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Show 144 PERSONAL ADVENTURES less of risk of this kind, than of the small fortune they might realize by ernploying hercrazy as she was-to run up and down the Sacramento river with freight and passengers, as long as her timbers held together. As for her crew, they-with the exception of one man besides the captain-knew as little about the brig as she knew about them; and, only for the serious consequences likely to ensue from their ignorance, their mistakes would have been highly ludicrous, as they floundered about, handling ropes, the nan1es of which were so many puzzles to them, and striving to execute orders which they could not by any possibility comprehend, in spite of the oaths that accom· panied them. On two or three occasions, we were in imminent danger of being lost, so literally were they at sea in everything re· lating to the working of the vessel. The captain himself, by no means a pleasant· tempered Inan, even when he was supposed to be in a good humour, had enough to do, with his one seaman, to keep the ship in her course. He was a rouo·h hard-featured old 0 ' IN CALIFORNIA. 145 fellow, who always spoke in a growl, and with an oath, and paid such unremitting attention to the brandy-bottle, that he was in a constant state of inebriety, and just as unsteady in his movements as the crazy vessel under his command. Nevertheless, he contrived to take frequent observations ; to issue his directions · to keep the four men in dread of him ; and, as' much by luck as by the working out of a series of problems jotted down in chalk on a black board, and which were intended ·to represent the ship's course and her ultimate destination, finally to bring his craft to San Francisco; the port of which we entered on the morning of the 3rd of April, 1849, being the eighth after our departure from Monterey. I have often thought of that memorable voyage, and to this very hour wonder by what lucky com b"I natt·o n of chances we succeeded • m getting to San Francisco. Considering all things, 1 should not have been more surprised had we made Cape llorn. VOL. II. H |