The book is both fascinating and boring at the same time. Fascinating, because it gives us a glimpse of an empty California a few years before the gold rush, back when it belonged to Mexico. Boring, because it's chock-full of obsolete sailor terms that make no sense to a modern reader, and even though it's easy enough to skim over such parts, there are just too many of them and they bloat the book to a much longer length than is necessary.