Page:California Historical Society Quarterly vol 22.djvu/250

 and laugh over them afterwards. Well, heaven speed the time when we may

realize these bright visions. a n- • 1

^ Aiiectionately yours,

W.

San Francisco, Nov. 27, 1849. Dear V.

Your very, very welcome letters are at last received, and I have at last the pleasure of writing to you and all my friends from this famous place. We arrived on the 22 nd, have now been here 5 days. The first move I made on stepping ashore was for the post office, drawing as straight a line for it as the mud would let me; there I found quite a pile of letters awaiting me. I seated myself deliberately on a carpenter's bench in the street a short dis- tance from the office and, spreading them all out before me, examined the post marks of each and asked myself the question, which shall be first? Georgetown was decided upon. ..

We arrived at Rio safely; from there I wrote to you. . . We left that port to encounter the dangers of Cape Horn. Your fears were well founded I as- sure you. All went well until we arrived off the La Plata River, the region of storms. On the night of the 25th of June we had a terrible storm. I stood upon the deck and watched the elements in their sport, their jubilee as it were. Such thunder and lightning I never saw or heard before; the sea run- ning mountains high, the lightning playing around us and the constant cracking of the thunder were awful. In the intervals of darkness, almost tangible, we could see aloft dancing from mast head and from yard to yard, balls of fire, (corposants [or St. Elmo's fire] they are termed) about which sailors are very superstitious. I looked on all this and enjoyed it, why it was I know not, I felt no fear. Many a poor frightened sinner prayed that night, and not one but vowed all the gold in California should not tempt him to again encounter such a risk. 'Twas all over in 24 hours, and no accident hap- pened to the vessel, though one of the passengers was thrown against the bulwarks and had his collar bone broken, our physician made that all right. Now commenced a succession of snow storms and squalls which we had almost daily for 2 long months. On the 25th of August we passed Staten land. We were blown back three times after passing Cape Horn, but with true Yankee perseverance we "tried it again." We had heavy gales lasting 8 days some of them, during which time no sail could be carried on the vessel, and she would be covered with ice from deck to mast head. Three times we ex- pected to go down, and on one occasion prepared axes and hatchets to cut away the mast; each one stood ready, with hatchet in hand waiting but for a word from the officer to send all over the side, but a kind Providence pre- served us, not from any surplus amount of piety we had on board, for a more wicked and profane set of men I have never met with. I am giving you a very brief account of all this, but as soon as I can get settled on shore