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Show 72· PERSONAL ADVENTURES approach with no small degree of curiosity : they were as black as a coal. We landed at the foot of an abrupt rock, on the top of which stood the Custom-house, a long, whitewashed building, of ancient date, and about twenty feet in length : our way to it lay along a pier of most unsafe appearance, and considerably so in reality, being constructed of a few logs thrown loosely across a series of half rotten posts sunk into the sand, and liable to be dislotlged by the ebb and the flo'v of the tide. To our left, the beach was covered for miles with heaps, or rather hillocks, of sand, which in many places stretched as far into the interior as the eye could reach. We rernained several days on board, in consequence of no preparations having been made for our reception here, as it was expected we should land at San Francisco. However, we disembarked at last, and were received by a tnotley crowd, broken up into groups, evidently sharing in the exciten1ent of the hour. The portly Californian, under his IN CALIFORNIA. 73 ample-brimmed sombrrer·o and gay serapa, the dark·skinned and half-clad Indian, and the Yankee, in his close European costume, intermingled or chatting apart in groups of threes and fours, imparted an irresistible charm of novelty to the scene, most grateful to us, who had been so long pent-up on board ship, and accustomed to see the san1e faces, day after day, for months. " Faugh!" exclaimed O'Reilly, pinching his nose as 've came up to a long, low building, frorn which issued a smell the most unsavoury irnaginable : "sure, it ain't fresh mate they're killing here." We learned tltat this was the slaughterhouse and hide store. The hides were stretched out to dry, and form the staple of traffic between the natives and the ships that frequent the port. We hurried past it, and were soon out of harm's way. We mustered at a convenient spot, not far off from the end, or beginning- I don't kno·w which- of the principal street, and forrned into platoons ; and, as 've had contrived to preserve our uni- VOL. I. E • |