We Congratulated One Another Upon Finding What We Had
Long Talked Over And Wished For, Thus Brought About; And None On
Board The Ship Were More Glad Than Ourselves To See The Old Brig
Standing Round The Point, Under Full Sail.
As she passed abreast
of us, we all collected in the waist, and gave her three loud,
hearty cheers, waving our hats in the air.
Her crew sprang
into the rigging and chains, answered us with three as loud,
to which we, after the nautical custom, gave one in return.
I took my last look of their familiar faces as they got over the
rail, and saw the old black cook put his head out of the galley,
and wave his cap over his head. The crew flew aloft to loose the
top-gallant sails and royals; the two captains waved their hands
to one another; and, in ten minutes, we saw the last inch of her
white canvas, as she rounded the point.
Relieved as I was to see her well off, (and I felt like one who had
just sprung from an iron trap which was closing upon him) I had yet a
feeling of regret at taking the last look at the old craft in which I
had spent a year, and the first year, of my sailor's life - which had
been my first home in the new world into which I had entered - and
with which I had associated so many things, - my first leaving home,
my first crossing the equator, Cape Horn, Juan Fernandez, death at
sea, and other things, serious and common. Yet, with all this,
and the feeling I had for my old shipmates, condemned to another
term of California life, the thought that we were done with it,
and that one week more would see us on our way to Boston, was a
cure for everything.
Friday, May 6th, completed the taking of our cargo, and was a
memorable day in our calendar. The time when we were to take
in our last hide, we had looked forward to, for sixteen months,
as the first bright spot. When the last hide was stowed away,
and the hatches calked down, the tarpaulins battened on to them,
the long-boat hoisted in and secured, and the decks swept down for
the night, - the chief mate sprang upon the top of the long-boat,
called all hands into the waist, and giving us a signal by swinging
his cap over his head, - we gave three long, loud cheers, which came
from the bottom of our hearts, and made the hills and valleys
ring again. In a moment, we heard three, in answer, from the
California's crew, who had seen us taking in our long-boat,
and - "the cry they heard - its meaning knew."
The last week, we had been occupied in taking in a supply of
wood and water for the passage home, and bringing on board the
spare spars, sails, etc. I was sent off with a party of Indians
to fill the water-casks, at a spring, about three miles from the
shipping, and near the town, and was absent three days, living at the
town, and spending the daytime in filling the casks and transporting
them on ox-carts to the landing-place, whence they were taken on
board by the crew with boats.
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