Rezanov was a good-looking and susceptible youth,
already the victim of an Indian maiden from the
handsome tribe in the Santa Clara Valley, and sister
of Dona Ignacia's Malia. Rezanov furnished him
with beads and other trinkets and was at no dis-
advantage thereafter.

There was nothing Rezanov would have liked
better than to see a Russian fleet sail through the
straits, but he also knew that nothing was less likely,
and that from such rumors he should only derive
further annoyance and delay. Two of his sailors
deserted at the prospect of war, and his hosts, if
neutral, were manifestly alert. Luis and Santiago
had been obliged to go to Monterey for a few days,
and there was no one at the Presidio in whom Rez-
anov could confide either his impatience to see Con-
cha or at the adjournment of his more prosaic but
no less pressing interests. These two young men
had been with him almost constantly since his
arrival, and demonstrated their friendship and even
affection unfailingly; but there was no love lost be-
tween himself and Gervasio. This young hidalgo
had the hauteur and intense family pride of San-
tiago without his younger brother's frank intelli-
gence and lingering ingenuousness. With all the
superiority and inferiority, he had made himself so
unpopular that his real kindness of heart atoned for
his absurdities only with those that knew him best.
Rezanov was not one of these nor aspired to be.