Our Hide-House Was A
Large Building, Made Of Rough Boards, And Intended To Hold Forty
Thousand Hides.
In one corner of it, a small room was parted off,
in which four berths were made, where we were to live, with mother
earth for our floor.
It contained a table, a small locker for pots,
spoons, plates, etc., and a small hole cut to let in the light.
Here we put our chests, threw our bedding into the berths, and took
up our quarters. Over our head was another small room, in which
Mr. Russell lived, who had charge of the hide-house; the same man
who was for a time an officer of the Pilgrim. There he lived in
solitary grandeur; eating and sleeping alone, (and these were his
principal occupations,) and communing with his own dignity.
The boy was to act as cook; while myself, a giant of a Frenchman
named Nicholas, and four Sandwich Islanders, were to cure the hides.
Sam, the Frenchman, and myself, lived together in the room, and the
four Sandwich Islanders worked and ate with us, but generally slept
at the oven. My new messmate, Nicholas, was the most immense man
that I had ever seen in my life. He came on the coast in a vessel
which was afterwards wrecked, and now let himself out to the
different houses to cure hides. He was considerably over six
feet, and of a frame so large that he might have been shown
for a curiosity.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 213 of 618
Words from 58274 to 58524
of 170236
