The Third Day After Our Arrival, The Rosa Came In From San Juan,
Where She Went The Day After The South-Easter.
Her crew said it was
as smooth as a mill-pond, after the gale, and she took off nearly
a thousand hides, which had been brought down for us, and which
we lost in consequence of the south-easter.
This mortified us;
not only that an Italian ship should have got to windward of us in
the trade, but because every thousand hides went toward completing
the forty thousand which we were to collect before we could say
good-by to California.
While lying here, we shipped one new hand, an Englishman, of about
two or three and twenty, who was quite an acquisition, as he proved
to be a good sailor, could sing tolerably, and, what was of more
importance to me, had a good education, and a somewhat remarkable
history. He called himself George P. Marsh; professed to have been
at sea from a small boy, and to have served his time in the smuggling
trade between Germany and the coasts of France and England. Thus he
accounted for his knowledge of the French language, which he spoke
and read as well as he did English; but his cutter education would
not account for his English, which was far too good to have been
learned in a smuggler; for he wrote an uncommonly handsome hand,
spoke with great correctness, and frequently, when in private talk
with me, quoted from books, and showed a knowledge of the customs
of society, and particularly of the formalities of the various
English courts of law, and of Parliament, which surprised me.
Still, he would give no other account of himself than that he
was educated in a smuggler. A man whom we afterwards fell in with,
who had been a shipmate of George's a few years before, said that
he heard at the boarding-house from which they shipped, that George
had been at college, (probably a naval one, as he knew no Latin
or Greek,) where he learned French and mathematics. He was by
no means the man by nature that Harris was. Harris had made
everything of his mind and character in spite of obstacles;
while this man had evidently been born in a different rank,
and educated early in life accordingly, but had been a vagabond,
and done nothing for himself since. What had been given to him
by others, was all that made him to differ from those about him;
while Harris had made himself what he was. Neither had George
the character, strength of mind, acuteness, or memory of Harris;
yet there was about him the remains of a pretty good education,
which enabled him to talk perhaps beyond his brains, and a high
spirit and sense of honor, which years of a dog's life had not
broken. After he had been a little while on board, we learned
from him his remarkable history, for the last two years, which we
afterwards heard confirmed in such a manner, as put the truth of
it beyond a doubt.
He sailed from New York in the year 1833, if I mistake not, before
the mast, in the brig Lascar, for Canton. She was sold in the East
Indies, and he shipped at Manilla, in a small schooner, bound on
a trading voyage among the Ladrone and Pelew Islands. On one of
the latter islands, their schooner was wrecked on a reef, and they
were attacked by the natives, and, after a desperate resistance,
in which all their number except the captain, George, and a boy,
were killed or drowned, they surrendered, and were carried bound,
in a canoe, to a neighboring island. In about a month after this,
an opportunity occurred by which one of their number might get
away. I have forgotten the circumstances, but only one could go,
and they yielded to the captain, upon his promising to send them
aid if he escaped. He was successful in his attempt; got on board
an American vessel, went back to Manilla, and thence to America,
without making any effort for their rescue, or indeed, as George
afterwards discovered, without even mentioning their case to any
one in Manilla. The boy that was with George died, and he being
alone, and there being no chance for his escape, the natives
soon treated him with kindness, and even with attention. They
painted him, tattooed his body, (for he would never consent to
be marked in the face or hands,) gave him two or three wives;
and, in fact, made quite a pet of him. In this way, he lived
for thirteen months, in a fine climate, with a plenty to eat,
half naked, and nothing to do. He soon, however, became tired,
and went round the island, on different pretences, to look out
for a sail. One day, he was out fishing in a small canoe with
another man, when he saw a large sail to the windward, about a
league and a half off, passing abreast of the island and standing
westward. With some difficulty, he persuaded the islander to go
off with him to the ship, promising to return with a good supply
of rum and tobacco. These articles, which the islanders had got
a taste of from American traders, were too strong a temptation
for the fellow, and he consented. They paddled off in the track of
the ship, and lay-to until she came down to them. George stepped
on board the ship, nearly naked, painted from head to foot, and in
no way distinguishable from his companion until he began to speak.
Upon this, the people on board were not a little astonished; and,
having learned his story, the captain had him washed and clothed,
and sending away the poor astonished native with a knife or two
and some tobacco and calico, took George with him on the voyage.
This was the ship Cabot, of New York, Captain Low.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 82 of 167
Words from 82847 to 83852
of 170236
