It Being Now Mid-Winter And
In High Latitude, The Nights Were Very Long, So That We Were Not
Turned-
To until seven in the morning, and were obliged to knock
off at five in the evening, when we got
Supper; which gave us
nearly three hours before eight bells, at which time the watch
was set.
As we had now been about a year on the coast, it was time to think
of the voyage home; and knowing that the last two or three months
of our stay would be very busy ones, and that we should never have
so good an opportunity to work for ourselves as the present, we all
employed our evenings in making clothes for the passage home, and more
especially for Cape Horn. As soon as supper was over and the kids
cleared away, and each one had taken his smoke, we seated ourselves
on our chests round the lamp, which swung from a beam, and each one
went to work in his own way, some making hats, others trowsers,
others jackets, etc., etc.; and no one was idle. The boys who
could not sew well enough to make their own clothes, laid up grass
into sinnet for the men, who sewed for them in return. Several of
us clubbed together and bought a large piece of twilled cotton,
which we made into trowsers and jackets, and giving them several
coats of linseed oil, laid them by for Cape Horn. I also sewed
and covered a tarpaulin hat, thick and strong enough to sit down
upon, and made myself a complete suit of flannel under-clothing,
for bad weather. Those who had no south-wester caps, made them,
and several of the crew made themselves tarpaulin jackets and
trowsers, lined on the inside with flannel. Industry was the order
of the day, and every one did something for himself; for we knew
that as the season advanced, and we went further south, we should
have no evenings to work in.
Friday, December 25th. This day was Christmas; and as it rained
all day long, and there were no hides to take in, and nothing
especial to do, the captain gave us a holiday, (the first we had
had since leaving Boston,) and plum duff for dinner. The Russian
brig, following the Old Style, had celebrated their Christmas
eleven days before; when they had a grand blow-out and (as our
men said) drank, in the forecastle, a barrel of gin, ate up a
bag of tallow, and made a soup of the skin.
Sunday, December 27th. We had now finished all our business at
this port, and it being Sunday, we unmoored ship and got under
weigh, firing a salute to the Russian brig, and another to the
Presidio, which were both answered. The commandant of the Presidio,
Don Gaudaloupe Villego, a young man, and the most popular, among the
Americans and English, of any man in California, was on board when
we got under weigh.
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