The Musicians Were Still There,
Upon Their Platform, Scraping And Twanging Away, And A Few People,
Apparently Of The Lower Classes, Were Dancing.
The dancing is kept
up, at intervals, throughout the day, but the crowd, the spirit,
and the élite, come in at night.
The next night, which was the last,
we went ashore in the same manner, until we got almost tired of the
monotonous twang of the instruments, the drawling sounds which the
women kept up, as an accompaniment, and the slapping of the hands
in time with the music, in place of castanets. We found ourselves
as great objects of attention as any persons or anything at the
place. Our sailor dresses - and we took great pains to have them
neat and shipshape - were much admired, and we were invited, from
every quarter, to give them an American sailor's dance; but after
the ridiculous figure some of our countrymen cut, in dancing after
the Spaniards, we thought it best to leave it to their imaginations.
Our agent, with a tight, black, swallow-tailed coat, just imported
from Boston, a high stiff cravat, looking as if he had been pinned
and skewered, with only his feet and hands left free, took the
floor just after Bandini; and we thought they had had enough of
Yankee grace.
The last night they kept it up in great style, and were getting
into a high-go, when the captain called us off to go aboard,
for, it being south-easter season, he was afraid to remain on
shore long; and it was well he did not, for that very night,
we slipped our cables, as a crowner to our fun ashore, and stood
off before a south-easter, which lasted twelve hours, and returned
to our anchorage the next day.
CHAPTER XXVIII
AN OLD FRIEND - A VICTIM - CALIFORNIA RANGERS - NEWS FROM
HOME - LAST LOOKS
Monday, Feb. 1st. After having been in port twenty-one days,
we sailed for San Pedro, where we arrived on the following day,
having gone "all fluking," with the weather clew of the mainsail
hauled up, the yards braced in a little, and the lower studding-sails
just drawing; the wind hardly shifting a point during the passage.
Here we found the Ayacucho and the Pilgrim, which last we had not
seen since the 11th of September, - nearly five months; and I really
felt something like an affection for the old brig which had been my
first home, and in which I had spent nearly a year, and got the
first rough and tumble of a sea life. She, too, was associated,
in my mind with Boston, the wharf from which we sailed, anchorage
in the stream, leave-taking, and all such matters, which were now
to me like small links connecting me with another world, which I
had once been in, and which, please God, I might yet see again.
I went on board the first night, after supper; found the old
cook in the galley, playing upon the fife which I had given him,
as a parting present; had a hearty shake of the hand from him;
and dove down into the forecastle, where were my old ship-mates,
the same as ever, glad to see me; for they had nearly given us up
as lost, especially when they did not find us in Santa Barbara.
They had been at San Diego last, had been lying at San Pedro
nearly a month, and had received three thousand hides from the
pueblo. These were taken from her the next day, which filled
us up, and we both got under weigh on the 4th, she bound up to
San Francisco again, and we to San Diego, where we arrived on
the 6th.
We were always glad to see San Diego; it being the depot, and a
snug little place, and seeming quite like home, especially to
me, who had spent a summer there. There was no vessel in port,
the Rosa having sailed for Valparaiso and Cadiz, and the Catalina
for Callao, nearly a month before. We discharged our hides, and in
four days were ready to sail again for the windward; and, to our
great joy - for the last time! Over thirty thousand hides had
been already collected, cured, and stowed away in the house,
which, together with what we should collect, and the Pilgrim
would bring down from San Francisco, would make out her cargo.
The thought that we were actually going up for the last time,
and that the next time we went round San Diego point it would
be "homeward bound," brought things so near a close, that we
felt as though we were just there, though it must still be the
greater part of a year before we could see Boston.
I spent one evening, as had been my custom, at the oven with the
Sandwich Islanders; but it was far from being the usual noisy,
laughing time. It has been said, that the greatest curse to each
of the South Sea islands, was the first man who discovered it;
and every one who knows anything of the history of our commerce
in those parts, knows how much truth there is in this; and that
the white men, with their vices, have brought in diseases before
unknown to the islanders, and which are now sweeping off the native
population of the Sandwich Islands, at the rate of one fortieth of
the entire population annually. They seem to be a doomed people.
The curse of a people calling themselves Christian, seems to follow
them everywhere; and even here, in this obscure place, lay two
young islanders, whom I had left strong, active young men, in the
vigor of health, wasting away under a disease, which they would
never have known but for their intercourse with Christianized Mexico
and people from Christian America. One of them was not so ill; and
was moving about, smoking his pipe, and talking, and trying to keep
up his spirits; but the other, who was my friend, and Aikane - Hope,
was the most dreadful object I had ever seen in my life:
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