We hauled up the trysail and courses, squared the
after yards, and waited for the change, which came in a few minutes,
with a vengeance, from the northwest, the opposite point of the
compass. Owing to our precautions, we were not taken aback, but ran
before the wind with square yards. The captain coming on deck, we
braced up a little and stood back for our anchorage. With the change
of wind came a change of weather, and in two hours the wind
moderated into the light steady breeze, which blows down the coast the
greater part of the year, and, from its regularity, might be called
a trade-wind. The sun came up bright, and we set royals, skysails, and
studding-sails, and were under fair way for Santa Barbara. The
little Loriotte was astern of us, nearly out of sight; but we saw
nothing of the Ayacucho. In a short time she appeared, standing out
from Santa Rosa Island, under the lee of which she had been hove to,
all night. Our captain was anxious to get in before her, for it
would be a great credit to us, on the coast, to beat the Ayacucho,
which had been called the best sailer in the North Pacific, in which
she had been known as a trader for six years or more.
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