Two Years Before the Mast
he took command;--sending down the top-gallant masts, and unreeving
half the rigging, the very first day.
Having got all the news we could, we pulled ashore; and as soon as we
reached the house, I, as might be supposed, proceeded directly to
opening my bundle, and found a reasonable supply of duck, flannel
shirts, shoes, etc., and, what was still more valuable, a packet of
eleven letters. These I sat up nearly all the night to read, and put
them carefully away, to be read and re-read again and again at my
leisure. Then came a half a dozen newspapers, the last of which gave
notice of Thanksgiving, and of the clearance of "ship Alert, Edward H.
Faucon, master, for Callao and California, by Bryant, Sturgis & Co."
No one has ever been on distant voyages, and after a long absence
received a newspaper from home, who cannot understand the delight that
they give one. I read every part of them--the houses to let; things
lost or stolen; auction sales, and all. Nothing carries you so entirely
to a place, and makes you feel so perfectly at home, as a newspaper.
The very name of "Boston Daily Advertiser" "sounded hospitably upon the
ear."
The Pilgrim discharged her hides, which set us at work again, and in a
few days we were in the old routine of dry hides--wet
hides--cleaning--beating, etc. Captain Faucon came quietly up to me,
as I was at work, with my knife, cutting the meat from a dirty hide,
asked me how I liked California, and repeated--"Tityre, tu patulae
recubans sub tegmine fagi." Very apropos, thought I, and, at the same
time, serves to show that you understand Latin. However, a kind word
from a captain is a thing not to be slighted; so I answered him
civilly, and made the most of it.
Saturday, July 11th. The Pilgrim set sail for the windward, and left
us to go on in our old way. Having laid in such a supply of wood, and
the days being now long, and invariably pleasant, we had a good deal of
time to ourselves. All the duck I received from home, I soon made up
into trowsers and frocks, and displayed, every Sunday, a complete suit
of my own make, from head to foot, having formed the remnants of the
duck into a cap. Reading, mending, sleeping, with occasional
excursions into the bush, with the dogs, in search of coati, hares, and
rabbits, or to encounter a rattlesnake, and now and then a visit to the
Presidio, filled up our spare time after hide-curing was over for the
day. Another amusement, which we sometimes indulged in, was "burning
the water" for craw-fish. For this purpose, we procured a pair of
grains, with a long staff like a harpoon, and making torches with
tarred rope twisted round a long pine stick, took the only boat on the
beach, a small skiff, and with a torch-bearer in the bow, a steersman
in the stern, and one man on each side with the grains, went off, on
dark nights, to burn the water. This is fine sport. Keeping within a
few rods of the shore, where the water is not more than three or four
feet deep, with a clear sandy bottom, the torches light everything up
so that one could almost have seen a pin among the grains of sand. The
craw-fish are an easy prey, and we used soon to get a load of them.
The other fish were more difficult to catch, yet we frequently speared
a number of them, of various kinds and sizes. The Pilgrim brought us
down a supply of fish-hooks, which we had never had before, on the
beach, and for several days we went down to the Point, and caught a
quantity of cod and mackerel. On one of these expeditions, we saw a
battle between two Sandwich Islanders and a shark. "Johnny" had been
playing about our boat for some time, driving away the fish, and
showing his teeth at our bait, when we missed him, and in a few moments
heard a great shouting between two Kanakas who were fishing on the rock
opposite to us: "E hana hana make i ka ia nui!" "E pii mai Aikane!"
etc., etc.; and saw them pulling away on a stout line, and "Johnny
Shark" floundering at the other end. The line soon broke; but the
Kanakas would not let him off so easily, and sprang directly into the
water after him. Now came the tug of war. Before we could get into
deep water, one of them seized him by the tail, and ran up with him
upon the beach; but Johnny twisted round, turning his head under his
body, and, showing his teeth in the vicinity of the Kanaka's hand, made
him let go and spring out of the way. The shark now turned tail and
made the best of his way, by flapping and floundering, toward deep
water; but here again, before he was fairly off, the other Kanaka
seized him by the tail, and made a spring towards the beach, his
companion at the same time paying away upon him with stones and a large
stick. As soon, however, as the shark could turn, he was obliged to let
go his hold; but the instant he made toward deep water, they were both
behind him, watching their chance to seize him. In this way the battle
went on for some time, the shark, in a rage, splashing and twisting
about, and the Kanakas, in high excitement, yelling at the top of their
voices; but the shark at last got off, carrying away a hook and liner
and not a few severe bruises.
CHAPTER XXI
CALIFORNIA AND ITS INHABITANTS
We kept up a constant connection with the Presidio, and by the close of
the summer I had added much to my vocabulary, beside having made the
acquaintance of nearly everybody in the place, and acquired some
knowledge of the character and habits of the people, as well as of the
institutions under which they live.
California was first discovered in 1536, by Cortes, and was
subsequently visited by numerous other adventurers as well as
commissioned voyagers of the Spanish crown. It was found to be
inhabited by numerous tribes of Indians, and to be in many parts
extremely fertile; to which, of course, was added rumors of gold mines,
pearl fishery, etc. No sooner was the importance of the country known,
than the Jesuits obtained leave to establish themselves in it, to
Christianize and enlighten the Indians. They established missions in
various parts of the country toward the close of the seventeenth
century, and collected the natives about them, baptizing them into the
church, and teaching them the arts of civilized life. To protect the
Jesuits in their missions, and at the same time to support the power of
the crown over the civilized Indians, two forts were erected and
garrisoned, one at San Diego, and the other at Monterey. These were
called Presidios, and divided the command of the whole country between
them. Presidios have since been established at Santa Barbara and San
Francisco; thus dividing the country into four large districts, each
with its presidio, and governed by the commandant. The soldiers, for
the most part, married civilized Indians; and thus, in the vicinity of
each presidio, sprung up, gradually, small towns. In the course of
time, vessels began to come into the ports to trade with the missions,
and received hides in return; and thus began the great trade of
California. Nearly all the cattle in the country belonged to the
missions, and they employed their Indians, who became, in fact, their
slaves, in tending their vast herds. In the year 1793, when Vancouver
visited San Diego, the mission had obtained great wealth and power, and
are accused of having depreciated the country with the sovereign, that
they might be allowed to retain their possessions. On the expulsion of
the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions, the missions passed into the
hands of the Franciscans, though without any essential change in their
management. Ever since the independence of Mexico, the missions have
been going down; until, at last, a law was passed, stripping them of
all their possessions, and confining the priests to their spiritual
duties; and at the same time declaring all the Indians free and
independent Rancheros. The change in the condition of the Indians was,
as may be supposed, only nominal: they are virtually slaves, as much as
they ever were. But in the missions, the change was complete. The
priests have now no power, except in their religious character, and the
great possessions of the missions are given over to be preyed upon by
the harpies of the civil power, who are sent there in the capacity of
administradores, to settle up the concerns; and who usually end, in a
few years, by making themselves fortunes, and leaving their
stewardships worse than they found them. The dynasty of the priests
was much more acceptable to the people of the country, and indeed, to
every one concerned with the country, by trade or otherwise, than that
of the administradores. The priests were attached perpetually to one
mission, and felt the necessity of keeping up its credit. Accordingly,
their debts were regularly paid, and the people were, in the main, well
treated, and attached to those who had spent their whole lives among
them. But the administradores are strangers sent from Mexico, having no
interest in the country; not identified in any way with their charge,
and, for the most part, men of desperate fortunes--broken down
politicians and soldiers--whose only object is to retrieve their
condition in as short a time as possible. The change had been made but
a few years before our arrival upon the coast, yet, in that short time,
the trade was much diminished, credit impaired, and the venerable
missions going rapidly to decay. The external arrangements remain the
same. There are four presidios, having under their protection the
various missions, and pueblos, which are towns formed by the civil
power, and containing no mission or presidio. The most northerly
presidio is San Francisco; the next Monterey; the next Santa Barbara;
including the mission of the same, St. Louis Obispo, and St.
Buenaventura, which is the finest mission in the whole country, having
very fertile soil and rich vineyards. The last, and most southerly, is
San Diego, including the mission of the same, San Juan Campestrano, the
Pueblo de los Angelos, the largest town in California, with the
neighboring mission of San Gabriel. The priests in spiritual matters
are subject to the Archbishop of Mexico, and in temporal matters to the
governor-general, who is the great civil and military head of the
country.
The government of the country is an arbitrary democracy; having no
common law, and no judiciary. Their only laws are made and unmade at
the caprice of the legislature, and are as variable as the legislature
itself. They pass through the form of sending representatives to the
congress at Mexico, but as it takes several months to go and return,
and there is very little communication between the capital and this
distant province, a member usually stays there, as permanent member,
knowing very well that there will be revolutions at home before he can
write and receive an answer; if another member should be sent, he has
only to challenge him, and decide the contested election in that way.
Revolutions are matters of constant occurrence in California. They are
got up by men who are at the foot of the ladder and in desperate
circumstances, just as a new political party is started by such men in
our own country. The only object, of course, is the loaves and fishes;
and instead of caucusing, paragraphing, libelling, feasting, promising,
and lying, as with us, they take muskets and bayonets, and seizing upon
the presidio and custom-house, divide the spoils, and declare a new
dynasty. As for justice, they know no law but will and fear. A
Yankee, who had been naturalized, and become a Catholic, and had
married in the country, was sitting in his house at the Pueblo de los
Angelos, with his wife and children, when a Spaniard, with whom he had
had a difficulty, entered the house, and stabbed him to the heart