Our cargo was now nearly all taken in; and my old friend, the Pilgrim,
having completed her discharge, unmoored, to set sail the next morning
on another long trip to windward. I was just thinking of her hard
lot, and congratulating myself upon my escape from her, when I
received a summons into the cabin. I went aft, and there found,
seated round the cabin table, my own captain, Captain Faucon of
the Pilgrim, and Mr. R - - -, the agent. Captain T - - - turned
to me and asked abruptly -
"D - - -, do you want to go home in the ship?"
"Certainly, sir," said I; "I expect to go home in the ship."
"Then," said he, "you must get some one to go in your place on
board the Pilgrim."
I was so completely "taken aback" by this sudden intimation, that for
a moment I could make no reply. I knew that it would be hopeless to
attempt to prevail upon any of the ship's crew to take twelve months
more upon the California in the brig. I knew, too, that Captain
T - - - had received orders to bring me home in the Alert, and he
had told me, when I was at the hide-house, that I was to go home
in her; and even if this had not been so, it was cruel to give me
no notice of the step they were going to take, until a few hours
before the brig would sail.
