ARRIVE AT SAN FRANCISCO—A WRECKED SHIP—THE ABYSSINIA CONDEMNED—GATHERING WRECKAGE—DRUNKEN SAILORS—MY TRUNK HELD FOR HOSPITAL FEES—GO ASHORE, WHERE ALL IS CHANGED AND STRANGE—MY DILAPIDATED APPEARANCE—SEEK GUIDANCE OF THE LORD—WANDER ALMOST IN DESPAIR—MEET AN OLD FRIEND—FIND A HOME—MY TRUNK RELEASED—MEET ELDERS GOING ON MISSIONS—WELL TREATED BY SAINTS AND STRANGERS—PROVIDENCES OF THE LORD—OUTWARD-BOUND ELDERS ENTRUST MONEY TO ME FOR THEIR FAMILIES—ENGAGE TO CARRY MAIL TO LOS ANGELES—ON A STEAMER FOR SAN PEDRO—TAKEN SEVERELY ILL.

ON January 8th, 1853, we passed into the bay of San Francisco, where we came close to a big New York clipper ship, fast on a rock in the passage. While we were looking at the vessel, the tide came in and lifted it up; then it dropped back and was smashed as if it were only a matchbox. Luckily, the ship had been there long enough to be surrounded by boats sufficient to save the passengers, and perhaps their baggage.

We soon dropped anchor from our dismantled bark, which, as I afterwards learned, was condemned as being unseaworthy, and never was allowed to go to sea again. The seamen on our vessel went to picking up the wreckage from the clipper ship. They chanced to catch a barrel of whisky, when the captain ordered it to be carried below. That made the sailors desperate. They seized an ax, crushed the barrel head in, and each seaman dipped with his cup. Within fifteen minutes they were wild with drunkenness. They armed themselves with axes, hand-spikes, belaying pins, marlinspikes, and any and everything they could lay hold of. Then the officers, and some of the passengers who had incurred their displeasure, were made to hunt hiding places below in doublequick time. That condition did not last long, however, before a compromise was effected, the captain took his position again, and the men went to landing passengers and baggage. I got my trunk ready to depart, when the captain demanded five dollars of me, for hospital fees, he said. As I had not so much as one dollar, I had to leave my trunk and go ashore, very sick and cold.

When I reached the streets I found things so changed from when I was there before that I felt lost in the throng of people. It seemed to me that everyone was seeking his own gain, regardless of his fellow-men. It was push, ram, jam, on all sides. I had worn my clothes pretty well out, my hat had been so crushed that my hair was showing in the crown, and my shoe soles were worn very nearly off.

In this condition I asked the Lord, in silent prayer, to show me what I should do. The Spirit said, "Go up the street." I was then on California Street. I obeyed the whisperings, until I got near the top of the street. Without any consolation the thought came, What shall I do? The still, small Voice said, "Go up the street," and I obeyed again.

At last, almost despairing of everything, wholly sick and tired, suffering from lack of some refreshment, and feeling that there was no relief for me, I saw a man start across the street above me, and from the same side. When he neared the center of the street, he stopped and seemed to be looking at me. As I advanced, he turned around, and walked back two or three steps. By this time I started across toward him, and he came to meet me. It was Redick N. Allred, of the Mormon Battalion.

We did not recognize each other until we went to shake hands. He said, "How are you?" I answered, "Tired, sick, and hungry." "Well," said he, "come back across the street with me, to a lunch stand, and we will have something to eat." Soon the inner man was comforted, when Brother Allred told me there were thirty-six Elders in San Francisco, bound to foreign lands on missions. He led me to some of my old friends, and I found John Layton, whom I had been acquainted with on the Society Islands. He told me that if I would I could come and stop with him, and chop the wood and do the marketing; for his wife, being an islander, could not talk English well. I accepted the kind offer, and thus was provided with a home.

I also met with Major Jefferson Hunt. We saw a Captain King, took supper with him, and told him that the captain of the vessel I had come on had retained my trunk because I had not five dollars to pay the hospital fees. Brother Badlam gav............