The little town of San Diego has undergone no change whatever that I can see.  It certainly has not grown.  It is still, like Santa Barbara, a Mexican town.  The four principal houses of the gente de razon—­ of the Bandinis, Estudillos, Arguellos, and Picos—­ are the chief houses now; but all the gentlemen—­ and their families, too, I believe—­ are gone.  The big vulgar shop-keeper and trader, Fitch, is long since dead; Tom Wrightington, who kept the rival pulperia, fell from his horse when drunk, and was found nearly eaten up by coyotes; and I can scarce find a person whom I remember.  I went into a familiar one-story adobe house, with its piazza and earthen floor, inhabited by a respectable lower-class family by the name of Machado, and inquired if any of the family remained, when a bright-eyed middle-aged woman recognized me, for she had heard I was on board the steamer, and told me she had married a shipmate of mine, Jack Stewart, who went out as second mate the next voyage, but left the ship and married and settled here.  She said he wished very much to see me.  In a few minutes he came in, and his sincere pleasure in meeting me was extremely grateful.  We talked over old times as long as I could afford to.  I was glad to hear that he was sober and doing well.  Dona Tomasa Pico I found and talked with.  She was the only person of the old upper class that remained on the spot, if I rightly recollect.  I found an American family here, with whom I dined,—­ Doyle and his wife, nice young people, Doyle agent for the great line of coaches to run to the frontier of the old States.

I must complete my acts of pious remembrance, so I take a horse and make a run out to the old Mission, where Ben Stimson and I went the first liberty day we had after we left Boston (ante, p. 140).  All has gone to decay.  The buildings are unused and ruinous, and the large gardens show now only wild cactuses, willows, and a few olive-trees.  A fast run brings me back in time to take leave of the few I knew and who knew me, and to reach the steamer before she sails.  A last look—­ yes, last for life—­ to the beach, the hills, the low point, the distant town, as we round Point Loma and the first beams of the light-house strike out towards the setting sun.

Wednesday, August 24th.  At anchor at San Pedro by daylight.  But instead of being roused out of the forecastle to row the long-boat ashore and bring off a load of hides before breakfast, we were served with breakfast in the cabin, and again took our drive with the wild horses to the Pueblo and spent the day; seeing nearly the same persons as before, and again getting back by dark.  We steamed again for Santa Barbara, where we only lay an hour, and passed through its canal and round Point Conception, stopping at San Luis Obispo to land my friend, as I may truly call him after this long passage together, Captain Wilson, whose most earnest invitation to stop here and visit him at his rancho I was obliged to decline.