Sunday, December 27th. We had now finished all our business at
this port, and it being Sunday, we unmoored ship and got under
weigh, firing a salute to the Russian brig, and another to the
Presidio, which were both answered. The commandant of the Presidio,
Don Gaudaloupe Villego, a young man, and the most popular, among the
Americans and English, of any man in California, was on board when
we got under weigh. He spoke English very well, and was suspected of
being favorably inclined to foreigners.
We sailed down this magnificent bay with a light wind, the tide,
which was running out, carrying us at the rate of four or five
knots. It was a fine day; the first of entire sunshine we had had
for more than a month. We passed directly under the high cliff on
which the Presidio is built, and stood into the middle of the bay,
from whence we could see small bays, making up into the interior, on
every side; large and beautifully-wooded islands; and the mouths of
several small rivers. If California ever becomes a prosperous country,
this bay will be the centre of its prosperity. The abundance of wood
and water, the extreme fertility of its shores, the excellence of
its climate, which is as near to being perfect as any in the world,
and its facilities for navigation, affording the best
anchoring-grounds in the whole western coast of America, all fit it
for a place of great importance; and, indeed, it has attracted much
attention, for the settlement of "Yerba Buena," where we lay at
anchor, made chiefly by Americans and English, and which bids fair
to become the most important trading place on the coast, at this
time began to supply traders, Russian ships, and whalers, with their
stores of wheat and frijoles.
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