But I had a
relish-maker which my friends at table did not suspect,- the
remembrance of the forecastle dinners I ate here twenty-four years
before.
August 17th. The customs of California are free; and any person
who knows about my book speaks to me. The newspapers have announced
the arrival of the veteran pioneer of all. I hardly walk out without
meeting or making acquaintances. I have already been invited to
deliver the anniversary oration before the Pioneer Society, to
celebrate the settlement of San Francisco. Any man is qualified for
election into the society who came to California before 1853. What
moderns they are! I tell them of the time when Richardson's shanty
of 1835- not his adobe house of 1836- was the only human habitation
between the Mission and the Presidio, and when the vast bay, with
all its tributaries and recesses, was a solitude,- and yet I am but
little past forty years of age. They point out the place where
Richardson's adobe house stood, and tell me that the first court and
first town council were convened in it, the first Protestant worship
performed in it, and in it the first capital trial by the Vigilance
Committee held.
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