He Employed His Time In
Taking Care Of His Pigs, Chickens, Turkeys, Dogs, Etc., And In
Smoking His Long Pipe.
Everything was as neat as a pin in the
house, and he was as regular in his hours as a chronometer, but as
he kept very much by himself, was not a great addition to our
society.
He hardly spent a cent all the time he was on the beach,
and the others said he was no shipmate. He had been a petty officer
on board the British frigate Dublin, Capt. Lord James Townshend,
and had great ideas of his own importance. The man in charge
of the Rosa's house was an Austrian by birth, but spoke, read,
and wrote four languages with ease and correctness. German was his
native tongue, but being born near the borders of Italy, and having
sailed out of Genoa, the Italian was almost as familiar to him as
his own language. He was six years on board of an English man-of-war,
where he learned to speak our language with ease, and also to read
and write it. He had been several years in Spanish vessels,
and had acquired that language so well, that he could read any
books in it. He was between forty and fifty years of age, and was
a singular mixture of the man-of-war's-man and Puritan. He talked
a great deal about propriety and steadiness, and gave good advice
to the youngsters and Kanakas, but seldom went up to the town,
without coming down "three sheets in the wind." One holyday, he
and old Robert (the Scotchman from the Catalina) went up to the
town, and got so cozy, talking over old stories and giving one
another good advice, that they came down double-backed, on a horse,
and both rolled off into the sand as soon as the horse stopped.
This put an end to their pretensions, and they never heard the last
of it from the rest of the men. On the night of the entertainment
at the Rosa's house, I saw old Schmidt, (that was the Austrian's name)
standing up by a hogshead, holding on by both hands, and calling out
to himself - "Hold on, Schmidt! hold on, my good fellow, or you'll
be on your back!" Still, he was an intelligent, good-natured old
fellow, and had a chest-full of books, which he willingly lent
me to read. In the same house with him was a Frenchman and an
Englishman; the latter a regular-built "man-of-war Jack;" a thorough
seaman; a hearty, generous fellow; and, at the same time, a drunken,
dissolute dog. He made it a point to get drunk once a fortnight,
(when he always managed to sleep on the road, and have his money
stolen from him,) and to battle the Frenchman once a week.
These, with a Chilian, and a half a dozen Kanakas, formed the
addition to our company.
In about six weeks from the time when the Pilgrim sailed, we had
got all the hides which she left us cured and stowed away;
and having cleared up the ground, and emptied the vats, and set
everything in order, had nothing more to do until she should come
down again, but to supply ourselves with wood. Instead of going
twice a week for this purpose, we determined to give one whole
week to getting wood, and then we should have enough to last us
half through the summer. Accordingly, we started off every morning,
after an early breakfast, with our hatchets in hand, and cut wood
until the sun was over the point, - which was our only mark of time,
as there was not a watch on the beach - and then came back to dinner,
and after dinner, started off again with our hand-cart and ropes,
and carted and "backed" it down, until sunset. This, we kept up for
a week, until we had collected several cords, - enough to last us for
six or eight weeks - when we "knocked off" altogether, much to my joy;
for, though I liked straying in the woods, and cutting, very well,
yet the backing the wood for so great a distance, over an uneven
country, was, without exception, the hardest work I had ever done.
I usually had to kneel down and contrive to heave the load, which
was well strapped together, upon my back, and then rise up and
start off with it up the hills and down the vales, sometimes through
thickets, - the rough points sticking into the skin, and tearing the
clothes, so that, at the end of the week, I had hardly a whole shirt
to my back.
We were now through all our work, and had nothing more to do until
the Pilgrim should come down again. We had nearly got through
our provisions too, as well as our work; for our officer had
been very wasteful of them, and the tea, flour, sugar, and molasses,
were all gone. We suspected him of sending them up to the town;
and he always treated the squaws with molasses, when they came
down to the beach. Finding wheat-coffee and dry bread rather
poor living, we dubbed together, and I went up to the town on
horseback with a great salt-bag behind the saddle, and a few reáls
in my pocket, and brought back the bag full of onions, pears, beans,
water-melons, and other fruits; for the young woman who tended
the garden, finding that I belonged to the American ship, and that
we were short of provisions, put in a double portion. With these
we lived like fighting-cocks for a week or two, and had, besides,
what the sailors call "a blow-out on sleep;" not turning out in the
morning until breakfast was ready. I employed several days in
overhauling my chest, and mending up all my old clothes, until I
had got everything in order - patch upon patch, like a sand-barge's
mainsail.
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