Two Years Before the Mast
peal, the private signal for us was run up by the captain ashore, the
bride, dressed in complete white, came out of the church with the
bridegroom, followed by a long procession. Just as she stepped from
the church door, a small white cloud issued from the bows of our ship,
which was full in sight, the loud report echoed among the surrounding
hills and over the bay, and instantly the ship was dressed in flags and
pennants from stem to stern. Twenty-three guns followed in regular
succession, with an interval of fifteen seconds between each when the
cloud cleared away, and the ship lay dressed in her colors, all day.
At sun-down, another salute of the same number of guns was fired, and
all the flags run down. This we thought was pretty well--a gun every
fifteen seconds--for a merchantman with only four guns and a dozen or
twenty men.
After supper, the gig's crew were called, and we rowed ashore, dressed
in our uniform, beached the boat, and went up to the fandango. The
bride's father's house was the principal one in the place, with a large
court in front, upon which a tent was built, capable of containing
several hundred people. As we drew near, we heard the accustomed sound
of violins and guitars, and saw a great motion of the people within.
Going in, we found nearly all the people of the town--men, women, and
children--collected and crowded together, leaving barely room for the
dancers; for on these occasions no invitations are given, but every one
is expected to come, though there is always a private entertainment
within the house for particular friends. The old women sat down in
rows, clapping their hands to the music, and applauding the young ones.
The music was lively, and among the tunes, we recognized several of our
popular airs, which we, without doubt, have taken from the Spanish. In
the dancing, I was much disappointed. The women stood upright, with
their hands down by their sides, their eyes fixed upon the ground
before them, and slided about without any perceptible means of motion;
for their feet were invisible, the hem of their dresses forming a
perfect circle about them, reaching to the ground. They looked as
grave as though they were going through some religious ceremony, their
faces as little excited as their limbs; and on the whole, instead of
the spirited, fascinating Spanish dances which I had expected, I found
the Californian fandango, on the part of the women at least, a lifeless
affair. The men did better. They danced with grace and spirit, moving
in circles round their nearly stationary partners, and showing their
figures to great advantage.
A great deal was said about our friend Don Juan Bandini, and when he
did appear, which was toward the close of the evening, he certainly
gave us the most graceful dancing that I had ever seen. He was dressed
in white pantaloons neatly made, a short jacket of dark silk, gaily
figured, white stockings and thin morocco slippers upon his very small
feet. His slight and graceful figure was well calculated for dancing,
and he moved about with the grace and daintiness of a young fawn. An
occasional touch of the toe to the ground, seemed all that was
necessary to give him a long interval of motion in the air. At the
same time he was not fantastic or flourishing, but appeared to be
rather repressing a strong tendency to motion. He was loudly
applauded, and danced frequently toward the close of the evening.
After the supper, the waltzing began, which was confined to a very few
of the "gente de razón," and was considered a high accomplishment, and
a mark of aristocracy. Here, too, Don Juan figured greatly, waltzing
with the sister of the bride, (Donna Angustia, a handsome woman and a
general favorite,) in a variety of beautiful, but, to me, offensive
figures, which lasted as much as half an hour, no one else taking the
floor. They were repeatedly and loudly applauded, the old men and women
jumping out of their seats in admiration, and the young people waving
their hats and handkerchiefs. Indeed among people of the character of
these Mexicans, the waltz seemed to me to have found its right place.
The great amusement of the evening,--which I suppose was owing to its
being carnival--was the breaking of eggs filled with cologne, or other
essences, upon the heads of the company. One end of the egg is broken
and the inside taken out, then it is partly filled with cologne, and
the whole sealed up. The women bring a great number of these secretly
about them, and the amusement is to break one upon the head of a
gentleman when his back is turned. He is bound in gallantry to find
out the lady and return the compliment, though it must not be done if
the person sees you. A tall, stately Don, with immense grey whiskers,
and a look of great importance, was standing before me, when I felt a
light hand on my shoulder, and turning round, saw Donna Angustia, (whom
we all knew, as she had been up to Monterey, and down again, in the
Alert,) with her finger upon her lip, motioning me gently aside. I
stepped back a little, when she went up behind the Don, and with one
hand knocked off his huge sombrero, and at the same instant, with the
other, broke the egg upon his head, and springing behind me, was out of
sight in a moment. The Don turned slowly round, the cologne, running
down his face, and over his clothes, and a loud laugh breaking out from
every quarter. He looked round in vain, for some time, until the
direction of so many laughing eyes showed him the fair offender. She
was his niece, and a great favorite with him, so old Don Domingo had to
join in the laugh. A great many such tricks were played, and many a
war of sharp manoeuvering was carried on between couples of the younger
people, and at every successful exploit a general laugh was raised.
Another singular custom I was for some time at a loss about. A pretty
young girl was dancing, named, after what would appear to us the
sacrilegious custom of the country--Espiritu Santo, when a young man
went behind her and placed his hat directly upon her head, letting it
fall down over her eyes, and sprang back among the crowd. She danced
for some time with the hat on, when she threw it off, which called
forth a general shout; and the young man was obliged to go out upon the
floor and pick it up. Some of the ladies, upon whose heads hats had
been placed, threw them off at once, and a few kept them on throughout
the dance, and took them off at the end, and held them out in their
hands, when the owner stepped out, bowed, and took it from them. I
soon began to suspect the meaning of the thing, and was afterward told
that it was a compliment, and an offer to become the lady's gallant for
the rest of the evening, and to wait upon her home. If the hat was
thrown off, the offer was refused, and the gentleman was obliged to
pick up his hat amid a general laugh. Much amusement was caused
sometimes by gentlemen putting hats on the ladies' heads, without
permitting them to see whom it was done by. This obliged them to throw
them off, or keep them on at a venture, and when they came to discover
the owner, the laugh was often turned upon them. The captain sent for
us about ten o'clock, and we went aboard in high spirits, having
enjoyed the new scene much, and were of great importance among the
crew, from having so much to tell, and from the prospect of going every
night until it was over; for these fandangos generally last three days.
The next day, two of us were sent up to the town, and took care to come
back by way of Capitan Noriego's and take a look into the booth. The
musicians were still there, upon their platform, scraping and twanging
away, and a few people, apparently of the lower classes, were dancing.
The dancing is kept up, at intervals, throughout the day, but the
crowd, the spirit, and the élite, come in at night. The next night,
which was the last, we went ashore in the same manner, until we got
almost tired of the monotonous twang of the instruments, the drawling
sounds which the women kept up, as an accompaniment, and the slapping
of the hands in time with the music, in place of castanets. We found
ourselves as great objects of attention as any persons or anything at
the place. Our sailor dresses--and we took great pains to have them
neat and shipshape--were much admired, and we were invited, from every
quarter, to give them an American sailor's dance; but after the
ridiculous figure some of our countrymen cut, in dancing after the
Spaniards, we thought it best to leave it to their imaginations. Our
agent, with a tight, black, swallow-tailed coat, just imported from
Boston, a high stiff cravat, looking as if he had been pinned and
skewered, with only his feet and hands left free, took the floor just
after Bandini; and we thought they had had enough of Yankee grace.
The last night they kept it up in great style, and were getting into a
high-go, when the captain called us off to go aboard, for, it being
south-easter season, he was afraid to remain on shore long; and it was
well he did not, for that very night, we slipped our cables, as a
crowner to our fun ashore, and stood off before a south-easter, which
lasted twelve hours, and returned to our anchorage the next day.
CHAPTER XXVIII
AN OLD FRIEND--A VICTIM--CALIFORNIA RANGERS--NEWS FROM HOME--LAST LOOKS
Monday, Feb. 1st. After having been in port twenty-one days, we sailed
for San Pedro, where we arrived on the following day, having gone "all
fluking," with the weather clew of the mainsail hauled up, the yards
braced in a little, and the lower studding-sails just drawing; the wind
hardly shifting a point during the passage. Here we found the Ayacucho
and the Pilgrim, which last we had not seen since the 11th of
September,--nearly five months; and I really felt something like an
affection for the old brig which had been my first home, and in which I
had spent nearly a year, and got the first rough and tumble of a sea
life. She, too, was associated, in my mind with Boston, the wharf from
which we sailed, anchorage in the stream, leave-taking, and all such
matters, which were now to me like small links connecting me with
another world, which I had once been in, and which, please God, I might
yet see again. I went on board the first night, after supper; found the
old cook in the galley, playing upon the fife which I had given him, as
a parting present; had a hearty shake of the hand from him; and dove
down into the forecastle, where were my old ship-mates, the same as
ever, glad to see me; for they had nearly given us up as lost,
especially when they did not find us in Santa Barbara. They had been at
San Diego last, had been lying at San Pedro nearly a month, and had
received three thousand hides from the pueblo. These were taken from
her the next day, which filled us up, and we both got under weigh on
the 4th, she bound up to San Francisco again, and we to San Diego,
where we arrived on the 6th.
We were always glad to see San Diego; it being the depot, and a snug
little place, and seeming quite like home, especially to me, who had
spent a summer there. There was no vessel in port, the Rosa having
sailed for Valparaiso and Cadiz, and the Catalina for Callao, nearly a
month before. We discharged our hides, and in four days were ready to
sail again for the windward; and, to our great joy--for the last time!
Over thirty thousand hides had been already collected, cured, and
stowed away in the house, which, together with what we should collect,
and the Pilgrim would bring down from San Francisco, would make out her
cargo. The thought that we were actually going up for the last time,
and that the next time we went round San Diego point it would be
"homeward bound," brought things so near a close, that we felt as