It Was Now Nearly Sundown, And S - - - And Myself Went Into A
House And Sat Quietly Down To Rest Ourselves Before Going Down To
The Beach.
Several people were soon collected to see "los Ingles
marineros," and one of them - a young woman - took a
Great fancy to
my pocket handkerchief, which was a large silk one that I had
before going to sea, and a handsomer one than they had been in
the habit of seeing. Of course, I gave it to her; which brought
us into high favor; and we had a present of some pears and other
fruits, which we took down to the beach with us. When we came
to leave the house, we found that our horses, which we left tied
at the door, were both gone. We had paid for them to ride down
to the beach, but they were not to be found. We went to the man
of whom we hired them, but he only shrugged his shoulders, and
to our question, "Where are the horses?" only answered - "Quien
sabe?" but as he was very easy, and made no inquiries for the
saddles, we saw that he knew very well where they were. After a
little trouble, determined not to walk down, - a distance of three
miles - we procured two, at four reals apiece, with an Indian boy
to run on behind and bring them back. Determined to have "the go"
out of the horses, for our trouble, we went down at full speed,
and were on the beach in fifteen minutes. Wishing to make our
liberty last as long as possible, we rode up and down among the
hide-houses, amusing ourselves with seeing the men, as they came
down, (it was now dusk,) some on horseback and others on foot.
The Sandwich Islanders rode down, and were in "high snuff."
We inquired for our shipmates, and were told that two of them
had started on horseback and had been thrown or had fallen off,
and were seen heading for the beach, but steering pretty wild,
and by the looks of things, would not be down much before midnight.
The Indian boys having arrived, we gave them our horses, and
having seen them safely off, hailed for a boat and went aboard.
Thus ended our first liberty-day on shore. We were well tired,
but had had a good time, and were more willing to go back to our
old duties. About midnight, we were waked up by our two watchmates,
who had come aboard in high dispute. It seems they had started to
come down on the same horse, double-backed; and each was accusing
the other of being the cause of his fall. They soon, however,
turned-in and fell asleep, and probably forgot all about it,
for the next morning the dispute was not renewed.
CHAPTER XVII
SAN DIEGO - A DESERTION - SAN PEDRO AGAIN - BEATING THE COAST
The next sound we heard was "All hands ahoy!" and looking up the
scuttle, saw that it was just daylight.
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