11th. Set Sail This Morning For The Leeward; Passed
Within Sight Of San Pedro, And, To Our Great Joy, Did Not Come
To Anchor, But Kept Directly On To San Diego, Where We Arrived
And Moored Ship On.
Thursday, Oct.
15th. Found here the Italian ship La Rosa, from
the windward, which reported the brig Pilgrim at San Francisco,
all well. Everything was as quiet here as usual. We discharged
our hides, horns, and tallow, and were ready to sail again on the
following Sunday. I went ashore to my old quarters, and found the
gang at the hide-house going on in the even tenor of their way,
and spent an hour or two, after dark, at the oven, taking a whiff
with my old Kanaka friends, who really seemed glad to see me again,
and saluted me as the Aikane of the Kanakas. I was grieved to find
that my poor dog Bravo was dead. He had sickened and died suddenly,
the very day after I sailed in the Alert.
Sunday was again, as usual, our sailing day, and we got under weigh
with a stiff breeze, which reminded us that it was the latter part
of the autumn, and time to expect south-easters once more. We beat
up against a strong head wind, under reefed top-sails, as far as San
Juan, where we came to anchor nearly three miles from the shore,
with slip-ropes on our cables, in the old south-easter style
of last winter. On the passage up, we had an old sea captain
on board, who had married and settled in California, and had
not been on salt water for more than fifteen years. He was
astonished at the changes and improvements that had been made
in ships, and still more at the manner in which we carried sail;
for he was really a little frightened; and said that while we had
top-gallant sails on, he should have been under reefed topsails.
The working of the ship, and her progress to windward, seemed to
delight him, for he said she went to windward as though she were
kedging.
Tuesday, Oct. 20th. Having got everything ready, we set the
agent ashore, who went up to the mission to hasten down the
hides for the next morning. This night we had the strictest
orders to look out for south-easters; and the long, low clouds
seemed rather threatening. But the night passed over without
any trouble, and early the next morning, we hove out the long-boat
and pinnace, lowered away the quarter-boats, and went ashore to
bring off our hides. Here we were again, in this romantic spot;
a perpendicular hill, twice the height of the ship's mast-head,
with a single circuitous path to the top, and long sand beach at
its base, with the swell of the whole Pacific breaking high upon
it, and our hides ranged in piles on the overhanging summit.
The captain sent me, who was the only one of the crew that had
ever been there before, to the top, to count the hides and pitch
them down.
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