Rezanov | Page 8

many other men of his position in Europe, he had discarded
wig and queue and wore his short fair hair unpowdered.
It was a singularly imposing but hardly attractive presence, thought
young Arguello, until Rezanov, after stepping on shore and bowing
formally, sud- denly smiled and held out his hand. Then the im-
pressionable Spaniard "melted like a woman," as he told his sister,
Concha, and would have embraced the stranger on either cheek had not
awe lingered to temper his enthusiasm. But Rezanov never made a
stauncher friend than Louis Arguello, who vowed to the last of his days
that the one man who had fulfilled his ideal of the grand seigneur was
he that sailed in from the North on that fateful April morning of 1806.

II
As Rezanov, heading the procession with young Arguello, entered the
wide gates of the Presidio, he received an impression memorably
different from that which led earlier travelers to describe it in-

clemently as a large square surrounded by mud houses, thatched with
reeds. It is true that the walls were of adobe and the roofs of tule, nor
was there a tree on the sand hills encircling the stronghold. But in this
early springtime--the summer of the peninsula--the hills showed
patches of verdure, and all the low white buildings were covered by a
net- work of soft dull green and archaic pink. The Cas- tilian rose, full
and fluted, and of a chaste and pene- trating fragrance, hung singly and
in clusters on the pillars of the dwellings, on the barracks and chapel,
from the very roofs; bloomed upon bushes as high as young trees. The
Presidio was as delicately per- fumed as a lady's bower, and its cannon
faced the ever-changing hues of water and island and hill.
As the party approached, heads of all ages ap- peared between the vines,
and there was a low mur- mur of irrepressible curiosity and delight.
"We do not see many strangers in this lonely land," said Arguello
apologetically. "And never before have we had so distinguished a guest
as your excellency. It was always a gala day when ever a Boston
skipper came in with a few bales of goods and a complexion like the
hides we sold him. Now, alas! they are no longer permitted to enter our
ports. Governor Arrillaga will have none of contra- band trade and
slaying of our otter. And as for Europeans other than Spaniards, save
for an Eng- lish sea captain now and then, they know naught of our
existence."
But Rezanov had not come to California on the impulse of a moment.
He replied suavely: "There you are mistaken. Your illustrious father,
Don Jose Mario de Arguello, is well known to us as the most respected,
eminent and influential character in the Californias. It was my intention,
after paying a visit of ceremony to his excellency, Governor Ar- rillaga,
to come to San Francisco for the sole pur- pose of meeting a man
whose record has inspired me with the deepest interest. And we have
all heard such wonderful tales of your California, of its beauty, its
fertility, of the beneficent lives of your missionaries--so different from
ours--and of the hospitality and elegance of the Spaniards, that it has
been the objective point of my travels, and I have found it difficult to
curb my impatience while attending to imperative duties elsewhere."

"Ay! senor!" exclaimed the young Californian. "What you say fills me
with a pride I cannot ex- press, and I can only regret that the reports of
our poor habitations should be so sadly exaggerated. Such as our
possessions are, however, they are yours while you deign to remain in
our midst. This is my father's house. I beg that you will regard it as
your own. Burn it if you will!" he cried with more enthusiasm than
commonly enlivened the phrases of hospitality. "He will be proud to
know that a lifetime of severe attention to duty and of devotion to his
King have won him fame abroad as well as at home. He has risen to his
present position from the ranks, but he is of pure Spanish blood, not a
drop of Indian; and my mother was a Moraga, of the best blood of
Spain," he added art- lessly. "As to the beauty and variety of our
country, senor, of course you will visit our opulent south; but--" They
had dismounted at the Comman- dante's house in the southeast corner
of the square. Arguello impulsively led Rezanov back to the gates and
pointed to the east. "I have crossed those mountains and the mountains
beyond, Excellency, and seen fertile and beautiful valleys of a vast ex-
tent, watered by five rivers and bound far, far away by mountains
covered with