three miles off, toward Saucelito, and saw her tack and stand toward us.  I was busy watching this sail-boat, when I heard a Yankee’s voice, close behind, saying, “This is a nice mess you’ve got yourselves into,” and looking about I saw a man in a small boat, who had seen us upset, and had rowed out to us from a schooner anchored close under the fort.  Some explanations were made, and when the sail-boat coming from Saucelito was near enough to be spoken to, and the captain had engaged her to help his schooner, we bade him good by, and got the man in the small boat-to carry us ashore, and land us at the foot of the bluff, just below the fort.  Once there, I was at home, and we footed it up to the Presidio.  Of the sentinel I inquired who was in command of the post, and was answered, “Major Merchant.”  He was not then in, but his adjutant, Lieutenant Gardner, was.  I sent my card to him; he came out, and was much surprised to find me covered with sand, and dripping with water, a good specimen of a shipwrecked mariner.  A few words of explanation sufficed; horses were provided, and we rode hastily into the city, reaching the office of the Nicaragua Steamship Company (C.  K. Garrison, agent) about dark, just as the purser had arrived; by a totally different route.  It was too late to send relief that night, but by daylight next morning two steamers were en route for and reached the place of wreck in time to relieve the passengers and bring them, and most of the baggage.  I lost my carpet-bag, but saved my trunk.  The Lewis went to pieces the night after we got off, and, had there been an average sea during the night of our shipwreck, none of us probably would have escaped.  That evening in San Francisco I hunted up Major Turner, whom I found boarding, in company with General E. A. Hitchcock, at a Mrs. Ross’s, on Clay Street, near Powell.  I took quarters with them, and began to make my studies, with a view to a decision whether it was best to undertake this new and untried scheme of banking, or to return to New Orleans and hold on to what I then had, a good army commission.

At the time of my arrival, San Francisco was an the top wave of speculation and prosperity.  Major Turner had rented at six hundred dollars a month the office formerly used and then owned by Adams & Co., on the east side of Montgomery Street, between Sacramento and California Streets.  B. R. Nisbet was the active partner, and James Reilly the teller.  Already the bank of Lucas, Turner & Co. was established, and was engaged in selling bills of exchange, receiving deposits, and loaning money at three per cent. a month.