114 SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
They asked the American if he would lead them in an attack 
upon the guard. But he pointed out the hopelessness of such 
an attempt in their enfeebled condition, and comforted them 
with the reiterated assurance that he would meet them at San 
Bias. 
While this conversation was going on their dinner ar¬ 
rived. The first course consisted of batter cakes, called 
tortillas, with a small quantity of boiled beef hock. A sad 
pittance, and of the meanest quality. But one of them told 
the American with much pleasantry, that it was an attempt 
to surprise him with the richness of their fare! The next 
course was a soup. I stood by the kettle while they dipped 
and ate it. As they approached the bottom of the vessel 
they hauled up two old cloths of the most filthy description, 
besides other things which it would ill become me to name! 
They ate no more! Starvation itself lost its appetite at such 
a spectacle ! The American remonstrated with the officer in 
charge for allowing such baseness. The fellow promised. 
But why speak of a Spaniard’s promise 1 It can be likened 
to nothing so well as his justice. Both are as unreliable to 
one in his power, as the thunder-cloud at night is, for light 
to him who treads on precipices! 
As this was the last interview which we expected to have 
with the prisoners before they would leave California, it was 
suggested that they should write to their friends at home. To 
this they gladly assented. We therefore furnished them with 
implements for that purpose. But the jealous tyrants-in 
charge saw fit to prohibit this last consolation of the doom¬ 
ed ! While, however, the villains were engaged in consulta¬ 
tion about it, I took their names and places of residence, and 
promised if they should be executed, or sent to the Mexican 
mines, to give their friends the sorrowful intelligence of their 
fate. 
We now took leave of them. As we shook them by the 
hand their tears flowed freely. One said, write to my sister 
in Maine; another, write to my mother in Boston; another, 
