have given him the queen and the move. I
will confess, sotto voce, that this piece of policy had been hinted to
me by his daughters, who wished me to find favour in his sight.

"Dios te ayuda nino," said the Governor to me; I feared we should never
play chess any more. "Que tonteria, andar a dormir in una barca, quando
se lo podia sobre tierra firma!" (What folly to go sleep in a boat, when
it can be done upon solid ground!)

I told him the story of the poor Russians, and in spite of his pride,
the tears started in his eye, for he was kind-hearted. He took the
captain into his own house, and gave orders concerning the accommodation
of the crew; but the universal hospitality had not waited for commands
to show itself, and the poor fellows, loaded with attention and
comforts, soon forgot the dangers which they had escaped. Fifteen days
after they were sent on board the Mexican schooner, to the bay of St.
Francisco, where a Russian brig of war, bound to Asitka, had just
arrived. However, they did not part from us with empty hands. The
Montereyans having discovered their passionate love for tallow and
whiskey, had given them enough of these genteel rafraichissements, to
drown care and sorrow for a long while. As to the captain, he received
the attention which his gallant conduct entitled him to, and on the eve
of his departure he was presented with a trunk, of tolerable dimensions,
well filled with linen and clothes.

A merry night was passed to celebrate my escape. Guns had been fired,
flags hoisted to recall the boats, and at ten o'clock in the night, the
whole population was gamboling on the lawn, singing, dancing, and
feasting, as if it was to have been our last day of pleasure
during life.

Thus passed away four weeks, and I must admit to my shame, I had
willingly missed two chances of going to Santa Fe. One morning, however,
all my dreams of further pleasure were dispelled. I was just meditating
upon my first declaration of love, when our old servant arrived with
four Indian guides. He had left the settlement seven days, and had come
almost all the way by water. He had been despatched by my father to
bring me home, if I had not yet left Monterey. His intelligence was
disastrous; the Prince had been murdered by the Crows; the Shoshones had
gone on a war expedition to revenge the death of the Prince; and my
father himself, who had been daily declining, expected in a short time
to rejoin his friend in a better world