Harris Had Seen
And Been In Hundreds Of Such Scenes As These, But In His Then State
Of Mind, It Fixed His Determination, And He Resolved Never To Taste
Another Drop Of Strong Drink, Of Any Kind.
He signed no pledge, and
made no vow, but relied on his own strength of purpose.
The first
thing with him was a reason, and then a resolution, and the thing
was done. The date of his resolution he knew, of course, to the
very hour. It was three years before I knew him, and during all
that time, nothing stronger than cider or coffee had passed his
lips. The sailors never thought of enticing Tom to take a glass,
any more than they would of talking to the ship's compass. He was
now a temperate man for life, and capable of filling any berth in
a ship, and many a high station there is on shore which is held by
a meaner man.
He understood the management of a ship upon scientific principles,
and could give the reason for hauling every rope; and a long
experience, added to careful observation at the time, and a
perfect memory, gave him a knowledge of the expedients and resorts
in times of hazard, which was remarkable, and for which I became
much indebted to him, as he took the greatest pleasure in opening
his stores of information to me, in return for what I was able to
do for him. Stories of tyranny and hardship which had driven men
to piracy; - of the incredible ignorance of masters and mates,
and of horrid brutality to the sick, dead, and dying; as well
as of the secret knavery and impositions practised upon seamen
by connivance of the owners, landlords, and officers; all these
he had, and I could not but believe them; for men who had known him
for fifteen years had never taken him even in an exaggeration, and,
as I have said, his statements were never disputed. I remember,
among other things, his speaking of a captain whom I had known
by report, who never handed a thing to a sailor, but put it on
deck and kicked it to him; and of another, who was of the best
connections in Boston, who absolutely murdered a lad from Boston
that went out with him before the mast to Sumatra, by keeping him
hard at work while ill of the coast fever, and obliging him to
sleep in the close steerage. (The same captain has since died
of the same fever on the same coast.)
In fact, taking together all that I learned from him of seamanship,
of the history of sailors' lives, of practical wisdom, and of human
nature under new circumstances, - a great history from which many are
shut out, - I would not part with the hours I spent in the watch with
that man for any given hours of my life passed in study and social
intercourse.
CHAPTER XXIV
SAN DIEGO AGAIN - A DESCENT - HURRIED DEPARTURE - A NEW SHIPMATE
Sunday, Oct.
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