Two Years Before the Mast
tallow-bags. Add to this the gale off Point Conception, and no one can
be at a loss to account for our agreeable disappointment in Monterey.
Beside all this, we soon learned, which was of no small importance to
us, that there was little or no surf here, and this afternoon the beach
was as smooth as a duck-pond.
We landed the agent and passengers, and found several persons waiting
for them on the beach, among whom were some, who, though dressed in the
costume of the country, spoke English; and who, we afterwards learned,
were English and Americans who had married and settled in the country.
I also connected with our arrival here another circumstance which more
nearly concerns myself; viz, my first act of what the sailors will
allow to be seamanship--sending down a royal-yard. I had seen it done
once or twice at sea, and an old sailor, whose favor I had taken some
pains to gain, had taught me carefully everything which was necessary
to be done, and in its proper order, and advised me to take the first
opportunity when we were in port, and try it. I told the second mate,
with whom I had been pretty thick when he was before the mast, that I
would do it, and got him to ask the mate to send me up the first time
they were struck. Accordingly I was called upon, and went up,
repeating the operations over in my mind, taking care to get everything
in its order, for the slightest mistake spoils the whole. Fortunately,
I got through without any word from the officer, and heard the "well
done" of the mate, when the yard reached the deck, with as much
satisfaction as I ever felt at Cambridge on seeing a "bene" at the foot
of a Latin exercise.
CHAPTER XII
LIFE AT MONTEREY
The next day being Sunday, which is the liberty-day among merchantmen,
when it is usual to let a part of the crew go ashore, the sailors had
depended upon a day on land, and were already disputing who should ask
to go, when, upon being called in the morning, we were turned-to upon
the rigging, and found that the topmast, which had been sprung, was to
come down, and a new one to go up, and top-gallant and royal-masts, and
the rigging to be set up. This was too bad. If there is anything that
irritates sailors and makes them feel hardly used, it is being deprived
of their Sabbath. Not that they would always, or indeed generally,
spend it religiously, but it is their only day of rest. Then, too,
they are often necessarily deprived of it by storms, and unavoidable
duties of all kinds, that to take it from them when lying quietly and
safely in port, without any urgent reason, bears the more hardly. The
only reason in this case was, that the captain had determined to have
the custom-house officers on board on Monday, and wished to have his
brig in order. Jack is a slave aboard ship; but still he has many
opportunities of thwarting and balking his master. When there is
danger, or necessity, or when he is well used, no one can work faster
than he; but the instant he feels that he is kept at work for nothing,
no sloth could make less headway. He must not refuse his duty, or be
in any way disobedient, but all the work that an officer gets out of
him, he may be welcome to. Every man who has been three months at sea
knows how to "work Tom Cox's traverse"--"three turns round the
long-boat, and a pull at the scuttled-butt." This morning everything
went in this way. "Sogering" was the order of the day. Send a man
below to get a block, and he would capsize everything before finding
it, then not bring it up till an officer had called him twice, and take
as much time to put things in order again. Marline-spikes were not to
be found; knives wanted a prodigious deal of sharpening, and,
generally, three or four were waiting round the grindstone at a time.
When a man got to the mast-head, he would come slowly down again to get
something which he had forgotten; and after the tackles were got up,
six men would pull less than three who pulled "with a will." When the
mate was out of sight, nothing was done. It was all uphill work; and
at eight o'clock, when we went to breakfast, things were nearly where
they were when we began.
During our short meal, the matter was discussed. One proposed refusing
to work; but that was mutiny, and of course was rejected at once. I
remember, too, that one of the men quoted "Father Taylor," (as they
call the seamen's preacher at Boston,) who told them that if they were
ordered to work on Sunday, they must not refuse their duty, and the
blame would not come upon them. After breakfast, it leaked out,
through the officers, that if we would get through our work soon, we
might have a boat in the afternoon and go fishing. This bait was well
thrown, and took with several who were fond of fishing; and all began
to find that as we had one thing to do, and were not to be kept at work
for the day, the sooner we did it, the better.
Accordingly, things took a new aspect; and before two o'clock this
work, which was in a fair way to last two days, was done; and five of
us went a fishing in the jolly-boat, in the direction of Point Pinos;
but leave to go ashore was refused. Here we saw the Loriotte, which
sailed with us from Santa Barbara, coming slowly in with a light
sea-breeze, which sets in towards afternoon, having been becalmed off
the point all the first part of the day. We took several fish of
various kinds, among which cod and perch abounded, and F----, (the
ci-devant second mate,) who was of our number, brought up with his hook
a large and beautiful pearl-oyster shell. We afterwards learned that
this place was celebrated for shells, and that a small schooner had
made a good voyage, by carrying a cargo of them to the United States.
We returned by sun-down, and found the Loriotte at anchor, within a
cable's length of the Pilgrim. The next day we were "turned-to" early,
and began taking off the hatches, overhauling the cargo, and getting
everything ready for inspection. At eight, the officers of the
customs, five in number, came on board, and began overhauling the
cargo, manifest, etc.
The Mexican revenue laws are very strict, and require the whole cargo
to be landed, examined, and taken on board again; but our agent, Mr.
R----, had succeeded in compounding with them for the two last vessels,
and saving the trouble of taking the cargo ashore. The officers were
dressed in the costume which we found prevailed through the country. A
broad-brimmed hat, usually of a black or dark-brown color, with a gilt
or figured band round the crown, and lined inside with silk; a short
jacket of silk or figured calico, (the European skirted body-coat is
never worn;) the shirt open in the neck; rich waistcoat, if any;
pantaloons wide, straight, and long, usually of velvet, velveteen, or
broadcloth; or else short breeches and white stockings. They wear the
deer-skin shoe, which is of a dark-brown color, and, (being made by
Indians,) usually a good deal ornamented. They have no suspenders, but
always wear a sash round the waist, which is generally red, and varying
in quality with the means of the wearer. Add to this the never-failing
cloak, and you have the dress of the Californian. This last garment,
the cloak, is always a mark of the rank and wealth of the owner. The
"gente de razón," or aristocracy, wear cloaks of black or dark blue
broadcloth, with as much velvet and trimmings as may be; and from this
they go down to the blanket of the Indian; the middle classes wearing
something like a large table-cloth, with a hole in the middle for the
head to go through. This is often as coarse as a blanket, but being
beautifully woven with various colors, is quite showy at a distance.
Among the Mexicans there is no working class; (the Indians being slaves
and doing all the hard work;) and every rich man looks like a grandee,
and every poor scamp like a broken-down gentleman. I have often seen a
man with a fine figure, and courteous manners, dressed in broadcloth
and velvet, with a noble horse completely covered with trappings;
without a real in his pocket, and absolutely suffering for something to
eat.
CHAPTER XIII
TRADING--A BRITISH SAILOR
The next day, the cargo having been entered in due form, we began
trading. The trade-room was fitted up in the steerage, and furnished
out with the lighter goods, and with specimens of the rest of the
cargo; and M----, a young man who came out from Boston with us, before
the mast, was taken out of the forecastle, and made supercargo's clerk.
He was well qualified for the business, having been clerk in a
counting-house in Boston. He had been troubled for some time with the
rheumatism, which unfitted him for the wet and exposed duty of a sailor
on the coast. For a week or ten days all was life on board. The people
came off to look and to buy--men, women, and children; and we were
continually going in the boats, carrying goods and passengers,--for
they have no boats of their own. Everything must dress itself and come
aboard and see the new vessel, if it were only to buy a paper of pins.
The agent and his clerk managed the sales, while we were busy in the
hold or in the boats. Our cargo was an assorted one; that is, it
consisted of everything under the sun. We had spirits of all kinds,
(sold by the cask,) teas, coffee, sugars, spices, raisins, molasses,
hardware, crockery-ware, tinware, cutlery, clothing of all kinds, boots
and shoes from Lynn, calicoes and cottons from Lowell, crepes, silks;
also shawls, scarfs, necklaces, jewelry, and combs for the ladies;
furniture; and in fact, everything that can be imagined, from Chinese
fire-works to English cart-wheels--of which we had a dozen pairs with
their iron rims on.
The Californians are an idle, thriftless people, and can make nothing
for themselves. The country abounds in grapes, yet they buy bad wines
made in Boston and brought round by us, at an immense price, and retail
it among themselves at a real (12½ cents) by the small wine-glass.
Their hides, too, which they value at two dollars in money, they give
for something which costs seventy-five cents in Boston; and buy shoes
(like as not, made of their own hides, and which have been carried
twice around Cape Horn) at three or four dollars, and "chicken-skin"
boots at fifteen dollars apiece. Things sell, on an average, at an
advance of nearly three hundred per cent upon the Boston prices. This
is partly owing to the heavy duties which the government, in their
wisdom, with the intent, no doubt, of keeping the silver in the
country, has laid upon imports. These duties, and the enormous expenses
of so long a voyage, keep all merchants, but those of heavy capital,
from engaging in the trade. Nearly two-thirds of all the articles
imported into the country from round Cape Horn, for the last six years,
have been by the single house of Bryant, Sturgis & Co., to whom our
vessel belonged, and who have a permanent agent on the coast.
This kind of business was new to us, and we liked it very well for a
few days, though we were hard at work every minute from daylight to
dark; and sometimes even later.
By being thus continually engaged in transporting passengers with their
goods, to and fro, we gained considerable knowledge of the character,
dress, and language of the people. The dress of the men was as I have
before described it. The women wore gowns of various texture--silks,
crape, calicoes, etc.,--made after the European style, except that the
sleeves were short, leaving the arm bare, and that they were loose
about the waist, having no corsets. They wore shoes of kid, or satin;
sashes or belts of bright colors; and almost always a necklace and
ear-rings. Bonnets they had none. I only saw one on the coast, and