They, Of Course, Brought Us No News,
And We Were Doubly Disappointed, For We Had Thought, At First,
It Might Be The Ship Which We Were Expecting From Boston.
After lying here about a fortnight, and collecting all the hides the
place afforded, we set sail again for San Pedro.
There we found
the brig which we had assisted in getting off lying at anchor,
with a mixed crew of Americans, English, Sandwich Islanders,
Spaniards, and Spanish Indians; and, though much smaller than we,
yet she had three times the number of men; and she needed them,
for her officers were Californians. No vessels in the world
go so poorly manned as American and English; and none do so well.
A Yankee brig of that size would have had a crew of four men,
and would have worked round and round her. The Italian ship had a
crew of thirty men; nearly three times as many as the Alert, which
was afterwards on the coast, and was of the same size; yet the Alert
would get under weigh and come-to in half the time, and get two
anchors, while they were all talking at once - jabbering like a parcel
of "Yahoos," and running about decks to find their cat-block.
There was only one point in which they had the advantage over us,
and that was in lightening their labors in the boats by their songs.
The Americans are a time and money saving people, but have not yet,
as a nation, learned that music may be "turned to account." We pulled
the long distances to and from the shore, with our loaded boats,
without a word spoken, and with discontented looks, while they not
only lightened the labor of rowing, but actually made it pleasant
and cheerful, by their music.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 202 of 618
Words from 55291 to 55592
of 170236
