Many
northward-faring ships put in at Callao, the port of Lima, Peru. But
the gold-seekers aboard them were now in spirit sniffing the air of
California; they were anxious for an end to sight-seeing and wonder;
they wanted to feel the gold dust between their fingers. When a vessel
stopped at Acapulco (above), or Mazatlan (below), to
pick up bedraggled veterans of the trails across Mexico, the men who
had come round the Horn were resentful and showed it. Especially were
they outraged when becalmed north of the Line. One clipper captain,
rolling idly under the tropic sun, lowered his boat and pulled around
the ship "in hopes by so doing to raise a breese."
