But to return to the cart. On gala days it is swept out, and covered with mats; a deep body is put on, which is arched with hoop-poles, and over these a pair of sheets are extended for a covering. Into this the ladies are tumbled, when three or four yoke of oxen, with as many Indian drivers, and ten times as many dogs, start ahead. The hallooing of the drivers, the barking of the dogs, and the loud laughter of the girls make a common chorus. The quail takes to the covert as the roaring establishment comes on, and even the owl suspends his melancholy note. What has his sad tone to do amid such noise and mirth? It is like the piping cry of an infant amid the revelry and tumult of the carnival. SATURDAY, AUG. 29. Four Californians—a girl, her father, mother, and lover, all well clad and good-looking—presented themselves before me to-day. The old man said he had come to reclaim his daughter, who had run away with the young Mexican,—that he had no objection to his marrying her, but this running away with her didn’t look decent. The rash lover stated in his defence that he was ready to marry her, had run away with her for that purpose, had placed her immediately with his sister, and that she was still as chaste and pure as the driven snow. To all this the father and mother assented. I now expected we should have a wedding at once, and that I might be called upon to officiate. But to my utter surprise, on asking the girl if she insisted on marrying her lover, she declined. She said her escape with him was a wild freak; she had now got over it, and wished to return with her father. This fell like a death-knell on the ears of her lover, who again protested his affection and her purity. Having been once myself a disappointed suitor, I had a fellow feeling for him, and advised the girl to marry him; but she said no, that she had changed her mind: so I delivered her to her father, and told my brother in misfortune he must wait; that a woman who had changed her mind once on such a subject, would change it again. SUNDAY, AUG. 30. Several gentlemen and ladies of Monterey were present to-day at our service on board the Savannah. I have it in contemplation to establish a service on shore. There are plenty of halls, which are now used for dancing, and I should have as little scruple in converting one of them into a church, as Father Whitfield had in appropriating to his use the popular airs of the day, when he said he had no notion of letting the devil run away with all the fine tunes. Blessings on the memory of that devoted missionary! He has embalmed in his church melodies that will live when the profane lyres from which they flowed have long since been silent.