ating out towards his huge game, which led
him away from the land and to the northward; where, in a little more
than five months, he had made up his quantum of oil; and preferring St.
Blas to Monterey, or St. Josef, he made the best of his way thither.

The governor, having notified his womankind of the whale-catching
captain's invitation, proceeded to hold grave and high communication
with Father Josef, his ghostly counsellor, and the keeper of his
conscience.

Father Josef was a priest, turned of fifty; and, like most of the
Spanish American clergy, who are turned of fifty, and are of any thing
like fair standing for sanctity, was somewhat rotund about the abdominal
regions, and of an apoplectic appearance; that is, his head was firmly
plunged down, and imbedded between his shoulders, without being plagued
with the intervening isthmus of neck, which is so expensive to modern
fashionable ladies and gentlemen, being considered by one sex as a part
of the body expressly created to hang neck-laces, gold chains, and lace
pelerines upon; and by the other, as intended merely as a place of
lodgment for the stock and shirt-collar. This priest's nose and cheeks
bore a large and bountiful crop of, what are sometimes called, "the
fruits of good living;" indeed, his parochial duties were not of a kind
calculated to mortify the flesh; and as his church was well endowed, and
he received many presents from the wealthy members of his flock, it was
not a matter of wonder, that he enjoyed such creature-comforts as lay in
his way; and the Catholic clergy are generally possessed of a sufficient
degree of modest asurance in taking possession of them. In disposition
he was mild, and good-natured, (fat people generally are;) was much
attached to the governor's family, and possessed great influence over
him. He was, over and above all, a man of considerable learning and
intelligence: spoke English quite passably; and, as a proof of good
taste, we add, that he was the only masculine biped, who visited Don
Gaspar's house, who really understood, and rightly appreciated,
Isabella's beauty of person, and intellectual character. As it was well
known that the governor placed great confidence in him, all who had a
suit to the civil or rather military potentate, in the first place made
interest with the ecclesiastical one; and this was soon perceived and
imitated by the commanders of foreign vessels, from whom he received
many presents. This was the