Their Hides, Too, Which They Value At Two
Dollars In Money, They Give For Something Which Costs Seventy-Five
Cents
In Boston; and buy shoes (like as not, made of their own hides,
and which have been carried twice around
Cape Horn) at three or
four dollars, and "chicken-skin" boots at fifteen dollars apiece.
Things sell, on an average, at an advance of nearly three hundred
per cent upon the Boston prices. This is partly owing to the heavy
duties which the government, in their wisdom, with the intent, no
doubt, of keeping the silver in the country, has laid upon imports.
These duties, and the enormous expenses of so long a voyage, keep
all merchants, but those of heavy capital, from engaging in the
trade. Nearly two-thirds of all the articles imported into the
country from round Cape Horn, for the last six years, have been by
the single house of Bryant, Sturgis & Co., to whom our vessel belonged,
and who have a permanent agent on the coast.
This kind of business was new to us, and we liked it very well for
a few days, though we were hard at work every minute from daylight
to dark; and sometimes even later.
By being thus continually engaged in transporting passengers with
their goods, to and fro, we gained considerable knowledge of the
character, dress, and language of the people. The dress of the
men was as I have before described it. The women wore gowns of
various texture - silks, crape, calicoes, etc., - made after the
European style, except that the sleeves were short, leaving the arm
bare, and that they were loose about the waist, having no corsets.
They wore shoes of kid, or satin; sashes or belts of bright colors;
and almost always a necklace and ear-rings.
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