To strangers—“to a Lady he had loved.”

It was the year that filled the century

From Michael’s birth, when he was seen again.

A venturous band had wandered in the West,

Till far from towns, or any haunt of men,

They came upon a region by the sea.

Rock-bound and bare it lay; and all the storms

That hurled the ancient, white-topped, weary waves

On California, since the world began,

Had, day by day, and year by untold year,