to
drown care and sorrow for a long while. As to the captain he received
the attention which his gallant conduct entitled him to, and on the eve
of his departure he was presented with a trunk, of tolerable dimensions,
well filled with linen and clothes.

A merry night was passed to celebrate my escape. Guns had been fired,
flags hoisted to recall the boats, and at ten o'clock in the night, the
whole population was gambolling on the lawn, singing, dancing, and
feasting, as if it was to have been our last day of pleasure during
life.

Thus passed away four weeks, and I must admit to my shame, I had
willingly missed two chances of going to Santa Fe. One morning,
however, all my dreams of further pleasure were dispelled. I was just
meditating upon my first declaration of love, when our old servant
arrived with four Indian guides. He had left the settlement seven days,
and had come almost all the way by water. He had been despatched by my
father to bring me home if I had not yet left Monterey. His
intelligence was disastrous; the Prince had been murdered by the Crows;
the Shoshones had gone on a war expedition to revenge the death of the
Prince; and my father himself who had been daily declining, expected in
a short time to rejoin his friend in a better world. Poor Isabella! I
would have added, poor me! but the fatal news brought had so excited me,
that I had but few thoughts to give to pleasure and to love. My
immediate return was a sacred duty, and, besides, the Shoshones expected
me to join with them on my first war-path. The old Governor judged it
advisable that I should return home by sea, as the Arrapahoes Indians
were at that moment enemies of the Shoshones, and would endeavour to cut
me off if I were to ascend the Buona Ventura. Before my departure, I
received a visit from an Irishman, a wild young fellow of the name of
Roche, a native of Cork, and full of fun and activity. He had deserted
on the coast from one of the American vessels, and in spite of the
promised reward of forty dollars, he was never discovered, and his
vessel sailed without him.

General Morreno was at first angry, and would have sent the poor devil
to jail, but Roche was so odd, and made so many artful representations
of the evils he had suffered on board on account of his being a
Catholic, that the clergy, and, in fact, all Monterey, interfered.
Roche soon became a valuable acquisition to the community; he was an
indefatigable da