Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-06

As the little ship that had three times
raced with death sailed past the majestic
headlands and into the straits of San Fran
cisco on that brilliant April morning Of
1906, Rezanov forgot the bitter humiliations
the mental and physical torments, the de-
prvations and dangers of the past three
years; forgot those narrowing months in
the harbor of Nagasaki when the Russian
bear had Gagged his tail in the presence of
eyes aslant; his dismay at Kamchatka
when he had been forced to send home an
other to vindicate his failure, and to re-
main in the tsar's incontguous and bar
barous northeastern possessions repre-
sentative of his imperial majesty, and plen-
ipotentiary of the company his genius
had created; forgot the year of loneliness
and hardship-and peril in whose jaws the
bravest was impotent; forgot even his
pitiable crew, diseased when he left Sitka,
who had filled the Juno with their groans
and laments. and the bells of youth, long
still, rang in his soul once more.
1t is the spring in California he
thought with a sigh that curled at the
edge. However" life had made him philo-
sophical; the moments of unreasonable
happiness are the most enviable no doubt
for there is neither gall safety in the
reaction. All this is enchanting as-well,
as a woman's promise. What lies beyond?
Iliterate and mercenary Spaniards, vicious
natives and boundless ennui, one may
safely wager. But if all California is as
beautiful as this, no man that had spent a
winter in Sitka should ask for more"
In the extent and variousness of his
travels Hezanov had seen nature more ave
of feature bnt fat On
his immediate right as he sailed down the
straits toward the narrow entrance to be
known as the Golden Gate there was little
to interest save the surf and the masses
of outlying rocks where the seals leaped
and barked the shore beyond was sandy
and low. But on his left the last of the
northern mountains rose straight from the
water, the warm red of its deeply indented
cliffs rich in harmony with the green of
slope and height. There was not a tree;
the mountains, the promOntories, the hills
far down on the right beyond the sand
dunes, looked like Stupendous waves of
lava that had cooled into every gracious
line and fold within the art of relentng
nature; ages after, granted q. light coat of
verdure to clothe the terrible mystery of
birth. The great bay, as blue and tranquil
as a high mountain lake, silent as If the
planet still slept after the agonies of labor,
looked to be broken by number of promon-
tories. rising from their point far out in the
water to the high back of the land, but
as the Juno pursued her slanting way down
the channel Rezanov saw that the most
imposing of these was but the end of a
large island and that scattered near were
other islands, masses of rock like the cas-
tellated heights that rise abruptly from the
plains of Italy and Spain; far away, mar
rover straits. with a glittering expanse
beyond; while bounding the whole eastern
rim of this splendid sheet of water was a
chain of violet hills, with the pale green
mist of new grass here and there, and
purple hollows that might mean groves of
trees crouching low against the trade winds
of summer; in the soft pale blue haze above
and beyond the lofty volvanic peak of a
mountain range. Not human being. not
a boat not even a herd of cattle was to be
seen. and Rezanov. for a moment forget
ting to eXult in the length of Russia's arm,
yielded himself to the subtle influence
abroad In the air. and felt that he could
dream as he had dreamed in youth when
the courts of Europe were as fabulous as
FL Dorado; in the immensely of ancestral
seclusions.
1t is like the approach to paradise is it
not excelency?" a deferential voice MUIR
INJURED at his elbow.
The plenipotentiary frowneG without turn
ing his head. DR.. Langsdorf, surgeon and
naturalist, had accompanied the embassy
TO Japan, and although Rezanov had never
found any man more of bore and would
willingly have seen the last of him al
kamchatka, a skillful dispenser of drugs
and member of bones was necessary in his
hazardous voyages, and he retained him IN
his suite. Langsdorf returned his polite
his spleen. but his curiosity and scientific
enthusiasm would have sustained him
through greater trials than the exactions
of an autocTat whom at least he had never
ceased to respect in the most trying mo-
ments at Nagasaki.
Yes" said Rezanov. But I wonder you
find anything to admire in such unportablt
objects as mountains and water. l have
not seen living thing but gulls and seals
and God knows We had enough Of both a
Sitka.'
"Ah. your excelency. in a land as fertil,
as this and caressed by a climate tina
would coax life from stone, there mus
be an infinite number of aquatic and aeria
treasures that will add materially to the
scientific lore of Europe"
'Humphi" said ReZanov, and moved hi:
shoulder In uncomfortable gesture o.
dismissal. But the spell of the April morn
ing was broken, although the learned doc
tor was not TO be the only offender.
The Golden Gate is but a mile In widti
and the swift current carried the Juno to
ward a low promontory, from whose has,
a shrill cry suddenly assembled. Rezanov
raising his glass, saw that what he hat
taken to be a pile of fallen rocks was
fort, and that group of excited mel
stood at its gates. Once more the plenipo
Tertiary on a delicate mission, he ordered
the two naval officers sailing the ship t.
come forward, and retired to the digniiet
isolation of the cabin.
The high-spirited young officers, VIII,
would have raised a gay hurrah at the sigh
Of civilized man had 1t not been for tn