This Being All Done With, We Gave
One Day To Bending Our Sails; And At Night, Every Sail, From The
Courses To The Skysails, Was Bent, And Every Studding-Sail Ready
For Setting.
Before our sailing, an unsuccessful attempt was made by one of
the crew of the California to effect an exchange with one of our
number.
It was a lad, between fifteen and sixteen years of age,
who went by the name of the "reefer," having been a midshipman in
an East India Company's ship. His singular character and story
had excited our interest ever since the ship came into the port.
He was a delicate, slender little fellow, with a beautiful pearly
complexion, regular features, forehead as white as marble, black
haired, curling beautifully, rounded, tapering, delicate fingers,
small feet, soft voice, gentle manners, and, in fact, every sign
of having been well born and bred. At the same time there was
something in his expression which showed a slight deficiency of
intellect. How great the deficiency was, or what it resulted from;
whether he was born so; whether it was the result of disease or
accident; or whether, as some said, it was brought on by his
distress of mind, during the voyage, I cannot say. From his own
account of himself, and from many circumstances which were known
in connection with his story, he must have been the son of a man
of wealth. His mother was an Italian woman. He was probably a
natural son, for in scarcely any other way could the incidents
of his early life be accounted for.
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