Richard Henry Dana, Jr. - Two Years Before the Mast (1840)

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Tuesday, January 13, 1835: We made the land at Point Conception... 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. 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. Birds of prey and passage swooped and dived about us, wild beasts ranged through the oak groves... herds of deer came to the water's edge.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

If California ever becomes a prosperous country, this bay [San Francisco] will be the center of its prosperity.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

There is a witchery in the sea, its songs and stories, and in the mere sight of a ship, and the sailor's dress, especially to a young mind, which has done more to man navies, and fill merchantmen, than all the pressgangs of Europe.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

There is not so helpless and pitiable an object in the world as a landsman beginning a sailor's life.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

The men [of California] are thriftless, proud, and extravagant, and very much given to gaming; and the women have but little education, and a good deal of beauty, and their morality, of course, is none of the best.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able, And on the seventh—holystone the decks and scrape the cable.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

The Californians are an idle, thriftless people, and can make nothing for themselves. The country abounds in grapes, yet they buy, at a great price, bad wine made in Boston...

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

The fondness for dress among the women [of California] is excessive and is often the ruin of many of them.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

As has often been said, a ship is like a lady's watch, always out of repair.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.