86 PROCEED TO SANTA CLARA. 



the Rurik eight years ago. Don Louis, he said, 

 had become a great man, and he himself a lieu- 

 tenant, which here imports a considerable rank. 

 Nevertheless, he disapproved of all the proceed- 

 ings, and felt assured that no good could accrue 

 from them. He would rather, he said, be a 

 petty Spanish subject, than a republican officer 

 of state. 



The Presidio was in the same state in which I 

 found it eight years before ; and, except the re- 

 publican flag, no trace of the important changes 

 which had taken place was perceptible. Every 

 thing was going on in the old, easy, careless way. 



Sanchez at once promised to provide the ship 

 daily with fresh meat, but advised me to send a 

 boat to the mission of Santa Clara for a supply of 

 vegetables, which were there to be had in super- 

 fluity. The Presidio had, with a negligence 

 which would be inconceivable in any other coun- 

 try, omitted to cultivate even sufficient for their 

 own consumption. 



As I had not visited the mission of Santa Clara 

 during my first visit to California, I now deter- 

 mined to proceed thither on the following day, in 

 the long-boat. Sanchez provided agood pilot, and 



