lifornia_, now
arose a cry, while people pointed.

"There's California, at last! Hooray!"

On the starboard quarter appeared, hazy across the sparkling whitecaps,
a long line of low land ending in a lofty cape--San Lucas, which meant,
in English, Saint Luke. Even through a spy-glass, which Mr. Adams
borrowed from another passenger, the land looked to be uninhabited, and
was brown and bare, with mountains rising back from the surf-dashed
coast. People said that amidst the brownness were wonderful green
valleys, occupied by ranches and villages; but if this was really the
Land of Gold, Charley was disappointed. It did not look very inviting
to tramp over. However, this was only Lower California, still owned by
Mexico; and San Francisco and the true Land of Gold, Upper California,
was a week ahead.

As the steamer skirted the brownish, rugged, mysterious coast of this
Lower California, the weather grew more bracing, for the tropics had
been left behind. Flannel shirts and heavy trousers were comfortable.
The great albatrosses became few, but the gulls and Mother Carey's
chickens, the nimble gray petrels that flew all day with their feet
grazing the waves, were thick. The bright Southern Cross dropped low
into the horizon behind, while the Great Dipper, circling the North
Star, rose higher before. Yes, the _California_ surely was making
northward rapidly.

"We don't cross into Upper California until we reach San Diego," said
Mr. Grigsby. "That will be to-morrow, I reckon. I remember San Diego
very well. I was there in Forty-six, with Carson and Fremont; and we
raised the Flag in the plaza. It's still there, too, I bet you.
Commodore Stockton of the Navy took the place and held it. It used to
be a great station for hides, and has one of the finest harbors on the
coast."

The next morning, sure enough, the good steamer swept in for the port
of San Diego, of the California of the United States. The entrance was
very narrow. On the left jutted out a high, brown, brushy point named
Point Loma, with a solid white lighthouse, built long ago by the
Spaniards, standing forth as a landmark on the very nose. On the right
was what looked to be a long, low, sandy island, fringed by the
dazzling surf, and shimmering in the sun.

Through the narrow channel steamed the _California_, at half speed,
everybody gazing hard to "size up" this first town of American
California, and the first place under the American flag s