For eight days more we beat to windward under a stiff
top-gallant breeze, when the wind shifted and became variable. A light
south-easter, to which we could carry a reefed topmast
studding-sail, did wonders for our dead reckoning.
Friday, December 4th, after a passage of twenty days, we arrived
at the mouth of the bay of San Francisco.
CHAPTER XXVI
SAN FRANCISCO--MONTEREY
Our place of destination had been Monterey, but as we were to the
northward of it when the wind hauled a-head, we made a fair wind for
San Francisco. This large bay, which lies in latitude 37 deg. 58', was
discovered by Sir Francis Drake, and by him represented to be (as
indeed it is) a magnificent bay, containing several good harbors,
great depth of water, and surrounded by a fertile and finely wooded
country. About thirty miles from the mouth of the bay, and on the
south-east side, is a high point, upon which the presidio is built.
Behind this, is the harbor in which trading vessels anchor, and near
it, the mission of San Francisco, and a newly begun settlement, mostly
of Yankee Californians, called Yerba Buena, which promises well.
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