Among The Mexicans There Is
No Working Class; (The Indians Being Slaves And Doing All The Hard Work;)
And Every Rich Man Looks Like A Grandee, And Every Poor Scamp Like A
Broken-Down Gentleman.
I have often seen a man with a fine figure,
and courteous manners, dressed in broadcloth and velvet, with a noble
horse completely covered with trappings; without a real in his pocket,
and absolutely suffering for something to eat.
CHAPTER XIII
TRADING - A BRITISH SAILOR
The next day, the cargo having been entered in due form, we began
trading. The trade-room was fitted up in the steerage, and furnished
out with the lighter goods, and with specimens of the rest of the
cargo; and M - - -, a young man who came out from Boston with us,
before the mast, was taken out of the forecastle, and made supercargo's
clerk. He was well qualified for the business, having been clerk in a
counting-house in Boston. He had been troubled for some time with
the rheumatism, which unfitted him for the wet and exposed duty of
a sailor on the coast. For a week or ten days all was life on board.
The people came off to look and to buy - men, women, and children;
and we were continually going in the boats, carrying goods and
passengers, - for they have no boats of their own. Everything must
dress itself and come aboard and see the new vessel, if it were only
to buy a paper of pins. The agent and his clerk managed the sales,
while we were busy in the hold or in the boats. Our cargo was an
assorted one; that is, it consisted of everything under the sun.
We had spirits of all kinds, (sold by the cask,) teas, coffee, sugars,
spices, raisins, molasses, hardware, crockery-ware, tinware, cutlery,
clothing of all kinds, boots and shoes from Lynn, calicoes and cottons
from Lowell, crepes, silks; also shawls, scarfs, necklaces, jewelry,
and combs for the ladies; furniture; and in fact, everything that can
be imagined, from Chinese fire-works to English cart-wheels - of which
we had a dozen pairs with their iron rims on.
The Californians are an idle, thriftless people, and can make
nothing for themselves. The country abounds in grapes, yet they
buy bad wines made in Boston and brought round by us, at an immense
price, and retail it among themselves at a real (12½ cents) by
the small wine-glass. Their hides, too, which they value at two
dollars in money, they give for something which costs seventy-five
cents in Boston; and buy shoes (like as not, made of their own hides,
and which have been carried twice around Cape Horn) at three or
four dollars, and "chicken-skin" boots at fifteen dollars apiece.
Things sell, on an average, at an advance of nearly three hundred
per cent upon the Boston prices. This is partly owing to the heavy
duties which the government, in their wisdom, with the intent, no
doubt, of keeping the silver in the country, has laid upon imports.
These duties, and the enormous expenses of so long a voyage, keep
all merchants, but those of heavy capital, from engaging in the
trade.
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