88 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
lines of the human frame, he united every lineament of a 
thoroughbred ourang-outang: as, very long arms, very large 
brawny hands, a very heavy body, and a very contemptible 
face, wrinkled and drawn into a broad concentrated scowl 
of unsatisfied selfishness. 
This dignitary made the rounds of the guard and retired 
to his couch, satisfied that he was really what he modestly 
called himself—the Napoleon of Western America! Pinto 
took up his position with great resolution in the shade of an 
adobie wall, at a safe distance from the prisons ; and when 
I left the ground he was employing his knees in knocking 
each other into a stiff stand against unmanly fear. Nothing 
else worthy of note occurred during the night. 
On the morning of the 22d the governor sent again for 
the American. He would not see the messenger. About 
nine o’clock, however, he walked down before the prisons 
and spoke a word of cheer to their inmates. They were 
wretched, but hope was awakened in them by his presence 
and fearlessness. 
There was evident consternation among the dons. That 
American signalling the Don Quixote every morning as she 
swept into the harbor, and the idea of a fleet outside, its 
commander ashore, communicating with it by a fast-sailing 
brig, and that commander defying the governor, breaking 
through the guards, conversing with the prisoners, and those 
martial songs by night, were ominous circumstances in the 
eyes of those contemptible tyrants ! 
About noon it was reported that the prisoners would have 
a trial! A little advance this ! The government had begun 
to yield to its fears, what it would not to its sense of justice. 
The next morning, the 23d, the entire standing army, con¬ 
sisting of sixteen filthy half-breeds, and a corps of about sixty 
volunteers, mustered at the beat of the drum before the pri¬ 
sons. Twenty-one of the prisoners were brought out between 
the lines,marched to the governor’s house, and seated on the 
grass in front of it. They were emaciated and pallid, but re- 
