222 . THE VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA.
the sometime famous capital of California, which point we reached at nine o'clock that night. A shelving point, Pinos by name, green with waving pines and terminating in black rocks, marks the ap- proach to Monterey bight, an indentation of the coast, scarcely to be called a harbor, yet generally safe for shipping. Rising behind a town of five hun- dred inhabitants, of spacious well-built tiled adobes, intermixed with dwellings of wood, with government buildinos and a fort on an eminence near the water, is an amphitheatre of wooded hills glowing like an illuminated panorama in the warm hazy air — the whole forming as lovely and picturesque a scene as the sun shines on.
Thioughout the next day all hands were busy chopping and taking in wood. Setting sail at half past nine we prepared with some nervous guitie de cceur for the last night, that most joyous of all nights on shipboard. By daylight next morning, which was the 1st of April, 1852, the bold rugged cliffs of points Lobos and Bonito are in full view, the lonely Faral- lones stand sentinel on our left, while northward in the direction of Point Peyes stretch the high rocky galleries of the coast which bound the sea to its very edge.
Slow ? The sluggish boat seems scarcely to move I The lazy wheels slap the water in aggravating dor- mancy, and between each step of the walking-beam you may count a month. By far the longest hour upon the route is that when, with adjusted rigging and slushed masts and feed waiter and luggage ready, we watch with feverish impatience the slowly lessen- ing distance between us and the headlands. It was in order, the day before this last, for the captain's favorites to prepare a fulsome testimonial for gentle- manly conduct and able seamanship, to be published in the daily journals on landing ; while those who fancied themselves to have been ill used might change their muttering curses into bold charges, and talk
