefully as if no hostile
force was at their gates. The commandante of Mazatlan was Colonel
Telles, an Habanero by birth, and withal a brave man. He had pronounced
against Vegas, the President of the province, and the troops of the town
being devoted to him, he, of course, like all other disaffected persons
in Mexico, assumed supreme direction of affairs, and laid violent hands
on all moneys in the custom-house. He was described as a pleasant
convivial person, keeping quite a seraglio of his own, and altogether an
eligible acquaintance; a character, of which at a later date, when there
was better means of judging, we found no cause to change our opinion.
Just previous to our arrival a messenger reached Mazatlan with
instructions for Telles to resign his authority to General Bustamente,
who was en route, and charged with full powers from the Mexican
government, to direct the province of Sinaloa. Colonel Telles very
discreetly incarcerated the emmissary in the cabildo, and begged him to
inform his master, the General, that there was no necessity for
disorganizing his ideas about the government of the port, as he, Telles,
would retain authority so long as he deemed proper. It had the desired
effect, for there was nothing afterwards heard of Bustamente.
Leaving Mazatlan to be guarded by our consort, we sailed on the morning
of the third of June, bound once more to Upper California. Long before
dark, Creston had disappeared below the horizon, and the ship went
calmly pushing her way towards the broad ocean. At meridian of the
twelfth, the sun measured an altitude nearly vertical, our shadows
vanished, and we resembled that facetious Dutchman, Mr. Peter Schemmell,
who, it is said, disposed of his to the devil; at the same time while
throwing the log, a voracious monster snapped up the log-chip, swallowed
some fathoms of line, broke it, and went on his way unconcernedly, thus
verifying the old song:
"A shark being on our starboard, boys!
For sharks d'ye see don't stand,
But grapple all they get at, boys!
Like sharks they do on land."
Without any other incident worthy of remark, we continued hugging the
wind, and describing a great segment of a circle, until after passing
through the prevailing north-easterly trades, we attained a latitude of
thirty-six, and then being met by the west winds, we turned to the
coast, and began sailing swiftly towards our destination.
The twenty-fifth day from Mazatlan saw us in sight of the red woods
that fringe the Santa Cruz mountains, and that night as the moon sank
glimmering down, we let run the cables in the bay of Monterey.
CHAPTER XVI.
Being charged with dispatches for San Francisco, an early breakfast and
hasty preparations soon placed me astride a dragoon's saddle. Attended
by an artillery soldier and six horses for escort and cavallada, I drove
a sombrero hard on my head, the spur yet harder in the ribs of my
cavallo, and away we sallied en route. The sun had passed the meridian
when we reached the Salinas plains, and we stopped to change horses at
the Molino--a simple performance for one who can swing the lasso at any
time, but for those unacquainted with the mode, it is requisite to drive
the beasts into the corral, near every rancho, and catch one at leisure.
I found my friend Anderson as hospitable and convivial as ever, and,
after a mutual exchange of greetings and drinks, we galloped off across
the plains. Instead of the smiling grassy deserts, gaudy flowers, and
narrow canals of spring, I beheld parched earth, large patches of wild
mustard, and miles of wild oats. Before accomplishing many leagues, one
of the best little beasts of the cavallada eluded the vigilance of my
body-guard, and we were compelled to abandon him. However, I made a
forcible loan of a black mare brousing by the road-side--according to
the custom of the country--and which, indeed, proved an admirable ally
towards the close of our journey. Before entering the gorge that leads
over the mountains on the opposite side of the Salinas, we halted at a
rancho--and peeping in at the door of an outbuilding, I discovered two
industrious persons playing cards with much interest and
deliberation--there was no cash up, but they assured me that each bean
before them, which marked the game, was a transferable I O U for a
bullock. One of the party was brother to the last Mexican governor of
the territory--who absconded to Mazatlan, after showing a feeble and
futile resistance to Commodore Stockton. He appeared somewhat pleased by
the information I was able to communicate from his relative, Don Jose
Castro, but not sufficiently so to interrupt the constant interchange of
beans between him and his grave companion. We commenced ascending the
pass that bars the road to the valley of St. Johns, and after winding a
couple of hours slowly among the hills, gained the topmost ridge--which
commands a fine triangular view of the rich slopes and plains below--and
then soon accomplished the descent--passing the ruined village and
dilapidated mission of San Juan, we galloped briskly around. On the road
I enticed a mounted Indian into service by a taste from the brandy
bottle, to act as _vacuero_--by no means a sinecure birth with such a
lazy perverse set of brutes as we possessed--but I was grieved to find
the soldier, sent as my guide and defender, had more than he was equal
to in keeping himself and musket in the saddle. Moreover, he was neither
amiable nor companionable--a serious crime for a traveler--and I was
obliged at times, to drive and catch the horses, talk for him, and in
fact, do all but eat and sleep for him--which last accomplishments he
enjoyed in perfection, having a constitution like refined steel. I am
happy to add, out of regard for the army, that he deserted shortly
afterwards; although he forgot in his hurry to return a silver cup of
mine.
Skirting along the banks of a rapid stream, the shades of night began
to fall as we drew bridles at a small rancho of one Don Herman. Our
host, as usual with the race, was making a slight repast on a paper
cigar: he was very cordial, and good-looking, as was also his still
handsome old sposa. Like everybody I encountered before and since in the
interior, they inquired when the United States Government would pay for
horses and cattle taken during the war. _Quien sabe_--who knows--always
came to my aid, and I drawled it out much to the purpose. Indeed, though
our Californian Volunteers be good men and true among their own kith and
kindred, yet their mistaken ideas of what constituted civilized warfare
made them the most unscrupulous of freebooters; and they could be
tracked far and near in their thirst for their enemy's horses and asses.
My host had no children, but, like Spanish padres, lots of nephews and
nieces. Amid a detached group of young people, I observed a pretty
little girl, as I at first supposed a child, nursing an infant, but on
inquiry I learned that she was the mother at fourteen, and had been
married two years and a half; a fact which beats East India jungles for
the precocity of women. Again on the road, with the husband of the
little baby-mother for guide, who, by the way, was a most consummate
scamp, incessantly urging me to make a short detour of five or six
leagues, to dance all night at a fandango; and on taxing him with his
gallivanting, and inconstant disposition among the softer sex, he
replied, with an air of triumph,--_O! yo he enganado muchas!_--Bless
you, I've broken the hearts of dozens--although he did not inspire me
with being so determined a Lothario as he himself believed.
On we spurred, and urged the jaded steeds some leagues further, when we
came upon the rancho of Carlos Castro. I was half famished from a long
day's fast, but there was neither bread nor edible matter in the hut.
At last the buxom mistress asked me, _Quiere huevos?_--have an
egg;--_caramba! si amiga!_--Why did not you tell me of this before? She
was good enough to boil exactly fourteen, hard as bullets, but, what is
equally incredible, I ate them all without salt; and then being in good
humor with all the world, threw a peso in the kind Senora's lap, and
with a lively adios, turned our horses' heads again towards the north
star. The moon was riding high, round, and gleaming as the silver dollar
I had just thrown the good lady, flooding the whole lovely plain, with
its waving fields of yellow oats, and magnificent clusters of oaks, in
one continuous vista of unexampled beauty. Five leagues beyond we struck
off to the right, and after losing our path repeatedly, amid beds of
water-courses, and bolls of trees, and when I was on the point of giving
orders for a night bivouac on the sweet and yielding grain, we became
aware of our proximity to a habitation by the usual barking diapason of
half an hundred dogs and curs, and I was not sorry to swing my weary
limbs from the saddle after a hard ride of eighty miles. In a few
minutes I was stretched beside the proprietor of the rancho, Mr. Murphy,
and as kind a specimen of the true Milesian as ever took leave of the
Hill of Hoath. I knew that by the kindly tone of his voice; but I fell
sound asleep, giving the old gentleman an account of the battle of Cerro
Gordo, and never moved until long after sunrise. On awaking, I found
myself in a dwelling constructed of pickets, driven perpendicularly into
the ground, the apertures filled in with mud, and all covered by a
roughly-thatched roof. The enclosure was rather a primitive, and I
should judge temporary affair, to serve the first year or two of an
emigrant's home. The dwelling was large enough, however, to comprise
capacious beds in three of its angles, a couple of tables, dresser,
chairs, and a variety of useful articles scattered around the earth
floor, but all presenting a far neater appearance than usually
characterised the ranchos of the country. I was not left long to
conjecture the cause of this tidiness, for whilst lacing my moccasins,
preparatory to a yawn and shake, by way of toilette, I was saluted by a
very nice young woman, with the hope that I had slept well, and at the
same time presented with a large bowl of water and clean towel, by the
young lady herself, who was afterwards introduced to me by her good
father, as his daughter Ellen. She was tall and well made, a very
pleasing face, lighted by fine dark grey eyes, black hair, and
beautifully white teeth. I learned from her own rosy lips that she was
the first American girl that ever walked over the mighty barrier of the
Californian sierras, which she accomplished with one of her brothers,
leaving the wagons, and her friends, to follow on a longer route. They
were a large family, and most of the children born in Canada, thence
_locating_ in Missouri, and so on to the farthest West in California.
There were four stalwart sons, who had all more or less been engaged in
the last troubles, and had shown the natives a choice mould of bullets
from their unerring rifles. They treated me with the utmost kindness;
and after partaking of a capital breakfast of new eggs, hot bread, cream
and _lomo_--tenderloin--prepared by their pretty sister, I felt quite
equal to a short tramp among the hills, particularly upon finding the
horses well nigh knocked up, and requiring a few hours more rest.
The rancho was situated on the northern verge of the broad valley, on
the borders of a pure sparkling stream, surrounded in every direction,
far and near, with golden lakes of wild oats, thickly studded and shaded
by the oaks. In company with one of the boys, Dan, we followed up the
course of the stream for a mile or more, and I then had the satisfaction
of sending a ball through and through the shoulders of a large doe.
Dragging the carcass down to the water, and divesting it of its jacket,
we then did the same ourselves, and swam and plashed for an hour in the
little torrent. At the same time, with an extempore rod, twine, hook,
and a "devil's darning-needle" for bait, Dan pulled out from a limpid
pool delightful salmon-trout, full two feet in length; I ate part of
one, and a charming fellow he was. Leaving our deer to the varmints, we
returned to the rancho at noon, dined, and again boot and saddle; struck
the road, and six or eight leisurely leagues brought us to the
settlement of Puebla de San Jose. Here I was most civilly received, and
entertained by an American gentleman, Mr. Ruckle, to whom I bore a
letter. Supper, good old sherry, a cigar, and four hour's sleep; up
betimes, and sent the jaded animals on to the Mission of Santa Clara for
a bite of grass. I remained to break my fast at the house of an
agreeable white-toothed lady named Pico, and then, accompanied by Mr.
Ruckle, we hurried along the road which traverses the plain, shaded by
noble avenues of oaks and willows. The Mission stands but a league from
the Puebla, presents a tolerably flourishing appearance, with a
well-preserved church, clusters of out-buildings, and well-cultivated
gardens. It is by far the most important and respectable settlement of
its kind in this portion of the territory; and since the dispersion of
the priests, and confiscation of church-lands, has still fortunately
retained a mite of its former wealth and influence. The good Padres, a
score or more years ago, were pleased to live well; and their
well-filled granaries, cultivated grounds, and myriads of horses and
cattle--in all praise be it said--were the first to induce the native
Indians, who, in brutish ignorance and social degradation are even now
but a remove from beasts of the field, to devote their time to some
useful employment. By these means the shrewd Fathers never lacked
comfortable houses to shelter them, nor raiment to clothe their sleek
skins.[2]
Tarrying but a few minutes at Santa Clara, and selecting the best horses
of the cavallada, I parted with Mr. Ruckle and continued my journey; the
first fifteen miles was wearisome labor with our worn-out beasts, and we
stopped for breath at a ranchito of a pretty little widow, who did the
amiable most refreshingly by handing me a dish of raspberries and cream.
Seeing a filthy Indian poke them out of a bottle with a stick,
occasionally giving it a suck, did not enhance the flavor of the fruit.
A short league beyond, we came to another mud-built rancho, and our
horses having apparently determined to proceed no farther, accordingly
tumbled down; there were half a dozen women and children about the hut
busily employed in cutting beef in long strips for drying; but they
continued their occupation without deigning to cast even a glance of
sympathy upon our pitiable plight. Indignation getting the better of my
misfortunes, I kicked off the spurs and marched bravely up to the
mansion; then, after dodging about under long fringes of raw beef, I was
suddenly confronted by a stout dame, with a mass of meat clutched in one
hand, and a dripping knife long as her arm in the other; this savage
apparition rather abashed me, and I timidly inquired how she did? She
merely gave a sharp upward jerk to her chin, with an ireful visage--as
much as to say, "I'm in excellent preservation, don't bother
yourself"--pointing to my foundered studs, I politely urged the
necessity of procuring fresh horses! "_No, Senor! no hay!_ the horses
are all mares, the mares are wild--there is no one to catch them"--in
other words--I'll see you in purgatory first. So I called up a little
resolution, though far from feeling it, and letting the butt of my rifle
fall heavily to the ground, I said, "Hark ye, my friend, if you don't
speedily furnish me with beasts I'll make a seizure of that fine animal
I see saddled in the corral; besides, I'm willing to pay liberally." At
the word "money" the patrona's features relaxed, _tu no eres
voluntario_--she remarked!--_por dios! no! mi alma yo soy de la marina,
y Catolico ademas!_--I'm a sailor and a good Catholic to boot. At this
last admission and the sight of a handful of bright pesos, the whole
party surrounded me--_ah! tan malicimos son esos malditos voluntarios!
Ave Maria! El oficial no es herege--es Christiano--y pagara los
caballos_--ah, what light-fingered gentry were the Volunteers; but the
gentleman is a Christian, not a heretic, and going to pay like a
trump--they exclaimed. There was still some doubts as to whether I
intended to pay in _effectos_ or hard tin, and if I could make it
convenient to liquidate a few outstanding claims which some of my
countrymen had forgotten to adjust; but when satisfied on that point a
small boy ran off to drive in the cavallada. Meanwhile the Senora poured
me out a cup of aguadiente, touched her lips to it, and handed it to me
to quaff. The drove of horses was soon brought up, and as a particular
favor, the patrona selected her own nag to bear me--a small mare and
natural pacer that rattled along at a great rate without whip or
spur--embracing the party, we again mounted and started off in fine
style. The country has the same lovely aspect as in the vicinity of San
Jose; great level plains teeming in wild grain, and wide-spreading
foliage of oaks, chesnuts, maple and willows, enclosed between
high-swelling hills. In fact the country for more than forty leagues of
this broad valley is so perfectly level that a coach could be driven in
any direction without serious obstruction; however, there is one
annoyance to which horses a
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