Two Years Before the Mast
sailed; and though he must give up returning to America, yet I have no
doubt that the change from a dog's berth to an officer's, was too
agreeable to his feelings to be declined. We pulled him on board the
Ayacucho, and when he left the boat he gave each of its crew a piece of
money, except myself, and shook hands with me, nodding his head, as
much as to say,--"We understand one another," and sprang on board. Had
I known, an hour sooner, that he was to leave us, I would have made an
effort to get from him the true history of his early life. He knew
that I had no faith in the story which he told the crew, and perhaps,
in the moment of parting from me, probably forever, he would have given
me the true account. Whether I shall ever meet him again, or whether
his manuscript narrative of his adventures in the Pelew Islands, which
would be creditable to him and interesting to the world, will ever see
the light, I cannot tell. His is one of those cases which are more
numerous than those suppose, who have never lived anywhere but in their
own homes, and never walked but in one line from their cradles to their
graves. We must come down from our heights, and leave our straight
paths, for the byways and low places of life, if we would learn truths
by strong contrasts; and in hovels, in forecastles, and among our own
outcasts in foreign lands, see what has been wrought upon our
fellow-creatures by accident, hardship, or vice.
Two days brought us to San Pedro, and two days more (to our no small
joy) gave us our last view of that place, which was universally called
the hell of California, and seemed designed, in every way, for the wear
and tear of sailors. Not even the last view could bring out one
feeling of regret. No thanks, thought I, as we left the sandy shores
in the distance, for the hours I have walked over your stones,
barefooted, with hides on my head;--for the burdens I have carried up
your steep, muddy hill; for the duckings in your surf; and for the
long days and longer nights passed on your desolate hill, watching
piles of hides, hearing the sharp bark of your eternal coati, and the
dismal hooting of your owls.
As I bade good-by to each successive place, I felt as though one link
after another were struck from the chain of my servitude. Having kept
close in shore, for the land-breeze, we passed the mission of San Juan
Campestráno the same night, and saw distinctly, by the bright
moonlight, the hill which I had gone down by a pair of halyards in
search of a few paltry hides. "Forsan et haec olim," thought I, and
took my last look of that place too. And on the next morning we were
under the high point of San Diego. The flood tide took us swiftly in,
and we came-to, opposite our hide-house, and prepared to get everything
in trim for a long stay. This was our last port. Here we were to
discharge everything from the ship, clean her out, smoke her, take in
our hides, wood, water, etc., and set sail for Boston. While all this
was doing, we were to lie still in one place, and the port was a safe
one, and there was no fear of south-easters. Accordingly, having
picked out a good berth, in the stream, with a good smooth beach
opposite, for a landing-place and within two cables' length of our
hide-house, we moored ship, unbent all the sails, sent down the
top-gallant yards and all the studding-sail booms, and housed the
top-gallant masts. The boats were then hove out, and all the sails,
spare spars, the stores, the rigging not rove, and, in fact, everything
which was not in daily use, sent ashore, and stowed away in the house.
Then went all our hides and horns, and we left hardly anything in the
ship but her ballast, and this we made preparation to heave out, the
next day. At night, after we had knocked off, and were sitting round
in the forecastle, smoking and talking and taking sailor's pleasure, we
congratulated ourselves upon being in that situation in which we had
wished ourselves every time we had come into San Diego. "If we were
only here for the last time," we had often said, "with our top-gallant
masts housed and our sails unbent!"--and now we had our wish. Six
weeks, or two months, of the hardest work we had yet seen, was before
us, and then--"Good-by to California!"
CHAPTER XXIX
LOADING FOR HOME--A SURPRISE--LAST OF AN OLD FRIEND--THE LAST HIDE--A
HARD CASE--UP ANCHOR, FOR HOME!--HOMEWARD BOUND
We turned-in early, knowing that we might expect an early call; and
sure enough, before the stars had quite faded, "All hands ahoy!" and we
were turned-to, heaving out ballast. A regulation of the port forbids
any ballast to be thrown overboard; accordingly, our long-boat was
lined inside with rough boards and brought alongside the gangway, but
where one tub-full went into the boat, twenty went overboard. This is
done by every vessel, for the ballast can make but little difference in
the channel, and it saves more than a week of labor, which would be
spent in loading the boats, rowing them to the point, and unloading
them. When any people from the Presidio were on board, the boat was
hauled up and ballast thrown in; but when the coast was clear, she was
dropped astern again, and the ballast fell overboard. This is one of
those petty frauds which every vessel practises in ports of inferior
foreign nations, and which are lost sight of, among the countless deeds
of greater weight which are hardly less common. Fortunately a sailor,
not being a free agent in work aboard ship, is not accountable; yet the
fact of being constantly employed, without thought, in such things,
begets an indifference to the rights of others.
Friday, and a part of Saturday, we were engaged in this work, until we
had thrown out all but what we wanted under our cargo on the passage
home; when, as the next day was Sunday, and a good day for smoking
ship, we cleared everything out of the cabin and forecastle, made a
slow fire of charcoal, birch bark, brimstone, and other matters, on the
ballast in the bottom of the hold, calked up the hatches and every open
seam, and pasted over the cracks of the windows, and the slides of the
scuttles, and companionway. Wherever smoke was seen coming out, we
calked and pasted, and, so far as we could, made the ship smoke tight.
The captain and officers slept under the awning which was spread over
the quarter-deck; and we stowed ourselves away under an old
studding-sail, which we drew over one side of the forecastle. The next
day, from fear that something might happen, orders were given for no
one to leave the ship, and, as the decks were lumbered up with
everything, we could not wash them down, so we had nothing to do, all
day long. Unfortunately, our books were where we could not get at them,
and we were turning about for something to do, when one man recollected
a book he had left in the galley. He went after it, and it proved to
be Woodstock. This was a great windfall, and as all could not read it
at once, I, being the scholar of the company, was appointed reader. I
got a knot of six or eight about me, and no one could have had a more
attentive audience. Some laughed at the "scholars," and went over the
other side of the forecastle, to work, and spin their yarns; but I
carried the day, and had the cream of the crew for my hearers. Many of
the reflections, and the political parts, I omitted, but all the
narrative they were delighted with; especially the descriptions of the
Puritans, and the sermons and harangues of the Round-head soldiers.
The gallantry of Charles, Dr. Radcliffe's plots, the knavery of "trusty
Tompkins,"--in fact, every part seemed to chain their attention. Many
things which, while I was reading, I had a misgiving about, thinking
them above their capacity, I was surprised to find them enter into
completely.
I read nearly all day, until sundown; when, as soon as supper was over,
as I had nearly finished, they got a light from the galley; and by
skipping what was less interesting, I carried them through to the
marriage of Everard, and the restoration of Charles the Second, before
eight o'clock.
The next morning, we took the battens from the hatches, and opened the
ship. A few stifled rats were found; and what bugs, cockroaches,
fleas, and other vermin, there might have been on board, must have
unrove their life-lines before the hatches were opened. The ship being
now ready, we covered the bottom of the hold over, fore and aft, with
dried brush for dunnage, and having levelled everything away, we were
ready to take in our cargo. All the hides that had been collected
since the California left the coast, (a little more than two years,)
amounting to about forty thousand, were cured, dried, and stowed away
in the house, waiting for our good ship to take them to Boston.
Now began the operation of taking in our cargo, which kept us hard at
work, from the grey of the morning till star-light, for six weeks, with
the exception of Sundays, and of just time to swallow our meals. To
carry the work on quicker, a division of labor was made. Two men threw
the hides down from the piles in the house, two more picked them up and
put them on a long horizontal pole, raised a few feet from the ground,
where they were beaten, by two more, with flails, somewhat like those
used in threshing wheat. When beaten, they were taken from this pole
by two more, and placed upon a platform of boards; and ten or a dozen
men, with their trowsers rolled up, were constantly going, back and
forth, from the platform to the boat, which was kept off where she
would just float, with the hides upon their heads. The throwing the
hides upon the pole was the most difficult work, and required a sleight
of hand which was only to be got by long practice. As I was known for
a hide-curer, this post was assigned to me, and I continued at it for
six or eight days, tossing, in that time, from eight to ten thousand
hides, until my wrists became so lame that I gave in; and was
transferred to the gang that was employed in filling the boats, where I
remained for the rest of the time. As we were obliged to carry the
hides on our heads from fear of their getting wet, we each had a piece
of sheepskin sewed into the inside of our hats, with the wool next to
our heads, and thus were able to bear the weight, day after day, which
would otherwise have soon worn off our hair, and borne hard upon our
skulls. Upon the whole, ours was the best berth; for though the water
was nipping cold, early in the morning and late at night, and being so
continually wet was rather an exposure, yet we got rid of the constant
dust and dirt from the beating of the hides, and being all of us young
and hearty, did not mind the exposure. The older men of the crew, whom
it would have been dangerous to have kept in the water, remained on
board with the mate, to stow the hides away, as fast as they were
brought off by the boats.
We continued at work in this manner until the lower hold was filled to
within four feet of the beams, when all hands were called aboard to
commence steeving. As this is a peculiar operation, it will require a
minute description.
Before stowing the hides, as I have said, the ballast is levelled off,
just above the keelson, and then loose dunnage placed upon it, on which
the hides rest. The greatest care is used in stowing, to make the ship
hold as many hides as possible. It is no mean art, and a man skilled
in it is an important character in California. Many a dispute have I
heard raging high between professed "beach-combers," as to whether the
hides should be stowed "shingling," or "back-to-back, and
flipper-to-flipper;" upon which point there was an entire and bitter
division of sentiment among the savans. We adopted each method at