There Could Be No Doubt, And All Looked Black Enough.
Hints Were Thrown Out About Three Years And Four Years;
- The older
sailors said they never should see Boston again, but should lay their
bones in California; and a cloud
Seemed to hang over the whole voyage.
Besides, we were not provided for so long a voyage, and clothes, and
all sailors' necessaries, were excessively dear - three or four hundred
per cent. advance upon the Boston prices. This was bad enough
for them; but still worse was it for me, who did not mean to be a
sailor for life; having intended only to be gone eighteen months or
two years. Three or four years would make me a sailor in every
respect, mind and habits, as well as body - nolens volens; and would
put all my companions so far ahead of me that college and a profession
would be in vain to think of; and I made up my mind that, feel as I
might, a sailor I must be, and to be master of a vessel, must be the
height of my ambition.
Beside the length of the voyage, and the hard and exposed life,
we were at the ends of the earth; on a coast almost solitary; in a
country where there is neither law nor gospel, and where sailors are
at their captain's mercy, there being no American consul, or any
one to whom a complaint could be made. We lost all interest in
the voyage; cared nothing about the cargo, which we were only
collecting for others; began to patch our clothes; and felt as
though we were fixed beyond all hope of change.
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