TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIAS. 
403 
tfoubt, administered to his last want, and made his grave-dress 
with willing hands. “ Dead—starved to death ! Death of a 
Briton from thirst and starvation, by direction of Juan Bap- 
tista Alvarado, Governor of Upper California,” is the account 
which truth will give, on earth and at the judgment, of this 
man’s death. 
At twelve o’clock, the lusty fellows at the windlass had the 
anchor on the bow, and our good old ship was bearing down 
the coast under a fine northerly breeze. She, or rather he, 
for I believe all Dons are males, and particularly Don Quix¬ 
otes, being in ballast, ran rapidly, cheeringly, and exultingly 
over the quiet sea. And right glad were we to be under 
weigh. We had been long enough among the jolly birds 
and flowering meadows of California, to rejoice to be again 
at sea. It was sad, however, to be borne away from the 
prisons and the moans of our fellow-countrymen. And now 
the deep blue sea—its mermaid song—its anthems of sub¬ 
limity—its glories and beauties; really and in truth, what are 
they ? What man in his senses loves the Ocean ? The mer¬ 
maids are all porpoises, and their songs all grunts! The 
deep sounds of the ocean’s pealing organ, are the rude groans 
of the winds and the dashing rage of far-rolling surges, rap¬ 
ping madly at the bows! The tufts of dancing foam on the 
bitter wastes—desert, heaving, unsvmpathizing, cold, home¬ 
less ! Love of Ocean !! Poetry of Ocean !! It is a pity I 
cannot love it—see in its deep still lower realm, or in its 
lonely tumults, or its surface when the air is still, its heat, 
fchirst and death, its vast palpitating tomb, the shady hand 
and veiled smile of loveliness i—that I cannot believe Old 
Ocean has a heart, which sends its kindly beatings up and 
down all the shores of earth ! Poetry ! Loveliness ! They 
may be there; but Ocean’s odor and mien are not poetry to 
me ! If I have ever said anything to the contrary, I beg the 
pardon of the sea poets. There is, however, a certain class 
of beings who hold a very different opinion, : these are the 
men who from 
61 
regular old Sails ; 
boyhood hav^? slept in the 
