FROM LOS ANGELES TO SAN FRANCISCO. 205 



was buried after a mysterious death, and this has given the 

 place a mournful interest ever since. 



We passed nearly the whole day on the shore of this dreary 

 place, sunning ourselves as best we could to keep warm, and 

 dozing away the past night's sleeplessness. How I wanted to 

 get away from here can only be known by those who have 

 been at this desolate port and seen its forbidding shore, with 

 its bleak mountain background, the miserable adobe buildings 

 and the island with its lonely grave,wind-swept, and with scream- 

 ing sea birds circling around it. " Dutch Joe " and I appeared 

 to be the advance guard of our party. The rest, a dozen or so, 

 came straggling in through the day, tired, footsore and 

 hungry. Some of them, who had spent their money, were 

 forlorn looking indeed. To make matters worse, we were 

 hungry and thirsty. Expecting to go directly on board the 

 steamer, we had brought nothing to eat, and water was not pro- 

 curable here, it being literally a " dry town." How such a 

 forsaken place as San Pedro could be the port of a town like 

 Los Angeles, which then had from 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants, 

 I am at a loss to say. Querulous and weary we spent the 

 time watching the waves rolling in, the sea birds skimming 

 over the water and diving below, and the freight in its tedious 

 transit to the " Senator " from the rickety wharf. Among the 

 latter was the cask of wine of our midnight friend, which came 

 down the steep road leading to the emharcadero at the risk of 

 annihilating the driver and oxen, and was laboriously got into 

 a lighter and put on board. I went into a doze calculating 

 the number of " drunks " in the huge tank. 



Our resting place was at the foot of the bluff, up whose steep 

 sides Dana and his fellow-sailors of the " Pilgrim," in 1837, 

 carried boxes and bales of freight to the ox-carts waiting above, 

 and down whose declivities they threw the rolls of hides 

 taken in exchange, and Avhich were carried on the heads of 

 sailors to the boats. A wharf now ran a short distance out 

 from shore, but the port accommodations were still very rude. 



