Saturday, Aug. 29th. Arrived, brig Catalina, from the windward.
Sunday, 30th. This was the first Sunday that the crew had been in
San Diego, and of course they were all for going up to see the town.
The Indians came down early, with horses to let for the day, and all
the crew, who could obtain liberty, went off to the Presidio and
mission, and did not return until night. I had seen enough of San
Diego, and went on board and spent the day with some of the crew, whom
I found quietly at work in the forecastle, mending and washing their
clothes, and reading and writing. They told me that the ship stopped
at Callao in the passage out, and there lay three weeks. She had a
passage of little over eighty days from Boston to Callao, which is one
of the shortest on record. There, they left the Brandywine frigate,
and other smaller American ships of war, and the English frigate
Blonde, and a French seventy-four. From Callao they came directly to
California, and had visited every port on the coast, including San
Francisco. The forecastle in which they lived was large, tolerably
well lighted by bulls-eyes, and, being kept perfectly clean, had quite
a comfortable appearance; at least, it was far better than the little,
black, dirty hole in which I had lived so many months on board the
Pilgrim.
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