TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIAS. 
25 
stock and property, and shipped for home, with every tooth 
strung with curses against the Californian Spaniards. 
California itself, not including the bodies or souls of the 
people, he thought to be a desirable country. The very at¬ 
mosphere was so delicious that the people went half-naked 
to enjoy it. Hard to abandon was that air, and the great 
plains and mountains covered with horses, black Spanish 
cattle, and wild game. The fried beans, too, the mussels of 
the shores, and the fleas ev*en, were all objects of pleasure, 
utility or industry, of which he entertained a vivid recollec¬ 
tion. But that loved one ! she was beautiful, she was kind, 
alas ! too kind. He loved her, she was wayward ; but was 
still the unwmrthy keeper of his heart; still a golden re¬ 
membrance on the wastes of the past—lovely, but corroded 
and defiled. His opinion was that she was a woman ! 
The weather became sensibly milder each day as we moved 
on our course ; the water warmer, the fish and fowl more 
abundant. The latter presented themselves in considerable 
variety. The white and grey albatross, with their long nar¬ 
row wings, and hoarse unmusical cry, cut through the air like 
uneasy spirits, searching the surrounding void for a place of 
rest, and finding none ! Our cook contracted a paternal re¬ 
gard for these birds ; the basis of which was, that whenever 
he threw overboard the refuse of the table, they alighted in 
the wake of the ship, and ate the potatoe peelings, bits of 
meat, &c., with a keen appetite. u Ah, 55 said he of the 
spit, u it is a pleasure to cook for gentlemen in feathers even, 
when they eat as if they loved it.” But he was still more 
partial to Mother Carey’s chickens. In a fair morning 
these beautiful birds sat on the quiet sea in flocks of thou¬ 
sands, billing and frollicking in great apparent happiness. 
{C There’s your poultry, gentlemen,” cried his curly pate, 
peering from the galley. u Handsome flocks these about 
the stacks of water; plumper and fatter, I’ll warrant ye, 
than an} 7 that ever squawked from the back of a Yorkshire 
Donkey. No need of cramming there to keep life agoink 
