Then There Was
Lagoda-Jack, California-Bill, Etc., Etc.
But by whatever names
they might be called, they were the most interesting, intelligent,
and kind-hearted people that I ever fell in with.
I felt a positive
attachment for almost all of them; and many of them I have, to this
time, a feeling for, which would lead me to go a great way for the
mere pleasure of seeing them, and which will always make me feel a
strong interest in the mere name of a Sandwich Islander.
Tom Davis knew how to read, write, and cipher in common arithmetic;
had been to the United States, and spoke English quite well.
His education was as good as that of three-quarters of the Yankees
in California, and his manners and principles a good deal better,
and he was so quick of apprehension that he might have been taught
navigation, and the elements of many of the sciences, with the most
perfect ease. Old "Mr. Bingham" spoke very little English - almost
none, and neither knew how to read nor write; but he was the
best-hearted old fellow in the world. He must have been over fifty
years of age, and had two of his front teeth knocked out, which was
done by his parents as a sign of grief at the death of Kamehameha,
the great king of the Sandwich Islands. We used to tell him that he
ate Captain Cook, and lost his teeth in that way. That was the only
thing that ever made him angry.
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