The greater part of the crews of the vessels came ashore11 every evening, and we passed the time in going about from one house to another, and listening to all manner of languages. The Spanish was the common ground upon which we all met; for every one knew more or less of that. We had now, out of forty or fifty, representatives from almost every nation under the sun — two Englishmen, three Yankees, two Scotchmen, two Welshmen, one Irishman, three Frenchmen (two of whom were Normans, and the third from Gascony), one Dutchman, one Austrian, two or three Spaniards (from old Spain), half a dozen Spanish–Americans and half-breeds, two native Indians from Chili12 and the Island of Chiloe, one negro, one mulatto, about twenty Italians, from all parts of Italy, as many more Sandwich–Islanders, one Tahitian, and one Kanaka from the Marquesas Islands.
The night before the vessels were ready to sail, all the Europeans united and had an entertainment at the Rosa’s hide-house, and we had songs of every nation and tongue. A German gave us “Ach! mein lieber Augustin!” the three Frenchmen roared through the Marseilles Hymn13; the English and Scotchmen gave us “Rule Britannia,” and “Wha’ll be King but Charlie?” the Italians and Spaniards screamed through some national affairs, for which I was none the wiser; and we three Yankees made an attempt at the “Star-spangled Banner.” After these national tributes had been paid, the Austrian gave us a pretty little love-song, and the Frenchmen sang a spirited thing — “Sentinelle! O prenez garde à vous!”— and then followed the mélange which might have been expected. When I left them, the aguardiente and annisou were pretty well in their heads, they were all singing and talking at once, and their peculiar14 national oaths were getting as plenty as pronouns.
The next day, the two vessels got under way for the windward, and left us in quiet possession of the beach. Our numbers were somewhat enlarged by the opening of the new houses, and the society of the beach was a little changed. In charge of the Catalina’s house was an old Scotchman, Robert, who, like most of his countrymen, had some education, and, like many of them, was rather pragmatical, and had a ludicrously solemn conceit15 of himself. He employed his time in taking care of his pigs, chickens, turkeys, dogs, &c., 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 chronometer16, 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 frigate17 Dublin, Captain Lord James Townshend, and had great ideas of his own importance. The man in charge of the Rosa’s house, Schmidt, was an Austrian, but spoke18, 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 easily, 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 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 propriety19 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 holiday, he and old Robert (the Scotchman from the Catalina) went up to the town, and got so cosey, talking over old stories and giving each other 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 pretensions20, 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) standing21 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 were a Frenchman and an Englishman, the latter a regular-built “man-o’-war Jack,” a thorough seaman22, a hearty23, generous fellow, and, at the same time, a drunken, dissolute dog. He made it a point to get drunk every time he went to the presidio, when he always managed to sleep on the road, and have his money stolen from him. These, with a Chilian and half a dozen Kanakas, formed the addition to our company.
In about six weeks from the time when the Pilgrim sailed, we had all the hides which she left us cured and stowed away; and having cleared up the ground and emptied the vats24, 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 determined25 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 hatchets26 in hand, and cut wood until the sun was over the point — which was our mark for noon, 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 uneven27 country, was, without exception, the hardest work I had ever done. I usually had to kneel down, and contrive28 to heave the load, which was well strapped29 together, upon my back, and then rise up and start off with it, up the hills and down the vales, sometimes through thickets30 — 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 wasteful31 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 clubbed together, and I went to the town on horseback, with a great salt-bag behind the saddle, and a few reals in my pocket, and brought back the bag full of onions, beans, pears, watermelons, 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 larger 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 overhauling32 my chest, and mending up all my old clothes, until I had put everything in order — “patch upon patch, like a sand-barge’s mainsail.” Then I took hold of Bowditch’s Navigator, which I had always with me. I had been through the greater part of it, and now went carefully over it from beginning to end, working out most of the examples. That done, and there being no signs of the Pilgrim, I made a descent upon old Schmidt, and borrowed and read all the books there were upon the beach. Such a dearth33 was there of these latter articles, that anything, even a little child’s story-book, or the half of a shipping34 calendar, seemed a treasure. I actually read a jest-book through, from beginning to end, in one day, as I should a novel, and enjoyed it much. At last, when I thought that there were no more to be had, I found at the bottom of old Schmidt’s chest, “Mandeville, a Romance, by Godwin, in five volumes.” This I had never read, but Godwin’s name was enough, and, after the wretched trash I had devoured35, anything bearing the name of an intellectual man was a prize indeed. I bore it off, and for two days I was up early and late, reading with all my might, and actually drinking in delight. It is no extravagance to say that it was like a spring in a desert land.
From the sublime36 to the ridiculous — so, with me, from Mandeville to hide-curing — was but a step; for —
Wednesday, July 18th, brought us the brig Pilgrim from the windward. As she came in, we found that she was a good deal altered in her appearance. Her short top-gallant-masts were up, her bowlines all unrove (except to the courses), the quarter boom-irons off her lower yards, her jack-cross-trees sent down, several blocks got rid of, running rigging rove in new places, and numberless other changes of the same character. Then, too, there was a new voice giving orders, and a new face on the quarter-deck — a short, dark-complexioned man, in a green jacket and a high leather cap. These changes, of course, set the whole beach on the qui-vive, and we were all waiting for the boat to come ashore, that we might have things explained. At length, after the sails were furled and the anchor carried out, her boat pulled ashore, and the news soon flew that the expected ship had arrived at Santa Barbara, and that Captain Thompson had taken command of her, and her captain, Faucon, had taken the Pilgrim, and was the green-jacketed man on the quarter-deck. The boat put directly off again, without giving us time to ask any more questions, and we were obliged to wait till night, when we took a little skiff, that lay on the beach, and paddled off. When I stepped aboard, the second mate called me aft, and gave me a large bundle, directed to me, and marked “Ship Alert.” This was what I had longed for, yet I refrained from opening it until I went ashore. Diving down into the forecastle, I found the same old crew, and was really glad to see them again. Numerous inquiries37 passed as to the new ship, the latest news from Boston, &c., &c. Stimson had received letters from home, and nothing remarkable38 had happened. The Alert was agreed on all hands to be a fine ship, and a large one: “Larger than the Rosa,”— “Big enough to carry off all the hides in California,”— “Rail as high as a man’s head,”— “A crack ship,”— “A regular dandy,” &c., &c. Captain Thompson took command of her, and she went directly up to Monterey; thence she was to go to San Francisco, and probably would not be in San Diego under two or three months. Some of the Pilgrim’s crew found old shipmates aboard of her, and spent an hour or two in her forecastle the evening before she sailed. They said her decks were as white as snow — holystoned every morning, like a man-of-war’s; everything on board “ship-shape and Bristol fashion”; a fine crew, three mates, a sailmaker and carpenter, and all complete. “They’ve got a man for mate of that ship, and not a bloody39 sheep about decks!”— “A mate that knows his duty, and makes everybody do theirs, and won’t be imposed upon by either captain or crew.” After collecting all the information we could get on this point, we asked something about their new captain. He had hardly been on board long enough for them to know much about him, but he had taken hold strong, as soon as he took command — shifting the top-gallant-masts, and unreeving all the studding-sail gear and half the running rigging, the very first day.
Having got all the news we could, we pulled ashore; and as soon as we reached the house, I, as might be supposed, fell directly to opening my bundle, and found a reasonable supply of duck, flannel40 shirts, shoes, &c., and, what was still more valuable, a packet of eleven letters. These I sat up nearly all night reading, and put them carefully away, to be reread again and again at my leisure. Then came half a dozen newspapers, the last of which gave notice of Thanksgiving, and of the clearance41 of “ship Alert, Edward H. Faucon, master, for Callao and California, by Bryant, Sturgis, & Co.” Only those who have been on distant voyages, and after a long absence received a newspaper from home, can understand the delight that they give one. I read every part of them — the houses to let, things lost or stolen, auction42 sales, and all. Nothing carries you so entirely43 to a place, and makes you feel so perfectly44 at home, as a newspaper. The very name of “Boston Daily Advertiser” “sounded hospitably45 upon the ear.”
The Pilgrim discharged her hides, which set us at work again, and in a few days we were in the old routine of dry hides, wet hides, cleaning, beating, &c. Captain Faucon came quietly up to me, as I was sitting upon a stretched hide, cutting the meat from it with my knife, and asked me how I liked California, and repeated —
“Tityre, tu patulae recubans subtegmine fagi.”
Very apropos46, thought I, and, at the same time, shows that you have studied Latin. However, it was kind of him, and an attention from a captain is a thing not to be slighted. Thompson’s majesty47 could not have bent48 to it, in the sight of so many mates and men; but Faucon was a man of education, literary habits, and good social position, and held things at their right value.
Saturday, July 11th. The Pilgrim set sail for the windward, and left us to go on in our old way. Having laid in such a supply of wood, and the days being now long, and invariably pleasant, we had a good deal of time to ourselves. The duck I received from home I soon made up into trousers and frocks, and, having formed the remnants of the duck into a cap, I displayed myself, every Sunday, in a complete suit of my own make, from head to foot. Reading, mending, sleeping, with occasional excursions into the bush, with the dogs, in search of coyotes, hares, and rabbits, or to encounter a rattlesnake, and now and then a visit to the presidio, filled up our spare time after hide-curing was over for the day. Another amusement which we sometimes indulged in was “burning the water” for craw-fish. For this purpose we procured49 a pair of grains, with a long staff like a harpoon50, and, making torches with tarred rope twisted round a long pine stick, took the only boat on the beach, a small skiff, and with a torch-bearer in the bow, a steersman in the stern, and one man on each side with the grains, went off, on dark nights, to burn the water. This is fine sport. Keeping within a few rods of the shore, where the water is not more than three or four feet deep, with a clear, sandy bottom, the torches light everything up so that one could almost have seen a pin among the grains of sand. The craw-fish are an easy prey51, and we used soon to get a load of them. The other fish were more difficult to catch, yet we frequently speared a number of them, of various kinds and sizes. The Pilgrim brought us a supply of fish-hooks, which we had never had before on the beach, and for several days we went down to the Point, and caught a quantity of cod52 and mackerel. On one of these expeditions, we saw a battle between two Sandwich–Islanders and a shark. “Johnny” had been playing about our boat for some time, driving away the fish, and showing his teeth at our bait, when we missed him, and in a few minutes heard a great shouting between two Kanakas who were fishing on the rock opposite to us: “E hana hana make i ka ia nui!” “E pii mai Aikane!” &c., &c.; and saw them pulling away on a stout53 line, and “Johnny Shark” floundering at the other end. The line soon broke; but the Kanakas would not let him off so easily, and sprang directly into the water after him. Now came the tug54 of war. Before he could get into deep water, one of them seized him by the tail, and ran up with him upon the beach; but Johnny twisted round, and turning his head under his body, and showing his teeth in the vicinity of the Kanaka’s hand, made him let go and spring out of the way. The shark now turned tail and made the best of his way, by flapping and floundering, toward deep water; but here again, before he was fairly off, the other Kanaka seized him by the tail, and made a spring toward the beach, his companion at the same time paying away upon him with stones and a large stick. As soon, however, as the shark could turn, the man was obliged to let go his hold; but the instant he made toward deep water, they were both behind him, watching their chance to seize him. In this way the battle went on for some time, the shark, in a rage, splashing and twisting about, and the Kanakas, in high excitement, yelling at the top of their voices. But the shark at last got off, carrying away a hook and line, and not a few severe bruises55.
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1
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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2
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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conjectures
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| 推测，猜想( conjecture的名词复数 ) | |
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5
stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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moored
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| adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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8
animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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9
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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10
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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chili
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| n.辣椒 | |
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13
hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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14
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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16
chronometer
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| n.精密的计时器 | |
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17
frigate
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| n.护航舰，大型驱逐舰 | |
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18
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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vats
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| varieties 变化，多样性，种类 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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hatchets
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| n.短柄小斧( hatchet的名词复数 )；恶毒攻击；诽谤；休战 | |
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uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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wasteful
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| adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的 | |
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overhauling
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| n.大修；拆修；卸修；翻修v.彻底检查( overhaul的现在分词 )；大修；赶上；超越 | |
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dearth
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| n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨 | |
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shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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40
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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41
clearance
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| n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理 | |
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42
auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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43
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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44
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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45
hospitably
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| 亲切地，招待周到地，善于款待地 | |
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46
apropos
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| adv.恰好地；adj.恰当的；关于 | |
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47
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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48
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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49
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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50
harpoon
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| n.鱼叉；vt.用鱼叉叉，用鱼叉捕获 | |
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51
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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52
cod
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| n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗 | |
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54
tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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bruises
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| n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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