I felt chilly, and I awoke.
It was daylight. I stood on my feet and looked
around me. I found myself floating on the deep
sea, far from the shore, the outline of which was
tinged with the golden hues of morn. The rope
and stick to which the boat had been made fast towed
through the water, as the land-breeze, driving me
gently, increased my distance from the land.
For some moments I was rather scared; the oars were
left on shore, and I had no means of propelling my
little skiff.
In vain did I paddle with my hands
and the stick which I had taken on board. I
turned and turned again round to all the points of
the compass, but to no purpose. At last I began
to reflect. The sea was smooth and quiet; so
I was in no immediate danger. The Padre, when
he awoke in the morning, would discover my accident,
and perhaps see the boat; he would hasten to town,
but he would not arrive till the evening; for he was
an old man, and had to walk twenty-five miles.
Boats would be dispatched after me; even the Mexican
schooner which lay in the bay. The next morning
I was certainly to be rescued, and the utmost of my
misfortune would amount to a day of fast and solitude.
It was no great matter; so I submitted to my fate,
and made a virtue of necessity.
Happily for me, the boat belonged
to an American exceedingly fond of fishing; and consequently
it contained many necessaries which I had before overlooked.
Between the foremost thwart and the bow there was
half a barrel filled with fishes, some pieces of charcoal,
and some dried wood; under the stern-sheets was a
small locker, in which I discovered a frying-pan,
a box with salt in it, a tin cup, some herbs used
instead of tea by the Californians, a pot of honey,
and another full of bear’s grease. Fortunately,
the jar of water was also on board as well as my lines,
with baits of red flannel and white cotton. I
threw them into the water, and prepared to smoke my
cigarito. In these countries no one is without
his flint, steel, tinder, and tobacco.
Hours passed so. My fishing
being successful, I lighted a fire, and soon fried
a few fine mackerel; but by-and-bye the sun reached
its highest position, and the scorching became so
intolerable that I was obliged to strip and spread
my clothes, and even my shirt, upon the benches, to
obtain a shelter. By that time, I had lost sight
of land, and could only perceive now and then some
small black points, which were the summits of fine
tall pines.
As soon as my meal was finished, I
don’t know why, but instead of sleeping a decent
siesta of two hours, the Spanish tonic to digest a
dinner, I never awoke before sunset; and only then,
because I began to feel a motion that was far from
being pleasant. In fact, the waves were beginning
to rise in sharp ridges, covered with foam; the mild
land-breeze had changed into a cool sharp westerly
wind.
A fair wind, however, was a comfort,
and as I put on my clothes, I began to think that
by making a proper use of the helm and standing upright
in the boat, my body would serve as a small sail,
when “He, he, hoe!” shouted twenty voices,
on the larboard side of me. I started with astonishment,
as may be imagined, and turning round, perceived, fifty
yards from me, a large boat driving before the waves,
impelled on by ten oars. It was filled with
men, casks, and kegs, and one at the helm was making
signals, apparently inviting me to stop. A few
minutes after, we were close to each other; and I
dare say our astonishment was mutual,
theirs to see me alone and without oars; mine, to behold
such a wretched spectacle. They were evidently
the crew of a wrecked vessel, and must have undergone
frightful privations and fatigues, so emaciated was
their appearance.
No time, however, was to be lost.
All of them asked for water, and pointed to the horizon,
to know in which direction they should go. My
stone jug was full; I handed it to the man at the helm,
who seemed to be the captain; but the honest and kind-hearted
fellow, pouring out a small quantity in the cup, gave
some to all his companions before he would taste any
himself. The jug was a large one, containing
two gallons or more, but of course was soon emptied.
I gave them a fried mackerel, which
I had kept for my supper; they passed it to the captain,
and, in spite of his generous denial, they insisted
upon his eating it immediately. Seeing which,
I shewed them nine or ten other raw fishes, two or
three of which were heavy, and proposed to cook them.
They sang and laughed: cook the fish! No;
little cooking is wanted when men are starving.
They divided them brotherly; and this supply, added
to the honey for the captain and the bear’s
grease for the sailors, seemed to have endowed them
with new life.
The captain and four of the men, with
oars, stepped into my skiff. At that moment
the stars were beginning to appear; and pointing out
to him one in the east as a guide, we ploughed our
way towards the shore, greatly favoured both by the
wind and the waves. In a singular mixture of
English, French, Italian, and Latin, the captain made
me comprehend that his vessel had been a Russian brig,
bound from Asitka, in Russian America, to Acapulco,
in Mexico, for a supply of grain, tallow, and spirits;
that it had been destroyed by fire during the night,
scarcely allowing time for the men to launch the long-boat.
No provisions could be procured; the boxes and kegs
that had been taken in the hurry were of no use; that
they had been rowing forty-eight hours without food
or water, and were ignorant of their distance from
the shore; and, finally, that they had perceived my
skiff a good half-hour before I awoke; thought it
at first empty, but saw me rising, and called to me,
in the hope that I would guide them to a landing-place.
In return I explained to him my adventure as well,
as I could, and made him promises of plenty for the
next day; but I might have talked for ever to no purpose;
the poor fellow, overpowered with fatigue, and now
feeling secure, had sunk into a deep sleep.
At the break of day we made the land,
at the entrance of a small river and close to some
fine old ruins. It was the very spot where I
had intended to go with the Padre. There were
a few wild horses rambling in the neighbourhood; I
cleaned my gun, loaded it again, and killed one; but
not before the tired and hungry crew, stretched on
the strand, proved by their nasal concerts that for
the present their greatest necessity was repose after
their fatigues. There were twenty of them including
the captain.
I had led too much of an Indian life,
not to know bow to bear fatigue, and to be rapid in
execution. The sun was not more than three hours
high, when I had already cooked the best part of the
horse. All the unfortunates were still asleep,
and I found it was no easy matter to awake them.
At last, I hit upon an expedient which did not fail;
I stuck the ramrod of my gun into a smoking piece
of meat, and held it so that the fumes should rise
under their very noses. No fairy wand was ever
more effective; in less than two minutes they were
all chewing and swallowing their breakfast, with an
energy that had anything but sleep in it. It
is no easy matter to satisfy twenty hungry Russians;
but still there is an end to every thing. One
of them knelt before me, and kissed my feet.
Poor fellow! he thought that I had done a great deal
for him and his companions, forgetting that perhaps
I owed my own life to them.
The men were tired: but when
they heard that they could reach a city in the afternoon,
they made preparation for departure with great alacrity.
We pulled slowly along the coast, for the heat was
intense, and the rowers fast losing their strength.
At one o’clock I landed at my former encampment.
The Padre had, of course, left the oars, sail, and
blankets. My skiff was rigged in a moment; and
out of the blankets, those in the long-boat managed
to make a sail, an oar and a long pole tied together
answering for a mast. In doubling the northern
point of the bay, I perceived the Mexican schooner
and many boats, pretty far at sea. No doubt
they were searching for me.
At six o’clock in the evening
we landed at Monterey, amidst the acclamations
of a wondering crowd.
I was a general favourite, and my
loss had occasioned much alarm; so that when I landed,
I was assailed with questions from every quarter.
The women petted me, some kissed me (by the bye, those
were d’un certain age), and all agreed
that I should burn half a dozen of candles on the
altar of the Virgin Mary. There was one, however,
who had wept for me; it was Isabella, a lovely girl
of fifteen, and daughter to the old Governor.
The General, too, was glad to see me; he liked me
very much, because we played chess while smoking our
cigars, and because I allowed him to beat me, though
I could have given him the queen and the move.
I will confess, sotto voce, that this piece
of policy had been hinted to me by his daughters,
who wished me to find favour in his sight.
“Dios te ayuda
niño,” said the Governor to me; I feared
we should never play chess any more. “Que
tontería, andar a dormir in una
barca, quando se lo podia sobre
tierra firma!” (What folly to go sleep
in a boat, when it can be done upon solid ground!)
I told him the story of the poor Russians,
and in spite of his pride, the tears started in his
eye, for he was kind-hearted. He took the captain
into his own house, and gave orders concerning the
accommodation of the crew; but the universal hospitality
had not waited for commands to show itself, and the
poor fellows, loaded with attention and comforts,
soon forgot the dangers which they had escaped.
Fifteen days after they were sent on board the Mexican
schooner, to the bay of St. Francisco, where a Russian
brig of war, bound to Asitka, had just arrived.
However, they did not part from us with empty hands.
The Montereyans having discovered their passionate
love for tallow and whiskey, had given them enough
of these genteel rafraîchissements, to drown
care and sorrow for a long while. As to the captain
he received the attention which his gallant conduct
entitled him to, and on the eve of his departure he
was presented with a trunk, of tolerable dimensions,
well filled with linen and clothes.
A merry night was passed to celebrate
my escape. Guns had been fired, flags hoisted
to recall the boats, and at ten o’clock in the
night, the whole population was gambolling on the
lawn, singing, dancing, and feasting, as if it was
to have been our last day of pleasure during life.
Thus passed away four weeks, and I
must admit to my shame, I had willingly missed two
chances of going to Santa Fe. One morning, however,
all my dreams of further pleasure were dispelled.
I was just meditating upon my first declaration of
love, when our old servant arrived with four Indian
guides. He had left the settlement seven days,
and had come almost all the way by water. He
had been despatched by my father to bring me home
if I had not yet left Monterey. His intelligence
was disastrous; the Prince had been murdered by the
Crows; the Shoshones had gone on a war expedition
to revenge the death of the Prince; and my father
himself who had been daily declining, expected in
a short time to rejoin his friend in a better world.
Poor Isabella! I would have added, poor me!
but the fatal news brought had so excited me, that
I had but few thoughts to give to pleasure and to love.
My immediate return was a sacred duty, and, besides,
the Shoshones expected me to join with them on my
first war-path. The old Governor judged it advisable
that I should return home by sea, as the Arrapahoes
Indians were at that moment enemies of the Shoshones,
and would endeavour to cut me off if I were to ascend
the Buona Ventura. Before my departure, I received
a visit from an Irishman, a wild young fellow of the
name of Roche, a native of Cork, and full of fun and
activity. He had deserted on the coast from
one of the American vessels, and in spite of the promised
reward of forty dollars, he was never discovered, and
his vessel sailed without him.
General Morreno was at first angry,
and would have sent the poor devil to jail, but Roche
was so odd, and made so many artful representations
of the evils he had suffered on board on account of
his being a Catholic, that the clergy, and, in fact,
all Monterey, interfered. Roche soon became a
valuable acquisition to the community; he was an indefatigable
dancer, and a good fiddler. Besides, he had already
accustomed himself to the Mexican manners and language,
and in a horse or buffalo hunt none were more successful.
He would tell long stories to the old women about
the wonders of Erin, the miracles of St. Patrick,
and about the stone at Blarney. In fact, he was
a favourite with every one, and would have become
rich and happy could he have settled. Unfortunately
for him, his wild spirit of adventure did not allow
him to enjoy the quiet of a Montereyan life, and hearing
that there was a perspective of getting his head broken
in the “Settlement of the Grandees,” he
asked permission to join my party.
I consented that Roche should accompany
me: with my servant and the Indians, we embarked
on board of the schooner. Many were the presents
I received from the good people; what with pistols,
powder, horses, fusils, knives, and swords, I
could have armed a whole legion. The Governor,
his daughters, and all those that could get room in
the boats, accompanied me as far as the northern part
of the bay, and it was with a swelling heart that
I bade my farewell to them all.