Nobody Broke His Back Or His
Hand-Spike By His Efforts.
And when the cat-tackle-fall was strung
along, and all hands - cook, steward, and all - laid hold, to
Cat the
anchor, instead of the lively song of "Cheerily, men!" in which all
hands join in the chorus, we pulled a long, heavy, silent pull,
and - as sailors say a song is as good as ten men - the anchor came
to the cat-head pretty slowly. "Give us 'Cheerily!'" said the
mate; but there was no "cheerily" for us, and we did without it.
The captain walked the quarterdeck, and said not a word. He must
have seen the change, but there was nothing which he could notice
officially.
We sailed leisurely down the coast before a light fair wind, keeping
the land well aboard, and saw two other missions, looking like blocks
of white plaster, shining in the distance; one of which, situated on
the top of a high hill, was San Juan Campestrano, under which vessels
sometimes come to anchor, in the summer season, and take off hides.
The most distant one was St. Louis Rey, which the third mate said
was only fifteen miles from San Diego. At sunset on the second day,
we had a large and well wooded headland directly before us, behind
which lay the little harbor of San Diego. We were becalmed off this
point all night, but the next morning, which was Saturday, the 14th
of March, having a good breeze, we stood round the point, and hauling
our wind, brought the little harbor, which is rather the outlet of a
small river, right before us.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 163 of 618
Words from 44549 to 44824
of 170236
