The great height; the scaling of the hides; and the continual
walking to and fro of the men, who looked like mites, on the beach!
This was the romance of hide-droghing!
Some of the hides lodged in cavities which were under the bank and
out of our sight, being directly under us; but by sending others down
in the same direction, we succeeded in dislodging them. Had they
remained there, the captain said he should have sent on board for
a couple of pairs of long halyards, and got some one to have gone
down for them. It was said that one of the crew of an English brig
went down in the same way, a few years before. We looked over,
and thought it would not be a welcome task, especially for a few
paltry hides; but no one knows what he can do until he is called
upon; for, six months afterwards, I went down the same place by
a pair of top-gallant studding-sail halyards, to save a half a
dozen hides which had lodged there.
Having thrown them all down, we took our way back again,
and found the boat loaded and ready to start. We pulled off;
took the hides all aboard; hoisted in the boats; hove up our anchor;
made sail; and before sundown, were on our way to San Diego.
Friday, May 8th, 1835. Arrived at San Diego. Here we found the
little harbor deserted. The Lagoda, Ayacucho, Loriotte, and all,
had left the coast, and we were nearly alone. All the hide-houses
on the beach, but ours, were shut up, and the Sandwich Islanders,
a dozen or twenty in number, who had worked for the other vessels and
been paid off when they sailed, were living on the beach, keeping up
a grand carnival. A Russian discovery-ship which had been in this
port a few years before, had built a large oven for baking bread,
and went away, leaving it standing. This, the Sandwich Islanders
took possession of, and had kept, ever since, undisturbed. It was
big enough to hold six or eight men - that is, it was as large as
a ship's forecastle; had a door at the side, and a vent-hole at
top. They covered it with Oahu mats, for a carpet; stopped up the
vent-hole in bad weather, and made it their head-quarters. It was
now inhabited by as many as a dozen or twenty men, who lived there
in complete idleness - drinking, playing cards, and carousing in
every way. They bought a bullock once a week, which kept them
in meat, and one of them went up to the town every day to get
fruit, liquor, and provisions. Besides this, they had bought
a cask of ship-bread, and a barrel of flour from the Lagoda,
before she sailed. There they lived, having a grand time,
and caring for nobody. Captain T - - - was anxious to get
three or four of them to come on board the Pilgrim, as we were
so much diminished in numbers; and went up to the oven and spent
an hour or two trying to negotiate with them. One of them, - a
finely built, active, strong and intelligent fellow, - who was
a sort of king among them, acted as spokesman. He was called
Mannini, - or rather, out of compliment to his known importance
and influence, Mr. Mannini - and was known all over California.
Through him, the captain offered them fifteen dollars a month,
and one month's pay in advance; but it was like throwing pearls
before swine, or rather, carrying coals to Newcastle. So long
as they had money, they would not work for fifty dollars a month,
and when their money was gone, they would work for ten.
"What do you do here, Mr. Mannini?"(1) said the captain.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1. The letter i in the Sandwich Island language is sounded
like e in the English.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Oh, we play cards, get drunk, smoke - do anything we're a mind to."
"Don't you want to come aboard and work?"
"Aole! aole make make makou i ka hana. Now, got plenty money;
no good, work. Mamule, money pau - all gone. Ah! very good, work! -
maikai, hana hana nui!"
"But you'll spend all your money in this way," said the captain.
"Aye! me know that. By-'em-by money pau - all gone; then Kanaka work plenty."
This was a hopeless case, and the captain left them, to wait
patiently until their money was gone.
We discharged our hides and tallow, and in about a week were
ready to set sail again for the windward. We unmoored, and got
everything ready, when the captain made another attempt upon the
oven. This time he had more regard to the "mollia tempora fandi,"
and succeeded very well. He got Mr. Mannini in his interest, and
as the shot was getting low in the locker, prevailed upon him and
three others to come on board with their chests and baggage, and
sent a hasty summons to me and the boy to come ashore with our
things, and join the gang at the hide-house. This was unexpected
to me; but anything in the way of variety I liked; so we got ready,
and were pulled ashore. I stood on the beach while the brig got
under weigh, and watched her until she rounded the point, and
then went up to the hide-house to take up my quarters for a few
months.
CHAPTER XIX
THE SANDWICH ISLANDERS - HIDE-CURING - WOOD-CUTTING - RATTLE-
SNAKES - NEW-COMERS
Here was a change in my life as complete as it had been sudden.
In the twinkling of an eye, I was transformed from a sailor into a
"beach-comber" and a hide-curer; yet the novelty and the comparative
independence of the life were not unpleasant. Our hide-house was a
large building, made of rough boards, and intended to hold forty
thousand hides.
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