ana. The Patron was
Italian, who wept like a pump--talked of his utter ruin, and starving
_bambinos_ to such an extent, that after taking and paying liberally for
his fruit and lumber, he was permitted to depart; he afterwards proved
to be an arrant rogue, and turned an honest penny while the war lasted,
by smuggling powder to the Mexicans. He was too wily to be caught the
second time.

At night there were always signal fires burning on the hill tops around
the town, as a warning to vessels approaching the coast; but with all
their vigilance and caution, our boats after being out all night,
generally returned with some indifferent prizes--at best it was but
pin-hook business, for we cared not to make war upon the poor, causing
us constant annoyance, and after all the trouble the little prizes were
released with lightened cargoes, and heavier pockets of the owners, for
which no doubt, the scamps would have been pleased to be captured daily.

In a few days our consort received orders to blockade Guaymas, a port of
some commercial importance, nearly at the head of the gulf of
California, and she accordingly sailed, leaving a small prize tender, a
schooner of about forty tons, to be "turned over," in a professional
sense, to the flag-ship--there being no more enterprising person than
myself who cared to assume so imposing a command, I was at once
installed in the skipper ship and was immediately paddled on board.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The correct latitude is 29 deg. 14'.

CHAPTER XIV.

Leaping over the taffrail of the Rosita, without the aid of an
accommodation ladder, I found myself the monarch of a peopled deck of
fifteen trusty sailors, and a small boy, to whose trust, from sad
experience, I confided nothing uncorked or unlocked. There were the same
number of carbines, pistols, pikes, cutlasses, fishing lines and a few
other etceteras, pitched in bulk on the floor of a small cabin, just
sufficiently bunkish to stow my very worthy first lieutenant, Mr. Earl,
and my own rather unportly self. This, I believe, comprised all the
equipage that was to add dignity to the flag of so tall an admiral.
Hoisting all sail in the afternoon, and bobbing about a number of hours,
we came to anchor during the night under lee of the Venados
Islands--piles of rugged red rocks, five hundred feet high,--steep,
precipitous, parched, and arid: their situation was within a mile from
the main land, and ten times that space from the frigat