richard henry dana jr two years before the mast

It was growing dark, so that we could just distinguish the dim outlines of the two vessels in the offing and the great seas were rolling in in regular lines, growing larger and larger as they approached the shore, and hanging over the beach upon which they were to break, when their tops would curl over and turn white with foam, and, being at one extreme of the line, break rapidly to the other, as a child's long card house falls when a card is knocked down at one end. The beach is nearly a mile in length between the two points, and of smooth sand. we put our oars in the boat, and, leaving one to watch it, walked about the beach to see what we could of the place. The sun had just gone down it was getting dusky the damp night wind was beginning to blow, and the heavy swell of the Pacific was setting in, and breaking in loud and high 'combers' on the beach.

I shall never forget the impression which our first landing on the beach of California make upon me.

The town is finely situated, with a bay in front, and an amphitheater of hills behind. I should judge that there was about a hundred of them. The town lies a little nearer to the beach - about half a mile from it - and is composed of one-story houses built of sun-baked clay, or adobe, some of them whitewashed, with red tiles on the roof.

The whole, being plastered, makes quite a show at a distance, and is the mark by which vessels come to anchor. The mission stands a little back of the town, and is a large building, or rather a collection of buildings, in the center of which is a high tower, with a belfry of five bells. directly opposite the anchoring ground, lie the mission and town of Santa Barbara, on a low plain, but little above the level of the sea, covered with grass, though entirely without trees, and surrounded on three sides by an amphitheater of mountains, which slant off to the distance of fifteen or twenty miles. Beside the vessel, there was no object to break the surface of the bay. January, 14th, 1835: We came to anchor in the spacious bay of Santa Barbara.Birds of prey and passage swooped and dived about us, wild beasts ranged through the oak groves. On the whole coast of California there was not a lighthouse, a beacon, or a buoy, and the charts were made up from old and disconnected surveys by British, Russian, and Mexican voyagers. the point of Santa Barbara, to which we were bound, lying about fifty miles to the southeast of this point, we continued sailing down the coast during the day and the following night, and on the next morning.

Tuesday, January 13, 1835: We made the land at Point Conception.

Thou little bird, thou dweller by the sea,.

Richard henry dana jr two years before the mast