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.