The Last Night They Kept It Up In Great Style, And Were Getting
Into A High-Go, When The Captain
Called us off to go aboard,
for, it being south-easter season, he was afraid to remain on
shore long;
And it was well he did not, for that very night,
we slipped our cables, as a crowner to our fun ashore, and stood
off before a south-easter, which lasted twelve hours, and returned
to our anchorage the next day.
CHAPTER XXVIII
AN OLD FRIEND - A VICTIM - CALIFORNIA RANGERS - NEWS FROM
HOME - LAST LOOKS
Monday, Feb. 1st. After having been in port twenty-one days,
we sailed for San Pedro, where we arrived on the following day,
having gone "all fluking," with the weather clew of the mainsail
hauled up, the yards braced in a little, and the lower studding-sails
just drawing; the wind hardly shifting a point during the passage.
Here we found the Ayacucho and the Pilgrim, which last we had not
seen since the 11th of September, - nearly five months; and I really
felt something like an affection for the old brig which had been my
first home, and in which I had spent nearly a year, and got the
first rough and tumble of a sea life. She, too, was associated,
in my mind with Boston, the wharf from which we sailed, anchorage
in the stream, leave-taking, and all such matters, which were now
to me like small links connecting me with another world, which I
had once been in, and which, please God, I might yet see again.
I went on board the first night, after supper; found the old
cook in the galley, playing upon the fife which I had given him,
as a parting present; had a hearty shake of the hand from him;
and dove down into the forecastle, where were my old ship-mates,
the same as ever, glad to see me; for they had nearly given us up
as lost, especially when they did not find us in Santa Barbara.
They had been at San Diego last, had been lying at San Pedro
nearly a month, and had received three thousand hides from the
pueblo. These were taken from her the next day, which filled
us up, and we both got under weigh on the 4th, she bound up to
San Francisco again, and we to San Diego, where we arrived on
the 6th.
We were always glad to see San Diego; it being the depot, and a
snug little place, and seeming quite like home, especially to
me, who had spent a summer there. There was no vessel in port,
the Rosa having sailed for Valparaiso and Cadiz, and the Catalina
for Callao, nearly a month before. We discharged our hides, and in
four days were ready to sail again for the windward; and, to our
great joy - for the last time! Over thirty thousand hides had
been already collected, cured, and stowed away in the house,
which, together with what we should collect, and the Pilgrim
would bring down from San Francisco, would make out her cargo.
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