Dona Augustia, he said, I
had made famous by my praises of her beauty and dancing, and I should
have from her a royal reception. She had been a widow, and remarried
since, and had a daughter as handsome as herself. The descendants of
Noriego had taken the ancestral name of De la Guerra, as they were
nobles of Old Spain by birth; and the boy Pablo, who used to make
passages in the Alert, was now Don Pablo de la Guerra, a Senator in
the State Legislature for Santa Barbara County.
The points in the country, too, he noticed, as he passed
them,- Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, Point Ano Nuevo, the opening to
Monterey, which to my disappointment we did not visit. No; Monterey,
the prettiest town on the coast, and its capital and seat of
customs, had got no advantage from the great changes, was out of the
way of commerce and of the travel to the mines and great rivers, and
was not worth stopping at. Point Conception we passed in the night,
a cheery light gleaming over the waters from its tall light-house,
standing on its outermost peak. Point Conception! That word was enough
to recall all our experiences and dreads of gales, swept decks,
topmast carried away, and the hardships of a coast service in the
winter.
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