Of Course, I Gave It To Her; Which Brought
Us Into High Favor; And We Had A Present Of Some Pears And Other
Fruits, Which We Took Down To The Beach With Us.
When we came
to leave the house, we found that our horses, which we left tied
at the door, were both gone.
We had paid for them to ride down
to the beach, but they were not to be found. We went to the man
of whom we hired them, but he only shrugged his shoulders, and
to our question, "Where are the horses?" only answered - "Quien
sabe?" but as he was very easy, and made no inquiries for the
saddles, we saw that he knew very well where they were. After a
little trouble, determined not to walk down, - a distance of three
miles - we procured two, at four reals apiece, with an Indian boy
to run on behind and bring them back. Determined to have "the go"
out of the horses, for our trouble, we went down at full speed,
and were on the beach in fifteen minutes. Wishing to make our
liberty last as long as possible, we rode up and down among the
hide-houses, amusing ourselves with seeing the men, as they came
down, (it was now dusk,) some on horseback and others on foot.
The Sandwich Islanders rode down, and were in "high snuff."
We inquired for our shipmates, and were told that two of them
had started on horseback and had been thrown or had fallen off,
and were seen heading for the beach, but steering pretty wild,
and by the looks of things, would not be down much before midnight.
The Indian boys having arrived, we gave them our horses, and
having seen them safely off, hailed for a boat and went aboard.
Thus ended our first liberty-day on shore. We were well tired,
but had had a good time, and were more willing to go back to our
old duties. About midnight, we were waked up by our two watchmates,
who had come aboard in high dispute. It seems they had started to
come down on the same horse, double-backed; and each was accusing
the other of being the cause of his fall. They soon, however,
turned-in and fell asleep, and probably forgot all about it,
for the next morning the dispute was not renewed.
CHAPTER XVII
SAN DIEGO - A DESERTION - SAN PEDRO AGAIN - BEATING THE COAST
The next sound we heard was "All hands ahoy!" and looking up the
scuttle, saw that it was just daylight. Our liberty had now truly
taken flight, and with it we laid away our pumps, stockings,
blue jackets, neckerchiefs, and other go-ashore paraphernalia,
and putting on old duck trowsers, red shirts, and Scotch caps,
began taking out and landing our hides. For three days we were
hard at work, from the grey of the morning until starlight,
with the exception of a short time allowed for meals, in this duty.
For landing and taking on board hides, San Diego is decidedly the
best place in California. The harbor is small and land-locked;
there is no surf; the vessels lie within a cable's length of
the beach; and the beach itself is smooth, hard sand, without rocks
or stones. For these reasons, it is used by all the vessels in the trade,
as a depot; and, indeed, it would be impossible, when loading with
the cured hides for the passage home, to take them on board at any
of the open ports, without getting them wet in the surf, which
would spoil them. We took possession of one of the hide-houses,
which belonged to our firm, and had been used by the California.
It was built to hold forty thousand hides, and we had the pleasing
prospect of filling it before we could leave the coast; and toward
this, our thirty-five hundred, which we brought down with us,
would do but little. There was not a man on board who did not
go a dozen times into the house, and look round, and make some
calculation of the time it would require.
The hides, as they come rough and uncured from the vessels, are
piled up outside of the houses, whence they are taken and carried
through a regular process of pickling, drying, cleaning, etc., and
stowed away in the house, ready to be put on board. This process
is necessary in order that they may keep, during a long voyage, and
in warm latitudes. For the purpose of curing and taking care of
these hides, an officer and a part of the crew of each vessel are
usually left ashore and it was for this business, we found, that our
new officer had joined us. As soon as the hides were landed, he
took charge of the house, and the captain intended to leave two or
three of us with him, hiring Sandwich Islanders to take our places
on board; but he could not get any Sandwich Islanders to go,
though he offered them fifteen dollars a month; for the report of
the flogging had got among them, and he was called "aole maikai,"
(no good,) and that was an end of the business. They were, however,
willing to work on shore, and four of them were hired and put with
Mr. Russell to cure the hides.
After landing our hides, we next sent ashore all our spare spars
and rigging; all the stores which we did not want to use in the
course of one trip to windward; and, in fact, everything which we
could spare, so as to make room for hides: among other things,
the pig-sty, and with it "old Bess." This was an old sow that we
had brought from Boston, and which lived to get around Cape Horn,
where all the other pigs died from cold and wet. Report said
that she had been a Canton voyage before.
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