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Harte, Bret, 1836-1902

"The Crusade of the Excelsior"


Under charge of Captain Bunker the vessel was sent to Mazatlan by the
authorities, bearing the banished and proscribed Americans, Banks,
Brace, Winslow, and Crosby; and, by permission of the Council, also
their friends, Markham and Brimmer, and the ladies, Mrs. Brimmer, Chubb,
and Markham. Hurlstone and Miss Keene alone were invited to remain, but,
on later representations, the Council graciously included Richard Keene
in the invitation, with the concession of the right to work the mines
and control the ranches he and Hurlstone had purchased from their
proscribed countrymen. The complacency of the Council of Todos Santos
may be accounted for when it is understood that on the day the firm
of Hurlstone & Keene was really begun under the title of Mr. and Mrs.
Hurlstone, Richard had prevailed upon the Alcalde to allow him to add
the piquant Dona Isabel also to the firm under the title of Mrs. Keene.
Although the port of Todos Santos was henceforth open to all commerce,
the firm of Hurlstone & Keene long retained the monopoly of trade, and
was a recognized power of intelligent civilization and honest progress
on the Pacific coast. And none contributed more to that result than the
clever and beautiful hostess of Excelsior Lodge, the charming country
home of James Hurlstone, Esq.


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