Two Years Before the Mast
before them all. The murderer was seized by some Yankees who had
settled there, and kept in confinement until a statement of the whole
affair could be sent to the governor-general. He refused to do anything
about it, and the countrymen of the murdered man, seeing no prospect of
justice being administered, made known that if nothing was done, they
should try the man themselves. It chanced that, at this time, there
was a company of forty trappers and hunters from Kentucky, with their
rifles, who had made their head-quarters at the Pueblo; and these,
together with the Americans and Englishmen in the place, who were
between twenty and thirty in number, took possession of the town, and
waiting a reasonable time, proceeded to try the man according to the
forms in their own country. A judge and jury were appointed, and he
was tried, convicted, sentenced to be shot, and carried out before the
town, with his eyes blindfolded. The names of all the men were then
put into a hat and each one pledging himself to perform his duty,
twelve names were drawn out, and the men took their stations with their
rifles, and, firing at the word, laid him dead. He was decently
buried, and the place was restored quietly to the proper authorities.
A general, with titles enough for an hidalgo, was at San Gabriel, and
issued a proclamation as long as the fore-top-bowline, threatening
destruction to the rebels, but never stirred from his fort; for forty
Kentucky hunters, with their rifles, were a match for a whole regiment
of hungry, drawling, lazy half-breeds. This affair happened while we
were at San Pedro, (the port of the Pueblo,) and we had all the
particulars directly from those who were on the spot. A few months
afterwards, another man, whom we had often seen in San Diego, murdered
a man and his wife on the high road between the Pueblo and San Louis
Rey, and the foreigners not feeling themselves called upon to act in
this case, the parties being all natives, nothing was done about it;
and I frequently afterwards saw the murderer in San Diego, where he was
living with his wife and family.
When a crime has been committed by Indians, justice, or rather
vengeance, is not so tardy. One Sunday afternoon, while I was at San
Diego, an Indian was sitting on his horse, when another, with whom he
had had some difficulty, came up to him, drew a long knife, and plunged
it directly into the horse's heart. The Indian sprang from his falling
horse, drew out the knife, and plunged it into the other Indian's
breast, over his shoulder, and laid him dead. The poor fellow was
seized at once, clapped into the calabozo, and kept there until an
answer could be received from Monterey. A few weeks afterwards, I saw
the poor wretch, sitting on the bare ground, in front of the calabozo,
with his feet chained to a stake, and handcuffs about his wrists. I
knew there was very little hope for him. Although the deed was done in
hot blood, the horse on which he was sitting being his own, and a great
favorite, yet he was an Indian, and that was enough. In about a week
after I saw him, I heard that he had been shot. These few instances
will serve to give one a notion of the distribution of justice in
California.
In their domestic relations, these people are no better than in their
public. The men are thriftless, proud, and extravagant, and very much
given to gaming; and the women have but little education, and a good
deal of beauty, and their morality, of course, is none of the best; yet
the instances of infidelity are much less frequent than one would at
first suppose. In fact, one vice is set over against another; and
thus, something like a balance is obtained. The women have but little
virtue, but then the jealousy of their husbands is extreme, and their
revenge deadly and almost certain. A few inches of cold steel has been
the punishment of many an unwary man, who has been guilty, perhaps, of
nothing more than indiscretion of manner. The difficulties of the
attempt are numerous, and the consequences of discovery fatal. With
the unmarried women, too, great watchfulness is used. The main object
of the parents is to marry their daughters well, and to this, the
slightest slip would be fatal. The sharp eyes of a dueña, and the cold
steel of a father or brother, are a protection which the characters of
most of them--men and women--render by no means useless; for the very
men who would lay down their lives to avenge the dishonor of their own
family, would risk the same lives to complete the dishonor of another.
Of the poor Indians, very little care is taken. The priests, indeed,
at the missions, are said to keep them very strictly, and some rules
are usually made by the alcaldes to punish their misconduct; but it all
amounts to but little. Indeed, to show the entire want of any sense of
morality or domestic duty among them, I have frequently known an Indian
to bring his wife, to whom he was lawfully married in the church, down
to the beach, and carry her back again, dividing with her the money
which she had got from the sailors. If any of the girls were
discovered by the alcalde to be open evil-livers, they were whipped,
and kept at work sweeping the square of the presidio, and carrying mud
and bricks for the buildings; yet a few reáls would generally buy them
off. Intemperance, too, is a common vice among the Indians. The
Spaniards, on the contrary, are very abstemious, and I do not remember
ever having seen a Spaniard intoxicated.
Such are the people who inhabit a country embracing four or five
hundred miles of sea-coast, with several good harbors; with fine
forests in the north; the waters filled with fish, and the plains
covered with thousands of herds of cattle; blessed with a climate, than
which there can be no better in the world; free from all manner of
diseases, whether epidemic or endemic; and with a soil in which corn
yields from seventy to eighty fold. In the hands of an enterprising
people, what a country this might be! we are ready to say. Yet how
long would a people remain so, in such a country? The Americans (as
those from the United States are called) and Englishmen, who are fast
filling up the principal towns, and getting the trade into their hands,
are indeed more industrious and effective than the Spaniards; yet their
children are brought up Spaniards, in every respect, and if the
"California fever" (laziness) spares the first generation, it always
attacks the second.
CHAPTER XXII
LIFE ON SHORE--THE ALERT
Saturday, July 18th. This day, sailed the Mexican hermaphrodite brig,
Fazio, for San Blas and Mazatlan. This was the brig which was driven
ashore at San Pedro in a south-easter, and had been lying at San Diego
to repair and take in her cargo. The owner of her had had a good deal
of difficulty with the government about the duties, etc., and her
sailing had been delayed for several weeks; but everything having been
arranged, she got under weigh with a light breeze, and was floating out
of the harbor, when two horsemen came dashing down to the beach, at
full speed, and tried to find a boat to put off after her; but there
being none on the beach, they offered a handful of silver to any Kanaka
who would swim off and take a letter on board. One of the Kanakas, a
fine, active, well-made young fellow, instantly threw off everything
but his duck trowsers, and putting the letter into his hat, swam off,
after the vessel. Fortunately, the wind was very light and the vessel
was going slowly, so that, although she was nearly a mile off when he
started, he gained on her rapidly. He went through the water leaving a
wake like a small steamboat. I certainly never saw such swimming
before. They saw him coming from the deck, but did not heave-to,
suspecting the nature of his errand; yet, the wind continuing light, he
swam alongside and got on board, and delivered his letter. The captain
read the letter, told the Kanaka there was no answer, and giving him a
glass of brandy, left him to jump overboard and find the best of his
way to the shore. The Kanaka swam in for the nearest point of land,
and, in about an hour, made his appearance at the hide-house. He did
not seem at all fatigued, had made three or four dollars, got a glass
of brandy, and was in fine spirits. The brig kept on her course, and
the government officers, who had come down to forbid her sailing, went
back, each with something like a flea in his ear, having depended upon
extorting a little more money from the owner.
It was now nearly three months since the Alert arrived at Santa
Barbara, and we began to expect her daily. About a half a mile behind
the hide-house, was a high hill; and every afternoon, as soon as we had
done our work, some one of us walked up to see if there were any sail
in sight, coming down before the regular trades, which blow every
afternoon. Each day, after the latter part of July, we went up the
hill, and came back disappointed. I was anxious for her arrival, for I
had been told by letter that the owners in Boston, at the request of my
friends, had written to Captain T---- to take me on board the Alert, in
case she returned to the United States before the Pilgrim; and I, of
course, wished to know whether the order had been received, and what
was the destination of the ship. One year more or less might be of
small consequence to others, but it was everything to me. It was now
just a year since we sailed from Boston, and at the shortest, no vessel
could expect to get away under eight or nine months, which would make
our absence two years in all. This would be pretty long, but would not
be fatal. It would not necessarily be decisive of my future life. But
one year more would settle the matter. I should be a sailor for life;
and although I had made up my mind to it before I had my letters from
home, and was, as I thought, quite satisfied; yet, as soon as an
opportunity was held out to me of returning, and the prospect of
another kind of life was opened to me, my anxiety to return, and, at
least, to have the chance of deciding upon my course for myself, was
beyond measure. Beside that, I wished to be "equal to either fortune,"
and to qualify myself for an officer's berth, and a hide-house was no
place to learn seamanship in. I had become experienced in hide-curing,
and everything went on smoothly, and I had many opportunities of
becoming acquainted with the people, and much leisure for reading and
studying navigation; yet practical seamanship could only be got on
board ship; therefore, I determined to ask to be taken on board the
ship when she arrived. By the first of August, we finished curing all
our hides, stored them away, cleaned out our vats, (in which latter
work we spent two days, up to our knees in mud and the sediments of six
months' hide-curing, in a stench which would drive a donkey from his
breakfast,) and got in readiness for the arrival of the ship, and had
another leisure interval of three or four weeks; which I spent, as
usual, in reading, writing, studying, making and mending my clothes,
and getting my wardrobe in complete readiness, in case I should go on
board the ship; and in fishing, ranging the woods with the dogs, and in
occasional visits to the presidio and mission. A good deal of my time
was spent in taking care of a little puppy, which I had selected from
thirty-six, that were born within three days of one another, at our
house. He was a fine, promising pup, with four white paws, and all the
rest of his body of a dark brown. I built a little kennel for him, and
kept him fastened there, away from the other dogs, feeding and
disciplining him myself. In a few weeks, I got him in complete
subjection, and he grew finely, was very much attached to me, and bid