Having Thrown Them All Down, We Took Our Way Back Again,
And Found The Boat Loaded And Ready To Start.
We pulled off;
took the hides all aboard; hoisted in the boats; hove up our anchor;
made sail; and before sundown, were on our way to San Diego.
Friday, May 8th, 1835. Arrived at San Diego. Here we found the
little harbor deserted. The Lagoda, Ayacucho, Loriotte, and all,
had left the coast, and we were nearly alone. All the hide-houses
on the beach, but ours, were shut up, and the Sandwich Islanders,
a dozen or twenty in number, who had worked for the other vessels and
been paid off when they sailed, were living on the beach, keeping up
a grand carnival. A Russian discovery-ship which had been in this
port a few years before, had built a large oven for baking bread,
and went away, leaving it standing. This, the Sandwich Islanders
took possession of, and had kept, ever since, undisturbed. It was
big enough to hold six or eight men - that is, it was as large as
a ship's forecastle; had a door at the side, and a vent-hole at
top. They covered it with Oahu mats, for a carpet; stopped up the
vent-hole in bad weather, and made it their head-quarters. It was
now inhabited by as many as a dozen or twenty men, who lived there
in complete idleness - drinking, playing cards, and carousing in
every way. They bought a bullock once a week, which kept them
in meat, and one of them went up to the town every day to get
fruit, liquor, and provisions. Besides this, they had bought
a cask of ship-bread, and a barrel of flour from the Lagoda,
before she sailed. There they lived, having a grand time,
and caring for nobody. Captain T - - - was anxious to get
three or four of them to come on board the Pilgrim, as we were
so much diminished in numbers; and went up to the oven and spent
an hour or two trying to negotiate with them. One of them, - a
finely built, active, strong and intelligent fellow, - who was
a sort of king among them, acted as spokesman. He was called
Mannini, - or rather, out of compliment to his known importance
and influence, Mr. Mannini - and was known all over California.
Through him, the captain offered them fifteen dollars a month,
and one month's pay in advance; but it was like throwing pearls
before swine, or rather, carrying coals to Newcastle. So long
as they had money, they would not work for fifty dollars a month,
and when their money was gone, they would work for ten.
"What do you do here, Mr. Mannini?"(1) said the captain.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1. The letter i in the Sandwich Island language is sounded
like e in the English.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Oh, we play cards, get drunk, smoke - do anything we're a mind to."
"Don't you want to come aboard and work?"
"Aole!
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