They Moored Ship, Erected Their Try-Works On Shore, Put Up
A Small Tent, In Which They All Lived, And
Commenced operations.
They made an addition to our society, and we spent many evenings in
their tent, where, amid the
Babel of English, Spanish, French, Indian,
and Kanaka, we found some words that we could understand in common.
The morning after my landing, I began the duties of hide-curing.
In order to understand these, it will be necessary to give the whole
history of a hide, from the time it is taken from a bullock until it
is put on board the vessel to be carried to Boston. When the hide
is taken from the bullock, holes are cut round it, near the edge,
by which it is staked out to dry. In this manner it dries without
shrinking. After they are thus dried in the sun, they are received by
the vessels, and brought down to the depot at San Diego. The vessels
land them, and leave them in large piles near the houses.
Then begins the hide-curer's duty. The first thing is to put them
in soak. This is done by carrying them down at low tide, and making
them fast, in small piles, by ropes, and letting the tide come up
and cover them. Every day we put in soak twenty-five for each
man, which, with us, made an hundred and fifty. There they
lie forty-eight hours, when they are taken out, and rolled up,
in wheelbarrows, and thrown into the vats. These vats contain brine,
made very strong; being sea-water, with great quantities of salt thrown
in. This pickles the hides, and in this they lie forty-eight hours;
the use of the sea-water, into which they are first put, being merely
to soften and clean them. From these vats, they are taken, and lie on
a platform twenty-four hours, and then are spread upon the ground,
and carefully stretched and staked out, so that they may dry smooth.
After they were staked, and while yet wet and soft, we used to go
upon them with our knives, and carefully cut off all the bad parts: -
the pieces of meat and fat, which would corrupt and infect the whole
if stowed away in a vessel for many months, the large flippers,
the ears, and all other parts which would prevent close stowage.
This was the most difficult part of our duty: as it required much
skill to take everything necessary off and not to cut or injure the hide.
It was also a long process, as six of us had to clean an hundred and
fifty, most of which required a great deal to be done to them, as the
Spaniards are very careless in skinning their cattle. Then, too,
as we cleaned them while they were staked out, we were obliged to
kneel down upon them, which always gives beginners the back-ache.
The first day, I was so slow and awkward that I cleaned only eight;
at the end of a few days I doubled my number; and in a fortnight or
three weeks, could keep up with the others, and clean my proportion
- twenty-five.
This cleaning must be got through with before noon; for by that
time they get too dry. After the sun has been upon them a few
hours, they are carefully gone over with scrapers, to get off all the
grease which the sun brings out. This being done, the stakes are
pulled up, and the hides carefully doubled, with the hair side out,
and left to dry. About the middle of the afternoon they are turned
upon the other side, and at sundown piled up and covered over.
The next day they are spread out and opened again, and at night,
if fully dry, are thrown upon a long, horizontal pole, five at
a time, and beat with flails. This takes all the dust from them.
Then, being salted, scraped, cleaned, dried, and beaten, they are
stowed away in the house. Here ends their history, except that
they are taken out again when the vessel is ready to go home, beaten,
stowed away on board, carried to Boston, tanned, made into shoes and
other articles for which leather is used; and many of them, very probably,
in the end, brought back again to California in the shape of shoes,
and worn out in pursuit of other bullocks, or in the curing of
other hides.
By putting an hundred and fifty in soak every day, we had the
same number at each stage of curing, on each day; so that we had,
every day, the same work to do upon the same number: an hundred
and fifty to put in soak; an hundred and fifty to wash out and put
in the vat; the same number to haul from the vat and put on the
platform to drain; the same number to spread and stake out and
clean; and the same number to beat and stow away in the home.
I ought to except Sunday; for, by a prescription which no captain
or agent has yet ventured to break in upon, Sunday has been a day
of leisure on the beach for years. On Saturday night, the hides,
in every stage of progress, are carefully covered up, and not
uncovered until Monday morning. On Sundays we had absolutely
no work to do, unless it was to kill a bullock, which was sent
down for our use about once a week, and sometimes came on Sunday.
Another good arrangement was, that we had just so much work to do,
and when that was through, the time was our own. Knowing this,
we worked hard, and needed no driving. We "turned out" every
morning at the first signs of daylight, and allowing a short time,
about eight o'clock, for breakfast, generally got through our labor
between one and two o'clock, when we dined, and had the rest of the
time to ourselves; until just before sundown, when we beat the dry
hides and put them in the house, and covered over all the others.
By this means we had about three hours to ourselves every afternoon;
and at sundown we had our supper, and our work was done for the day.
There was no watch to stand, and no topsails to reef.
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