ried for us water and provisions for a longer
voyage than ours promised to be. The venerable priest raised his hands
in parting blessing as we shoved off, and I saw two big tears roll down
the furrowed face of Senor Maldonado, who looked after us as a stalwart
old warrior might look at the departure of a band of hopeful comrades
leaving him to fret in monkish solitude while they were off to the wars
again. Wind and tide served, and in a few minutes the Lively Polly
rounded the point, and looking back, I saw the yellow haze of the
afternoon sun sifted sleepily over all the place; the knots of
white-clad people standing statuesque and motionless as they gazed; the
flag of Mexico faintly waving in the air; and with a sigh of relief
slumbrous veil seemed to fall over all the scene; and as our boat met
the roll of the current outside the headland, the gray rocks of the
point shut out the fading view, and we saw the last of San Ildefonso.

Captain Booden had gathered enough from the people to know that we were
somewhere south of San Francisco (the Lively Polly had no chart or
nautical instruments on board of course), and so he determined to coast
cautiously along northward, marking the shore line in order to be able
to guide other navigators to the harbor. But a light mist crept down
the coast, shutting out the view of the headlands, and by midnight we
had stretched out to sea again, and we were once more out of our
reckoning. At daybreak, however, the fog lifted, and we found ourselves
in sight of land, and a brisk breeze blowing, we soon made Pigeon
Point, and before noon were inside the Golden Gate, and ended our long
and adventurous cruise from Bolinas Bay by hauling into the wharf of
San Francisco.

I have little left to tell. Of the shameful way in which our report was
received, every newspaper reader knows. At first there were some
persons, men of science and reading, who were disposed to believe what
we said. I printed in one of the daily newspapers an account of what we
had discovered, giving a full history of San Ildefonso as Father
Ignacio had given it to us. Of course, as I find is usual in such
cases, the other newspapers pooh-poohed the story their contemporary
had published to their exclusion, and made themselves very merry over
what they were pleased to term "The Great San Ildefonso Sell." I
prevailed on Captain Booden to make a short voyage down the coast in
search of the lost port. But we never saw the head