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Chapter XX
Chapter XX
Leisure - News from Home - "Burning the Water"
After we had been a few weeks on shore, and had begun to feel broken into
the regularity of our life, its monotony was interrupted by the arrival of two
vessels from the windward. We were sitting at dinner in our little room, when
we heard the cry of "Sail ho!" This, we had learned, did not always signify a
vessel, but was raised whenever a woman was seen coming down from the town; or
a squaw, or an ox-cart, or anything unusual, hove in sight upon the road; so
we took no notice of it. But it soon became so loud and general from all parts
of the beach, that we were led to go to the door; and there, sure enough, were
two sails coming round the point, and leaning over from the strong north-west
wind, which blows down the coast every afternoon. The headmost was a ship, and
the other, a brig. Everybody was alive on the beach, and all manner of
conjectures were abroad. Some said it was the Pilgrim, with the Boston ship,
which we were expecting; but we soon saw that the brig was not the Pilgrim,
and the ship with her stump top-gallant masts and rusty sides, could not be a
dandy Boston Indiaman. As they drew nearer, we soon discovered the high poop
and top-gallant forecastle, and other marks of the Italian ship Rosa, and the
brig proved to be the Catalina, which we saw at Santa Barbara, just arrived
from Valparaiso. They came to anchor, moored ship, and commenced discharging
hides and tallow. The Rosa had purchased the house occupied by the Lagoda, and
the Catalina took the other spare one between ours and the Ayacucho`s, so
that, now, each one was occupied, and the beach, for several days, was all
alive. The Catalina had several Kanakas on board, who were immediately
besieged by the others, and carried up to the oven, where they had a long
pow-wow, and a smoke. Two Frenchmen, who belonged to the Rosa`s crew, came in,
every evening, to see Nicholas; and from them we learned that the Pilgrim was
at San Pedro, and was the only other vessel now on the coast. Several of the
Italians slept on shore at their hide-house; and there, and at the tent in
which the Fazio`s crew lived, we had some very good singing almost every
evening. The Italians sang a variety of songs - barcarollas, provincial airs,
etc.; in several of which I recognized parts of our favorite operas and
sentimental songs. They often joined in a song, taking all the different
parts; which produced a fine effect, as many of them had good voices, and all
seemed to sing with spirit and feeling. One young man, in particular, had a
falsetto as clear as a clarionet.
The greater part of the crews of the vessels came ashore every evening,
and we passed the time in going about from one house to another, and listening
to all manner of languages. The Spanish was the common ground upon which we
all met; for every one knew more or less of that. We had now, out of forty or
fifty, representatives from almost every nation under the sun: two Englishmen,
three Yankees, two Scotchmen, two Welshmen, one Irishman, three Frenchmen (two
of whom were Normans, and the third from Gascony,) one Dutchman, one Austrian,
two or three Spaniards, (from old Spain,) half a dozen Spanish-Americans and
half-breeds, two native Indians from Chili and the Island of Chiloe, one
Negro, one Mulatto, about twenty Italians, from all parts of Italy, as many
more Sandwich Islanders, one Otaheitan, and one Kanaka from the Marquesas
Islands.
The night before the vessels were ready to sail, all the Europeans united
and had an entertainment at the Rosa`s hide-house, and we had songs of every
nation and tongue. A German gave us "Och! mein lieber Augustin!" the three
Frenchmen roared through the Marseilles Hymn; the English and Scotchmen gave
us "Rule Britannia," and "Wha`ll be king but Charlie?" the Italians and
Spaniards screamed through some national affairs, for which I was none the
wiser; and we three Yankees made an attempt at the "Star-spangled Banner."
After these national tributes had been paid, the Austrian gave us a very
pretty little love-song, and the Frenchmen sang a spirited thing called
"Sentinelle! O prenez garde a vous!" and then followed the melange which might
have been expected. When I left them, the aguardiente and annisou was pretty
well in their heads, and they were all singing and talking at once, and their
peculiar national oaths were getting as plenty as pronouns.
The next day, the two vessels got under weigh for the windward, and left
us in quiet possession of the beach. Our numbers were somewhat enlarged by the
opening of the new houses, and the society of the beach a little changed. In
charge of the Catalina`s house, was an old Scotchman, who, like most of his
countrymen, had a pretty good education, and, like many of them, was rather
pragmatical, and had a ludicrously solemn conceit. He employed his time in
taking care of his pigs, chickens, turkeys, dogs, etc., and in smoking his
long pipe. Everything was as neat as a pin in the house, and he was as regular
in his hours as a chronometer, but as he kept very much by himself, was not a
great addition to our society. He hardly spent a cent all the time he was on
the beach, and the others said he was no shipmate. He had been a petty officer
on board the British frigate Dublin, Capt. Lord James Townshend, and had great
ideas of his own importance. The man in charge of the Rosa`s house was an
Austrian by birth, but spoke, read, and wrote four languages with ease and
correctness. German was his native tongue, but being born near the borders of
Italy, and having sailed out of Genoa, the Italian was almost as familiar to
him as his own language. He was six years on board of an English man-of-war,
where he learned to speak our language with ease, and also to read and write
it. He had been several years in Spanish vessels, and had acquired that
language so well, that he could read any books in it. He was between forty and
fifty years of age, and was a singular mixture of the man-of-war`s - man and
Puritan. He talked a great deal about propriety and steadiness, and gave good
advice to the youngsters and Kanakas, but seldom went up to the town, without
coming down "three sheets in the wind." One holyday, he and old Robert (the
Scotchman from the Catalina) went up to the town, and got so cozy, talking
over old stories and giving one another good advice, that they came down
double-backed, on a horse, and both rolled off into the sand as soon as the
horse stopped. This put an end to their pretensions, and they never heard the
last of it from the rest of the men. On the night of the entertainment at the
Rosa`s house, I saw old Schmidt, (that was the Austrian`s name) standing up by
a hogshead, holding on by both hands, and calling out to himself - "Hold on,
Schmidt! hold on, my good fellow, or you`ll be on your back!" Still, he was an
intelligent, good-natured old fellow, and had a chest-full of books, which
he willingly lent me to read. In the same house with him was a Frenchman and
an Englishman; the latter a regular-built "man-of-war Jack:" a through
seaman; a hearty, generous fellow; and, at the same time, a drunken, dissolute
dog. He made it a point to get drunk once a fortnight, (when he always managed
to sleep on the road, and have his money stolen from him,) and to battle the
Frenchman once a week. These, with a Chilian, and a half a dozen Kanakas,
formed the addition to our company.
In about six weeks from the time when the Pilgrim sailed, we had got all
the hides which she left us cured and stowed away; and having cleared up the
ground, and emptied the vats, and set everything in order, had nothing more to
do until she should come down again, but to supply ourselves with wood.
Instead of going twice a week for this purpose, we determined to give one
whole week to getting wood, and then we should have enough to last us half
through the summer. Accordingly, we started off every morning, after an early
breakfast, with our hatchets in hand, and cut wood until the sun was over the
point, - which was our only mark of time, as there was not a watch on the
beach - and then came back to dinner, and after dinner, started off again with
our hand-cart and ropes, and carted and "backed" it down, until sunset.
This, we kept up for a week, until we had collected several cords, - enough to
last us for six or eight weeks - when we "knocked off" altogether, much to my
joy; for, though I liked straying in the woods, and cutting, very well, yet
the backing the wood for so great a distance, over an uneven country, was
without exception, the hardest work I had ever done. I usually had to kneel
down and contrive to heave the load, which was well strapped together, upon my
back, and then rise up and start off with it up the hills and down the vales,
sometimes through thickest - the rough points sticking into the skin, and
tearing the clothes, so that, at the end of the week, I had hardly a whole
shirt to my back.
We were now through all our work, and had nothing more to do until the
Pilgrim should come down again. We had nearly got through our provisions too,
as well as our work; for our officer had been very wasteful of them, and the
tea, flour, sugar, and molasses, were all gone. We suspected him of sending
them up to the town; and he always treated the squaws with molasses, when they
came down to the beach. Finding wheat - coffee and dry bread rather poor
living, we clubbed together, and I went up to the town on horseback with a
great salt-bag behind the saddle, and a few reals in my pocket, and brought
back the bag full of onions, pears, beans, water-melons, and other fruits;
for the young woman who tended the garden, finding that I belonged to the
American ship, and that we were short of provisions, put in a double portion.
With these we lived like fighting-cocks for a week or two, and had, besides,
what the sailors call "a blow-out on sleep;" not turning out in the morning
until breakfast was ready. I employed several days in overhauling my chest,
and mending up all my old clothes, until I had got everything in order - patch
upon patch, like a sand-barge`s mainsail. Then I took hold of Bowditch`s
Navigator, which I had always with me. I had been through the greater part of
it, and now went carefully through it, from beginning to end working out most
of the examples. That done, and there being no signs of the Pilgrim, I made a
descent upon old Schmidt, and borrowed and read all the books there were upon
the beach. Such a dearth was there of these latter articles, that anything,
even a little child`s story-book, or the half of a shipping calendar,
appeared like a treasure. I actually read a jest-book through, from
beginning to end, in one day, as I should a novel, and enjoyed it very much.
At last, when I thought that there were no more to be got, I found, at the
bottom of old Schmidt`s chest, "Mandeville, a Romance, by Godwin, in five
volumes." This I had never read, but Godwin`s name was enough, and after the
wretched trash I had devoured, anything bearing the name of a distinguished
intellectual man, was a prize indeed. I bore it off, and for two days I was up
early and late, reading with all my might, and actually drinking in delight.
It is no extravagance to say that it was like a spring in a desert land.
From the sublime to the ridiculous - so with me, from Mandeville to
hide-curing, was but a step; for.
Wednesday, July 18th, brought us the brig Pilgrim from the windward. As
she came in, we found that she was a good deal altered in her appearance. Her
short top-gallant masts were up; her bowlines all unrove (except to the
courses); the quarter boom-irons off her lower yards; her jack-cross-trees
sent down; several blocks got rid of; running-rigging rove in new places, and
numberless other changes of the same character. Then, too, there was a new
voice giving orders, and a new face on the quarter-deck, - a short,
dark-complexioned man, in a green jacket and a high leather cap. These
changes, of course, set the whole beach on the qui-vive, and we were all
waiting for the boat for come ashore, that we might have things explained. At
length, after the sails were furled and the anchor carried out, the boat
pulled ashore, and the news soon flew that the expected ship had arrived at
Santa Barbara, and that Captain T___ had taken command of her, and her
captain, Faucon, had taken the Pilgrim, and was the green-jacketed man on the
quarter-deck. The boat put directly off again, without giving us time to ask
any more questions, and we were obliged to wait till night, when we took a
little skiff, and lay on the beach, and paddled off. When I stepped aboard,
the second mate called me aft, and gave me a large bundle, directed to me, and
marked "Ship Alert." This was what I had longed for, yet I refrain from
opening it until I went ashore. Diving down into the forecastle, I found the
same old crew, and was really glad to see them again. Numerous inquiries
passed as to the new ship, the latest news from Boston, etc., etc. S___ had
received letters from home, and nothing remarkable had happened. The Alert was
agreed on all hands to be a fine ship, and a large one: "Larger than the Rosa"
- "Big enough to carry off all the hides in California" - "Rail as high as
man`s head" - "A crack ship" - "A regular dandy," etc., etc. Captain T___ took
command of her, and she went directly up to Monterey; from thence she was to
go to San Francisco, and probably would not be in San Diego under two or three
months. Some of the Pilgrim`s crew found hold ship-mates aboard of her, and
spent an hour or two in her forecastle, the evening before she sailed. They
said her decks were as white as snow - holystoned every morning, like a
man-of-war`s; everything on board "shipshape and Bristol fashion;" a fine
crew, three mates, a sailmaker and carpenter, and all complete. "They`ve got a
man for mate of that ship, and not a bloody sheep about decks!" - "A mate that
knows his duty, and makes everybody do theirs, and won`t be imposed upon
either by captain or crew." After collecting all the information we could get
on this point, we asked something about their new captain. He had hardly been
on board long enough for them to know much about him, but he had taken hold
strong, as soon as 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 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 won 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 sometime,
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 of for some time, the shark,
in 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 line, and not a few severe bruises.
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