[John G. Downey, Los Angeles Democrat, was California governor from 1862 through 1864.]
PART VI.
WHAT BECAME OF THOMAS CLARK.
OUR entertainer ceased to speak, for the evening meal was nearly ready, and the golden sun was setting in the West, and he rose to his feet to enjoy the glowing scene. Never shall I forget the intense interest taken by those who listened to the tale— and doubtless these pages will fall in the hands of many who heard it reported from his own lips, on the quarter-deck of the steamer “Uncle Sam,” during the voyage begun from San Francisco to Panama, on the twenty-first day of November, 1861. At first his auditors were about ten in number, but when he rose to look at the crimson glories of the sky, fifty people were raptly listening. We adjourned till the next day, when, as agreed upon the night before, we convened, and for some time awaited his appearance. At last he came, looking somewhat ill, for we were crossing the Gulf of California, and Boreas and Neptune had been elevating Robert, or in plainer English, “Kicking up a bobbery,” all night long. We had at least a thousand passengers aboard, consisting of all sorts of people—sailors, soldiers, and divers trades and callings.
“There’s a tide in the affairs of men, which, Taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” SHAKSPEARE.
“There’s a tide in the affairs of women, which, Taken at the flood, leads—God knows where.” BYRON.
[The Shakespeare quote is from Act IV, Scene III of Julius Caesar, while the Byron quote is from Don Juan, Canto the Sixth.]