By Noah Brooks.
(_Overland Monthly, December,_ 1868.)
"Down with your helm! you'll have us hard and fast aground!"
My acquaintance with Captain Booden was at that time somewhat limited,
and if possible I knew less of the difficult and narrow exit from
Bolinas Bay than I did of Captain Booden. So with great trepidation I
jammed the helm hard down, and the obedient little Lively Polly fell
off easily, and we were over the bar and gliding gently along under the
steep bluff of the Mesa, whose rocky edge, rising sheer from the beach
and crowned with dry grass, rose far above the pennon of the little
schooner. I did not intend to deceive Captain Booden, but being anxious
to work my way down to San Francisco, I had shipped as "able seaman" on
the Lively Polly, though it was a long day since I had handled a
foresheet or anything bigger than the little plungers which hover about
Bolinas Bay, and latterly I had been ranching it at Point Reyes, so
what could I know about the bar and the shoals of the harbor, I would
like to know? We had glided out of the narrow channel which is skirted
on one side by a long sandspit that curves around and makes the
southern and western shelter of the bay, and on the other side by a
huge elevated tongue of table-land, called by the inhabitants
thereabouts the Mesa. High, precipitous, perpendicular, level, and
dotted with farm-houses, this singular bit of land stretches several
miles out southward to sea, bordered with a rocky beach, and tapered
off into the wide ocean with Duxbury Reef--a dangerous rocky reef,
curving down to the southward and almost always white with foam, save
when the sea is calm, and then the great lazy green waves eddy
noiselessly over the half-hidden rocks, or slip like oil over the
dreadful dangers which they hide.
Behind us was the lovely bay of Bolinas, blue and sparkling in the
summer afternoon sun, its borders dotted with thrifty ranches, and the
woody ravines and bristling Tamalpais Range rising over all. The tide
was running out, and only a peaceful swash whispered along the level
sandy beach on our left, where the busy sandpiper chased the playful
wave as it softly rose and fell along the shore. On the higher centre
of the sandspit which shuts in the bay on that side, a row of
ashy-colored gulls sunned themselves, and blinked at us sleepily as we
drifted slowly out of the channel, our breeze cut off by the Mesa that
hemmed us in on the right. I have told you that I did not much pretend
to seamanship, but I was not sorry that I had taken passage on the
Lively Polly, for there is always something novel and fascinating to me
in coasting a region which I have heretofore known only by its hills,
canons, and sea-beaches. The trip is usually made from Bolinas Bay to
San Francisco in five or six hours, when wind and tide favor; and I
could bear being knocked about by Captain Booden for that length of
time, especially as there was one other hand on board--"Lanky" he was
called--but whether a foremast hand or landsman I do not know. He had
been teaching school at Jaybird Canon, and was a little more awkward
with the running rigging of the Lively Polly than I was. Captain Booden
was, therefore, the main reliance of the little twenty-ton schooner,
and if her deck-load of firewood and cargo of butter and eggs ever
reached a market, the skilful and profane skipper should have all the
credit thereof.
The wind died away, and the sea, before ruffled with a wholesale
breeze, grew as calm as a sheet of billowy glass, heaving only in long,
gentle undulations on which the sinking sun bestowed a green and golden
glory, dimmed only by the white fog-bank that came drifting slowly up
from the Farralones, now shut out from view by the lovely haze. Captain
Booden gazed morosely on the western horizon, and swore by a big round
oath that we should not have a capful of wind if that fog-bank did not
lift. But we were fairly out of the bay; the Mesa was lessening in the
distance, and as we drifted slowly southward the red-roofed buildings
on its level rim grew to look like toy-houses, and we heard the dull
moan of the ebb-tide on Duxbury Reef on our starboard bow. The sea grew
dead calm and the wind fell quite away, but still we drifted southward,
passing Rocky Point and peering curiously into Pilot Boat Cove, which
looked so strangely unfamiliar to me from the sea, though I had fished
in its trout-brooks many a day, and had hauled driftwood from the rocky
beach to Johnson's ranch in times gone by. The tide turned after
sundown, and Captain Booden thought we ought to get a bit of wind then;
but it did not come, and the fog crept up and up the glassy sea,
rolling in huge wreaths of mist, shutting out the surface of the water,
and finally the gray rocks of North Heads were hidden, and little by
little the shore was curtained from our view and we were becalmed in
the fog.
To say that the skipper swore would hardly describe his case. He cursed
his luck, his stars, his foretop, his main hatch, his blasted
foolishness, his lubberly crew--Lanky and I--and a variety of other
persons and things; but all to no avail. Night came on, and the light
on North Heads gleamed at us with a sickly eye through the deepening
fog. We had a bit of luncheon with us, but no fire, and were fain to
content ourselves with cold meat, bread, and water, hoping that a warm
breakfast in San Francisco would make some amends for our present short
rations. But the night wore on, and we were still tumbling about in the
rising sea without wind enough to fill our sails, a rayless sky
overhead, and with breakers continually under our lee. Once we saw
lights on shore, and heard the sullen thud of rollers that smote
against the rocks; it was aggravating, as the fog lifted for a space,
to see the cheerful windows of the Cliff House, and almost hear the
merry calls of pleasure-seekers as they muffled themselves in their
wraps and drove gayly up the hill, reckless of the poor homeless
mariners who were drifting comfortlessly about so near the shore they
could not reach. We got out the sweeps and rowed lustily for several
hours, steering by the compass and taking our bearings from the cliff.
But we lost our bearings in the maze of currents in which we soon found
ourselves, and the dim shore melted away in the thickening fog. To add
to our difficulties, Captain Booden put his head most frequently into
the cuddy; and when it emerged, he smelt dreadfully of gin. Lanky and I
held a secret council, in which we agreed, in case he became
intoxicated, we would rise up in mutiny and work the vessel on our own
account. He shortly "lost his head," as Lanky phrased it; and slipping
down on the deck, went quietly into the sleep of the gin-drunken. At
four o'clock in the morning the gray fog grew grayer with the early
dawning; and as I gazed with weary eyes into the vague unknown that
shut us in, Booden roused him from his booze, and seizing the tiller
from my hand, bawled: "'Bout ship, you swab! we're on the Farralones!"
And sure enough, there loomed right under our starboard quarter a group
of conical rocks, steeply rising from the restless blue sea. Their wild
white sides were crowded with chattering sea-fowl; and far above, like
a faint nimbus in the sky, shone the feeble rays of the lighthouse
lantern, now almost quenched by the dull gleam of day that crept up
from the water. The helm was jammed hard down. There was no time to get
out sweeps; but still drifting helplessly, we barely grazed the bare
rocks of the islet, and swung clear, slinking once more into the gloom.
Our scanty stock of provisions and water was gone; but there was no
danger of starvation, for the generous product of the henneries and
dairies of Bolinas filled the vessel's hold--albeit raw eggs and butter
without bread might only serve as a barrier against famine. So we
drifted and tumbled about--still no wind and no sign of the lifting of
the fog. Once in awhile it would roll upward and show a long, flat
expanse of water, tempting us to believe that the blessed sky was
coming out at last; but soon the veil fell again, and we aimlessly
wondered where we were and whither we were drifting. There is something
awful and mysterious in the shadowy nothingness that surrounds one in a
fog at sea. You fancy that out of that impenetrable mist may suddenly
burst some great disaster or danger. Strange shapes appear to be
forming themselves in the obscurity out of which they emerge, and the
eye is wearied beyond expression with looking into a vacuity which
continually promises to evolve into something, but never does.
Thus idly drifting, we heard, first, the creaking of a block, then a
faint wash of sea; and out of the white depths of the fog came the
bulky hull of a full-rigged ship. Her sails were set, but she made
scarcely steerage way. Her rusty sides and general look bespoke a long
voyage just concluding; and we found on hailing her that she was the
British ship Marathon, from Calcutta for San Francisco. We boarded the
Marathon, though almost in sight of our own port, with something of the
feeling that shipwrecked seamen may have when they reach land. It was
odd that we, lost and wandering as we were, should be thus encountered
in the vast unknown where we were drifting by a strange ship; and
though scarcely two hours' sail from home, should be supplied with
bread and water by a Britisher from the Indies. We gave them all the
information we had about the pilots, whom we wanted so much to meet
ourselves; and after following slowly for a few hours by the huge side
of our strange friend, parted company--the black hull and huge spars of
the Indiaman gradually lessening in the mist that shut her from our
view. We had touched a chord that bound us to our fellow-men but it was
drawn from our hands, and the unfathomable abyss in which we floated
had swallowed up each human trace, except what was comprised on the
contracted deck of the Lively Polly, where Captain Booden sat glumly
whittling, and Lanky meditatively peered after the disappeared
Marathon, as though his soul and all his hopes had gone with her. The
deck, with its load of cord-wood; the sails and rigging; the
sliding-hutch of the little cuddy; and all the features of the Lively
Polly, but yesterday so unfamiliar, were now as odiously wearisome as
though I had known them for a century. It seemed as if I had never
known any other place.
All that day we floated aimlessly along, moved only by the sluggish
currents, which shifted occasionally, but generally bore us westward
and southward; not a breath of wind arose, and our sails were as
useless as though we had been on dry land. Night came on again, and
found us still entirely without reckoning and as completely "at sea" as
ever before. To add to our discomfort, a drizzling rain, unusual for
the season of the year, set in, and we cowered on the wet deck-load,
more than ever disgusted with each other and the world. During the
night a big ocean steamer came plunging and crashing through the
darkness, her lights gleaming redly through the dense medium as she
cautiously felt her way past us, falling off a few points as she heard
our hail. We lay right in her path, but with tin horns and a wild
Indian yell from the versatile Lanky managed to make ourselves heard,
and the mysterious stranger disappeared in the fog as suddenly as she
had come, and we were once more alone in the darkness.
The night wore slowly away, and we made out to catch a few hours'
sleep, standing "watch and watch" with each other of our slender crew.
Day dawned again, and we broke our fast with the last of the Marathon's
biscuit, having "broken cargo" to eke out our cold repast with some of
the Bolinas butter and eggs which we were taking to a most unexpected
market.
Suddenly, about six o'clock in the morning, we heard the sound of
breakers ahead, and above the sullen roar of the surf I distinctly
heard the tinklings of a bell. We got out our sweeps and had commenced
to row wearily once more, when the fog lifted and before us lay the
blessed land. A high range of sparsely wooded hills, crowned with rocky
ledges, and with abrupt slopes covered with dry brown grass, running to
the water's edge, formed the background of the picture. Nearer, a
tongue of high land, brushy and rocky, made out from the main shore,
and curving southward, formed a shelter to what seemed a harbor within.
Against the precipitous point the sea broke with a heavy blow, and a
few ugly peaks of rock lifted their heads above the heaving green of
the sea. High up above the sky-line rose one tall, sharp, blue peak,
yet veiled in the floating mist, but its base melted away into a mass
of verdure that stretched from the shore far up the mountain-side. Our
sweeps were now used to bring us around the point, and cautiously
pulling in, we opened a lovely bay bordered with orchards and
vineyards, in the midst of which was a neat village, glittering white
in the sunshine, and clustered around an old-fashioned mission church,
whose quaint gable and tower reminded us of the buildings of the early
Spanish settlers of the country. As we neared the shore (there was no
landing-place) we could see an unwonted commotion in the clean streets,
and a flag was run up to the top of a white staff that stood in the
midst of a plaza. Captain Booden returned the compliment by hoisting
the Stars and Stripes at our mainmast head, but was sorely bothered
with the mingled dyes of the flag on shore. A puff of air blew out its
folds, and to our surprise disclosed the Mexican national standard.
"Blast them greasers," said the patriotic skipper, "if they ain't gone
and histed a Mexican cactus flag, then I'm blowed." He seriously
thought of hauling down his beloved national colors again, resenting
the insult of hoisting a foreign flag on American soil. He pocketed the
affront, however, remarking that "they probably knew that a Bolinas
butter-boat was not much of a fightist anyway."
We dropped anchor gladly, Captain Booden being wholly at a loss as to
our whereabouts. We judged that we were somewhere south of the Golden
Gate, but what town this was that slept so tranquilly in the summer
sun, and what hills were these that walled in the peaceful scene from
the rest of the world, we could not tell. The village seemed awakening
from its serene sleepiness, and one by one the windows of the adobe
cottages swung open as if the people rubbed their long-closed eyes at
some unwonted sight; and the doors gradually opened as though their
dumb lips would hail us and ask who were these strangers that vexed the
quiet waters of their bay. But two small fishing-boats lay at anchor,
and these Booden said reminded him of Christopher Columbus or Noah's
Ark, they were so clumsy and antique in build.
We hauled our boat up alongside, and all hands got in and went ashore.
As we landed, a little shudder seemed to go through the sleepy old
place, as if it had been rudely disturbed from its comfortable nap, and
a sudden sob of sea air swept through the quiet streets as though the
insensate houses had actually breathed the weary sigh of awaking. The
buildings were low and white, with dark-skinned children basking in the
doors, and grass hammocks swinging beneath open verandas. There were no
stores, no sign of business, and no sound of vehicles or labor; all was
as decorous and quiet, to use the skipper's description, "as if the
people had slicked up their door-yards, whitewashed their houses, and
gone to bed." It was just like a New England Sabbath in a Mexican
village.
And this fancy was further colored by a strange procession which now
met us as we went up from the narrow beach, having first made fast our
boat. A lean Mexican priest, with an enormous shovel hat and
particularly shabby cassock, came toward us, followed by a motley crowd
of Mexicans, prominent among whom was a pompous old man clad in a seedy
Mexican uniform and wearing a trailing rapier at his side. The rest of
the procession was brought up with a crowd of shy women, dark-eyed and
tawny and all poorly clad, though otherwise comfortable enough in
condition. These hung back and wonderingly looked at the strange faces,
as though they had never seen the like before. The old padre lifted his
skinny hands, and said something in Spanish which I did not understand.
"Why, the old mummy is slinging his popish blessings at us!" This was
Lanky's interpretation of the kindly priest's paternal salutation. And,
sure enough, he was welcoming us to the shore of San Ildefonso with
holy fervor and religious phrase.
"I say," said Booden, a little testily, "what did you say was the name
of this place, and where away does it lay from 'Frisco?" In very choice
Castilian, as Lanky declared, the priest rejoined that he did not
understand the language in which Booden was speaking. "Then bring on
somebody that does," rejoined that irreverent mariner, when due
interpretation had been made. The padre protested that no one in the
village understood the English tongue. The skipper gave a long low
whistle of suppressed astonishment, and wondered if we had drifted down
to Lower California in two days and nights, and had struck a Mexican
settlement. The colors on the flagstaff and the absence of any
Americans gave some show of reason to this startling conclusion; and
Lanky, who was now the interpreter of the party, asked the name of the
place, and was again told that it was San Ildefonso; but when he asked
what country it was in and how far it was to San Francisco, he was met
with a polite "I do not understand you, Senor." Here was a puzzle:
becalmed in a strange port only two days drift from the city of San
Francisco; a town which the schoolmaster declared was not laid down on
any map; a population that spoke only Spanish and did not know English
when they heard it; a Mexican flag flying over the town, and an
educated priest who did not know what we meant when we asked how far it
was to San Francisco. Were we bewitched?
Accepting a hospitable invitation from the padre, we sauntered up to
the plaza, where we were ushered into a long, low room, which might
once have been a military barrack-room. It was neatly whitewashed and
had a hard clay floor, and along the walls were a few ancient firelocks
and a venerable picture of "His Excellency, General Santa Ana,
President of the Republic of Mexico," as a legend beneath it set forth.
Breakfast of chickens, vegetables, bread, and an excellent sort of
country wine (this last being served in a big earthen bottle) was
served up to us on the long unpainted table that stood in the middle of
the room. During the repast our host, the priest, sat with folded hands
intently regarding us, while the rest of the people clustered around
the door and open windows, eying us with indescribable and
incomprehensible curiosity. If we had been visitors from the moon we
could not have attracted more attention. Even the stolid Indians, a few
of whom strolled lazily about, came and gazed at us until the pompous
old man in faded Mexican uniform drove them noisily away from the
window, where they shut out the light and the pleasant morning air,
perfumed with heliotropes, verbenas, and sweet herbs that grew
luxuriantly about the houses.
The padre had restrained his curiosity out of rigid politeness until we
had eaten, when he began by asking, "Did our galleon come from Manila?"
We told him that we only came from Bolinas; whereat he said once more,
with a puzzled look of pain, "I do not understand you, Senor." Then
pointing through the open doorway to where the Lively Polly peacefully
floated at anchor, he asked what ensign was that which floated at her
masthead. Lanky proudly, but with some astonishment, replied: "That's
the American flag, Senor." At this the seedy old man in uniform eagerly
said: "Americanos! Americanos! why, I saw some of those people and that
flag at Monterey." Lanky asked him if Monterey was not full of
Americans, and did not have plenty of flags. The Ancient replied that
he did not know; it was a long time since he had been there. Lanky
observed that perhaps he had never been there. "I was there in 1835,"
said the Ancient. This curious speech being interpreted to Captain
Booden, that worthy remarked that he did not believe that he had seen a
white man since.
After an ineffectual effort to explain to the company where Bolinas
was, we rose and went out for a view of the town. It was beautifully
situated on a gentle rise which swelled up from the water's edge and
fell rapidly off in the rear of the town into a deep ravine, where a
brawling mountain stream supplied a little flouring-mill with motive
power. Beyond the ravine were small fields of grain, beans and lentils
on the rolling slopes, and back of these rose the dark, dense
vegetation of low hills, while over all were the rough and ragged
ridges of mountains closing in all the scene. The town itself, as I
have said, was white and clean; the houses were low-browed, with
windows secured by wooden shutters, only a few glazed sashes being seen
anywhere. Out of these openings in the thick adobe walls of the humble
homes of the villagers flashed the curious, the abashed glances of many
a dark-eyed senorita, who fled, laughing, as we approached. The old
church was on the plaza, and in its odd-shaped turret tinkled the
little bell whose notes had sounded the morning angelus when we were
knocking about in the fog outside. High up on its quaintly arched gable
was inscribed in antique letters "1796." In reply to a sceptical remark
from Lanky, Booden declared that "the old shell looked as though it
might have been built in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, for that
matter." The worthy skipper had a misty idea that all old Spanish
buildings were built in the days of these famous sovereigns.
Hearing the names of Ferdinand and Isabella, the padre gravely and
reverentially asked: "And is the health of His Excellency, General
Santa Ana, whom God protect, still continued to him?"
With great amazement, Lanky replied: "Santa Ana! why, the last heard of
him was that he was keeping a cockpit in Havana; some of the newspapers
published an obituary of him about six months ago, but I believe he is
alive yet somewhere."
A little flush of indignation mantled the old man's cheek, and with a
tinge of severity in his voice he said: "I have heard that shameful
scandal about our noble President once before, but you must excuse me
if I ask you not to repeat it. It is true he took away our Pious Fund
some years since, but he is still our revered President, and I would
not hear him ill-spoken of any more than our puissant and mighty
Ferdinand, of whom you just spoke--may he rest in glory!" and here the
good priest crossed himself devoutly.
"What is the old priest jabbering about?" asked Captain Booden,
impatiently; for he was in haste to "get his bearings" and be off. When
Lanky replied, he burst out: "Tell him that Santa Ana is not President
of Mexico any more than I am, and that he hasn't amounted to a row of
pins since California was part of the United States."
Lanky faithfully interpreted this fling at the ex-President, whereupon
the padre, motioning to the Ancient to put up his rapier, which had
leaped out of its rusty scabbard, said: "Nay, Senor, you would insult
an old man. We have never been told yet by our government that the
Province of California was alienated from the great Republic of Mexico,
and we owe allegiance to none save the nation whose flag we love so
well;" and the old man turned his tear-dimmed eyes toward the ragged
standard of Mexico that drooped from the staff in the plaza.
Continuing, he said: "Our noble country has strangely forgotten us, and
though we watch the harbor-entrance year after year, no tidings ever
comes. The galleon that was to bring us stores has never been seen on
the horizon yet, and we seem lost in the fog."
The schoolmaster of Jaybird Canon managed to tell us what the priest
had said, and then asked when he had last heard of the outside world.
"It was in 1837," said he, sadly, "when we sent a courier to the
Mission del Carmelo, at Monterey, for tidings from New Spain. He never
came back, and the great earthquake which shook the country hereabout
opened a huge chasm across the country just back of the Sierra yonder,
and none dared to cross over to the main land. The saints have defended
us in peace, and it is the will of Heaven that we shall stay here by
ourselves until the Holy Virgin, in answer to our prayers, shall send
us deliverance."
Here was a new revelation. This was an old Spanish Catholic mission,
settled in 1796, called San Ildefonso, which had evidently been
overlooked for nearly forty years, and had quietly slept in an unknown
solitude while the country had been transferred to the United States
from the flag that still idly waved over it. Lost in the fog! Here was
a whole town lost in a fog of years. Empires and dynasties had risen
and fallen; the world had repeatedly been shaken to its centre, and
this people had heeded it not; a great civil war had ravaged the
country to which they now belonged, and they knew not of it; poor
Mexico herself had been torn with dissensions and had been insulted
with an empire, and these peaceful and weary watchers for tidings from
"New Spain" had recked nothing of all these things. All around them the
busy State of California was scarred with the eager pick of
gold-seekers or the shining share of the husbandman; towns and cities
had sprung up where these patriarchs had only known of vast cattle
ranges or sleepy missions of the Roman Catholic Fathers. They knew
nothing of the great city of San Francisco, with its busy marts and
crowded harbor; and thought of its broad bay--if they thought of it at
all--as the lovely shore of Yerba Buena, bounded by bleak hills and
almost unvexed by any keel. The political storms of forty years had
gone hurtless over their heads, and in a certain sort of dreamless
sleep San Ildefonso had still remained true to the red, white, and
green flag that had long since disappeared from every part of the State
save here, where it was still loved and revered as the banner of the
soil.
The social and political framework of the town had been kept up through
all these years. There had been no connection with the fountain of
political power, but the town was ruled by the legally elected
Ayuntamiento, or Common Council, of which the Ancient, Senor Apolonario
Maldonado, was President or Alcade. They were daily looking for advices
from Don Jose Castro, Governor of the loyal province of California; and
so they had been looking daily for forty years. We asked if they had
not heard from any of the prying Yankees who crowd the country. Father
Ignacio--for that was the padre's name--replied: "Yes; five years ago,
when the winter rains had just set in, a tall, spare man, who talked
some French and some Spanish, came down over the mountains with a pack
containing pocket-knives, razors, soap, perfumery, laces, and other
curious wares, and besought our people to purchase. We have not much
coin, but were disposed to treat him Christianly, until he did declare
that President General Santa Ana, whom may the saints defend! was a
thief and gambler, and had gambled away the Province of California to
the United States; whereupon we drave him hence, the Ayuntamiento
sending a trusty guard to see him two leagues from the borders of the
Pueblo. But months after, we discovered his pack and such of his poor
bones as the wild beasts of prey had not carried off, at the base of a
precipice where he had fallen. His few remains and his goods were
together buried on the mountain-side, and I lamented that we had been
so hard with him. But the saints forbid that he should go back and tell
where the people of San Ildefonso were waiting to hear from their own
neglectful country, which may Heaven defend, bless, and prosper."
The little town took on a new interest to us cold outsiders after
hearing its strange and almost improbable story. We could have scarcely
believed that San Ildefonso had actually been overlooked in the
transfer of the country from Mexico to the United States, and had for
nearly forty years been hidden away between the Sierra and the sea; but
if we were disposed to doubt the word of the good father, here was
intrinsic evidence of the truth of his narrative. There were no
Americans here: only the remnants of the old Mexican occupation and the
civilized Indians. No traces of later civilization could be found; but
the simple dresses, tools, implements of husbandry, and household
utensils were such as I have seen in the half-civilized wilds of
Central America. The old mill in the canon behind the town was a
curiosity of clumsiness, and nine-tenths of the water-power of the
arroya that supplied it were wasted. Besides, until now, who ever heard
of such a town in California as San Ildefonso? Upon what map can any
such headland and bay be traced? and where are the historic records of
the pueblo whose well-defined boundaries lay palpably before us? I have
dwelt upon this point, about which I naturally have some feeling,
because of the sceptical criticism which my narrative has since
provoked. There are some people in the world who never will believe
anything that they have not seen, touched, or tasted for themselves;
California has her share of such.
Captain Booden was disposed to reject Father Ignacio's story, until I
called his attention to the fact that this was a tolerable harbor for
small craft, and yet had never before been heard of; that he never knew
of such a town, and that if any of his numerous associates in the
marine profession knew of the town or harbor of San Ildefonso, he
surely would have heard of it from them. He restrained his impatience
to be off long enough to allow Father Ignacio to gather from us a few
chapters of the world's history for forty years past. The discovery of
gold in California, the settlement of the country and the Pacific
Railroad were not so much account to him, somehow, as the condition of
Europe, the Church of Mexico, and what had become of the Pious Fund;
this last I discovered had been a worrisome subject to the good Father.
I did not know what it was myself, but I believe it was the alienation
from the church of certain moneys and incomes which were transferred to
speculators by the Mexican Congress, years and years ago.
I was glad to find that we were more readily believed by Father Ignacio
and the old Don than our Yankee predecessor had been; perhaps we were
believed more on his corroborative evidence. The priest, however,
politely declined to believe all we said--that was evident; and the Don
steadily refused to believe that California had been transferred to the
United States. It was a little touching to see Father Ignacio's doubt
and hopes struggle in his withered face as he heard in a few brief
sentences the history of his beloved land and Church for forty years
past. His eye kindled or it was bedewed with tears as he listened, and
an occasional flash of resentment flushed his cheek when he heard
something that shook his ancient faith in the established order of
things. To a proposition to take a passage with us to San Francisco, he
replied warmly that he would on no account leave his flock, nor attempt
to thwart the manifest will of Heaven that the town should remain
unheard of until delivered from its long sleep by the same agencies
that had cut it off from the rest of the world. Neither would he allow
any of the people to come with us.
And so we parted. We went out with the turn of the tide, Father Ignacio
and the Ancient accompanying us to the beach, followed by a crowd of
the townsfolk, who carried for us water and provisions for a longer
voyage than ours promised to be. The venerable priest raised his hands
in parting blessing as we shoved off, and I saw two big tears roll down
the furrowed face of Senor Maldonado, who looked after us as a stalwart
old warrior might look at the departure of a band of hopeful comrades
leaving him to fret in monkish solitude while they were off to the wars
again. Wind and tide served, and in a few minutes the Lively Polly
rounded the point, and looking back, I saw the yellow haze of the
afternoon sun sifted sleepily over all the place; the knots of
white-clad people standing statuesque and motionless as they gazed; the
flag of Mexico faintly waving in the air; and with a sigh of relief
slumbrous veil seemed to fall over all the scene; and as our boat met
the roll of the current outside the headland, the gray rocks of the
point shut out the fading view, and we saw the last of San Ildefonso.
Captain Booden had gathered enough from the people to know that we were
somewhere south of San Francisco (the Lively Polly had no chart or
nautical instruments on board of course), and so he determined to coast
cautiously along northward, marking the shore line in order to be able
to guide other navigators to the harbor. But a light mist crept down
the coast, shutting out the view of the headlands, and by midnight we
had stretched out to sea again, and we were once more out of our
reckoning. At daybreak, however, the fog lifted, and we found ourselves
in sight of land, and a brisk breeze blowing, we soon made Pigeon
Point, and before noon were inside the Golden Gate, and ended our long
and adventurous cruise from Bolinas Bay by hauling into the wharf of
San Francisco.
I have little left to tell. Of the shameful way in which our report was
received, every newspaper reader knows. At first there were some
persons, men of science and reading, who were disposed to believe what
we said. I printed in one of the daily newspapers an account of what we
had discovered, giving a full history of San Ildefonso as Father
Ignacio had given it to us. Of course, as I find is usual in such
cases, the other newspapers pooh-poohed the story their contemporary
had published to their exclusion, and made themselves very merry over
what they were pleased to term "The Great San Ildefonso Sell." I
prevailed on Captain Booden to make a short voyage down the coast in
search of the lost port. But we never saw the headland, the ridge
beyond the town, nor anything that looked like these landmarks, though
we went down as far as San Pedro Bay and back twice or three times. It
actually did seem that the whole locality had been swallowed up, or had
vanished into air. In vain did I bring the matter to the notice of the
merchants and scientific men of San Francisco. Nobody would fit out an
exploring expedition by land or sea; those who listened at first
finally inquired "if there was any money in it?" I could not give an
affirmative answer, and they turned away with the discouraging remark
that the California Academy of Natural Science and the Society of
Pioneers were the only bodies interested in the fate of our lost city.
Even Captain Booden somehow lost all interest in the enterprise, and
returned to his Bolinas coasting with the most stolid indifference. I
combated the attacks of the newspapers with facts and depositions of my
fellow-voyagers as long as I could, until one day the editor of the
Daily Trumpeter (I suppress the real name of the sheet) coldly told me
that the public were tired of the story of San Ildefonso. It was plain
that his mind had been soured by the sarcasms of his contemporaries,
and he no longer believed in me.
The newspaper controversy died away and was forgotten, but I have never
relinquished the hope of proving the verity of my statements. At one
time I expected to establish the truth, having heard that one Zedekiah
Murch had known a Yankee peddler who had gone over the mountains of
Santa Cruz and never was heard of more. But Zedekiah's memory was
feeble, and he only knew that such a story prevailed long ago; so that
clue was soon lost again, and the little fire of enthusiasm which it
had kindled among a few persons died out. I have not yet lost all hope;
and when I think of the regretful conviction that will force itself
upon the mind of good Father Ignacio, that we were, after all,
impostors, I cannot bear to reflect that I may die and visit the lost
town of San Ildefonso no more.