THE CAVE OF THE BUCCANEERS.
It now began to grow late, and we thought it best to look about us for
some place where we could sleep. Captain Richardson very kindly offered
us the use of his cabin, but he was crowded with passengers, and we
preferred staying ashore. There was something novel in sleeping ashore,
but neither novelty nor comfort in a vessel with a hundred and eighty
Californians on board. Brigham and a few others took our boat, and went
over near the old fort to search out a camping-ground, while the rest of
the party and myself started off with the captain to explore a grotto.
We had a couple of sailors to row us, which helped to make the trip
rather pleasant.
Turning a point of rocks, we steered directly into the mouth of the
grotto, and ran in some forty or fifty feet, till nearly lost in
darkness. It was a very wild and rugged place--a fit abode for the
buccaneers.
The cliff into which the cave runs is composed of great rocks, covered
on top with a soil of red, burned earth. The swell of the sea broke upon
the base with a loud roar, and the surf, rolling inward into the depths
of the grotto, made a deep reverberation, like the dashing of water
under a bridge. There was some difficulty in effecting a landing among
these subterranean rocks, which were round and slippery. The water was
very deep, and abounded in seaweed. On gaining a dry place, we found the
interior quite lofty and spacious, and tending upward into the very
bowels of the mountain. Some said there was a way out clear up in the
middle of the island. Overhead it was hung with stalactites, some of
which were of great size and wonderful formation. Abraham and myself
climbed up in the dark about a hundred feet, where we entirely lost
sight of the mouth, and could hardly see an inch before us. As we turned
back and began to descend, our friends down below looked like gigantic
monsters standing in the rays of light near the entrance. I broke off
some pieces of rock and put them in my pocket, as tokens of my visit to
this strange place.
On reaching the boat again, we found a group of our comrades seated
around a natural basin in the rocks, regaling themselves on bread and
water. The water, I think, was the clearest and best I ever tasted. It
trickled down from the top of the cave, and fell into the basin with a
most refreshing sound. I drank a pint gobletful, and found it uncommonly
cool and pure. Nothing more remaining to be seen, we started off for the
boat-landing, near the huts, where we parted with our friend the
captain, and then, it being somewhat late, we went in search of our
party.