“Dios te ayuda nino,” said the Governor to me; I feared we should never play chess any more.  “Que tonteria, andar a dormir in una barca, quando se lo podia sobre tierra firma!” (What folly to go sleep in a boat, when it can be done upon solid ground!)

I told him the story of the poor Russians, and in spite of his pride, the tears started in his eye, for he was kind-hearted.  He took the captain into his own house, and gave orders concerning the accommodation of the crew; but the universal hospitality had not waited for commands to show itself, and the poor fellows, loaded with attention and comforts, soon forgot the dangers which they had escaped.  Fifteen days after they were sent on board the Mexican schooner, to the bay of St. Francisco, where a Russian brig of war, bound to Asitka, had just arrived.  However, they did not part from us with empty hands.  The Montereyans having discovered their passionate love for tallow and whiskey, had given them enough of these genteel rafraichissements, to drown care and sorrow for a long while.  As to the captain, he received the attention which his gallant conduct entitled him to, and on the eve of his departure he was presented with a trunk, of tolerable dimensions, well filled with linen and clothes.

A merry night was passed to celebrate my escape.  Guns had been fired, flags hoisted to recall the boats, and at ten o’clock in the night, the whole population was gamboling on the lawn, singing, dancing, and feasting, as if it was to have been our last day of pleasure during life.

Thus passed away four weeks, and I must admit to my shame, I had willingly missed two chances of going to Santa Fe.  One morning, however, all my dreams of further pleasure were dispelled.  I was just meditating upon my first declaration of love, when our old servant arrived with four Indian guides.  He had left the settlement seven days, and had come almost all the way by water.  He had been despatched by my father to bring me home, if I had not yet left Monterey.  His intelligence was disastrous; the Prince had been murdered by the Crows; the Shoshones had gone on a war expedition to revenge the death of the Prince; and my father himself, who had been daily declining, expected in a short time to rejoin his friend in a better world.  Poor Isabella!  I would have added, poor me! but the fatal news brought had so excited me, that I had but few thoughts to give to pleasure and to love.  My immediate return was a sacred duty, and, besides, the Shoshones expected me to join with them on my first war-path.  The old Governor judged it advisable that I should return home by sea, as the Arrapahoes Indians were at that moment enemies of the Shoshones, and would endeavour to cut me off if I were to ascend the Buona Ventura.  Before my departure I received a visit from an Irishman, a wild young fellow of the name of Roche, a native of Cork, and full of fun and activity.  He had deserted on the coast from one of the American vessels, and in spite of the promised reward of forty dollars, he was never discovered, and his vessel sailed without him.