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.
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