know it. We waited for the
tide to rise and then got our kedge anchor out and pulled the vessel out
off the bank as the tide rose. The sea was very rough, but the gale had
subsided, and by 11 o'clock we were entering the mouth of the San
Joaquin river in safety. It was forty miles up the river to Stockton.
The river was in a valley of Tullieries. The land seemed to be in the
course of formation. There was but one tree between the mouth and
Stockton, a willow, called the Lone Tree. The only place on its banks
where the soil had formed solid enough to produce one, surrounded by
hills at that season of the year, covered with beautiful wild flowers.
The scenery was magnificent. As the river curved we could see the white
sails of other vessels. They looked as if they were in a field. You
could not see the water at a little distance, the river being narrow. We
could almost jump from our deck to the banks. We felt in perfect safety.
Contrasting that with the night before in that terrible hurricane and in
the death struggles for our lives, it produced a supreme feeling of
ethereal ideal happiness that this earth seemed almost a Paradise. The
captain informed me that there was one place on the river where we might
have to anchor. It was called the Devil's Elbow. There was a sharp turn
in the river and the current was rapid, and we might have to pull the
vessel around it; but sometimes, if it was favorable, he could sail
around it, and if done successfully, then the vessels that had come to
anchor could find no fault; otherwise you had to come to behind the
others and take your turn. When we were coming to it, he was at the helm
and I at his side, to see what was the best to do. As we approached, we
saw several vessels had come to for the purpose of pulling around. The
last was a large vessel that the captain said could never get around. If
we anchored behind it we might not be able to deliver our freight
according to the charter. We had put an English sailor in the hold to
let the anchor go, in case we did not succeed, if we gave him the signal
to do so. As we came to the place with all sails set, there was a breeze
sprung up, filling all the sails. I said to the captain, let her go. As
we passed the vessels that had come to anchor there was a howling and
yelling from them of derision and anger at us for going by them. Just as
we got two-thirds of the way around, the sailor in the hold let the
anchor go without orders. He got fri