Stories by American Authors (Volume 4)Woolson, Constance Fenimore
General
Stories by American Authors (Volume 4)
Woolson, Constance Fenimore
Short stories, American; United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
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 headland, the ridge
beyond the town, nor anything that looked like these landmarks, though
we went down as far as San Pedro Bay and back twice or three times. It
actually did seem that the whole locality had been swallowed up, or had
vanished into air. In vain did I bring the matter to the notice of the
merchants and scientific men of San Francisco. Nobody would fit out an
exploring expedition by land or sea; those who listened at first
finally inquired "if there was any money in it?" I could not give an
affirmative answer, and they turned away with the discouraging remark
that the California Academy of Natural Science and the Society of
Pioneers were the only bodies interested in the fate of our lost city.
Even Captain Booden somehow lost all interest in the enterprise, and
returned to his Bolinas coasting with the most stolid indifference. I
combated the attacks of the newspapers with facts and depositions of my
fellow-voyagers as long as I could, until one day the editor of the
Daily Trumpeter (I suppress the real name of the sheet) coldly told me
that the public were tired of the story of San Ildefonso. It was plain
that his mind had been soured by the sarcasms of his contemporaries,
and he no longer believed in me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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