We Did Not Believe
That A French Prison Would Be Much Worse Than "Hide-Droghing" On
The Coast Of California; And No One Who Has Not Been On A Long,
Dull Voyage, Shut Up In One Ship, Can Conceive Of The Effect Of
Monotony Upon One's Thoughts And Wishes.
The prospect of a change
is like a green spot in a desert, and the remotest probability
of great
Events and exciting scenes gives a feeling of delight,
and sets life in motion, so as to give a pleasure, which any one
not in the same state would be entirely unable to account for.
In fact, a more jovial night we had not passed in the forecastle
for months. Every one seemed in unaccountably high spirits.
An undefined anticipation of radical changes, of new scenes,
and great doings, seemed to have possessed every one, and the
common drudgery of the vessel appeared contemptible. Here was a
new vein opened; a grand theme of conversation, and a topic for all
sorts of discussions. National feeling was wrought up. Jokes were
cracked upon the only Frenchman in the ship, and comparisons made
between "old horse" and "soup meagre," etc., etc.
We remained in uncertainty as to this war for more than two months,
when an arrival from the Sandwich Islands brought us the news of an
amicable arrangement of the difficulties.
The other vessel which we found in port was the hermaphrodite brig
Avon, from the Sandwich Islands. She was fitted up in handsome style;
fired a gun and ran her ensign up and down at sunrise and sunset; had a
band of four or five pieces of music on board, and appeared rather like
a pleasure yacht than a trader; yet, in connection with the Loriotte,
Clementine, Bolivar, Convoy, and other small vessels, belonging to
sundry Americans at Oahu, she carried on a great trade - legal and
illegal - in otter skins, silks, teas, specie, etc.
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