I Went Ashore To My Old Quarters, And Found The
Gang At The Hide-House Going On In The Even
Tenor of their way,
and spent an hour or two, after dark, at the oven, taking a whiff
with my
Old Kanaka friends, who really seemed glad to see me again,
and saluted me as the Aikane of the Kanakas. I was grieved to find
that my poor dog Bravo was dead. He had sickened and died suddenly,
the very day after I sailed in the Alert.
Sunday was again, as usual, our sailing day, and we got under weigh
with a stiff breeze, which reminded us that it was the latter part
of the autumn, and time to expect south-easters once more. We beat
up against a strong head wind, under reefed top-sails, as far as San
Juan, where we came to anchor nearly three miles from the shore,
with slip-ropes on our cables, in the old south-easter style
of last winter. On the passage up, we had an old sea captain
on board, who had married and settled in California, and had
not been on salt water for more than fifteen years. He was
astonished at the changes and improvements that had been made
in ships, and still more at the manner in which we carried sail;
for he was really a little frightened; and said that while we had
top-gallant sails on, he should have been under reefed topsails.
The working of the ship, and her progress to windward, seemed to
delight him, for he said she went to windward as though she were
kedging.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 297 of 618
Words from 81108 to 81380
of 170236
