Thursday, October 15th. Found here the Italian ship La Rosa, from the windward, which reported the brig Pilgrim at San Francisco, all well. Everything was as quiet here as usual. We discharged our hides, horns, and tallow, and were ready to sail again on the following Sunday. I went ashore3 to my old quarters, and found the gang at the hide-house going on in the even tenor4 of their way, and spent an hour or two, after dark, at the oven, taking a whiff with my old Kanaka friends, who really seemed glad to see me again, and saluted5 me as the Aikane of the Kanakas. I was grieved to find that my poor dog Bravo was dead. He had sickened and died suddenly the very day after I sailed in the Alert.
Sunday was again, as usual, our sailing day, and we got under way with a stiff breeze, which reminded us that it was the latter part of the autumn, and time to expect southeasters once more. We beat up against a strong head wind, under reefed topsails, as far as San Juan, where we came to anchor nearly three miles from the shore, with slip-ropes on our cables, in the old southeaster style of last winter. On the passage up, we had an old sea-captain on board, who had married and settled in California, and had not been on salt water for more than fifteen years. He was surprised at the changes and improvements that had been made in ships, and still more at the manner in which we carried sail; for he was really a little frightened, and said that while we had top-gallant-sails on, he should have been under reefed topsails. The working of the ship, and her progress to windward, seemed to delight him, for he said she went to windward as though she were kedging.
Tuesday, October 20th. Having got everything ready, we set the agent ashore, who went up to the Mission to hurry down the hides for the next morning. This night we had the strictest orders to look out for southeasters; and the long, low clouds seemed rather threatening. But the night passed over without any trouble, and early the next morning we hove out the long-boat and pinnace, lowered away the quarter-boats, and went ashore to bring off our hides. Here we were again, in this romantic spot — a perpendicular6 hill, twice the height of the ship’s mast-head, with a single circuitous7 path to the top, and long sand-beach at its base, with the swell8 of the whole Pacific breaking high upon it, and our hides ranged in piles on the overhanging summit. The captain sent me, who was the only one of the crew that had ever been there before, to the top to count the hides and pitch them down. There I stood again, as six months before, throwing off the hides, and watching them, pitching and scaling, to the bottom, while the men, dwarfed10 by the distance, were walking to and fro on the beach, carrying the hides, as they picked them up, to the distant boats, upon the tops of their heads. Two or three boat-loads were sent off, until at last all were thrown down, and the boats nearly loaded again, when we were delayed by a dozen or twenty hides which had lodged11 in the recesses12 of the bank, and which we could not reach by any missiles, as the general line of the side was exactly perpendicular, and these places were caved in, and could not be seen or reached from the top. As hides are worth in Boston twelve and a half cents a pound, and the captain’s commission was one per cent, he determined13 not to give them up, and sent on board for a pair of top-gallant studding-sail halyards, and requested some one of the crew to go to the top and come down by the halyards. The older sailors said the boys, who were light and active, ought to go; while the boys thought that strength and experience were necessary. Seeing the dilemma14, and feeling myself to be near the medium of these requisites15, I offered my services, and went up, with one man to tend the rope, and prepared for the descent.
We found a stake fastened strongly into the ground, and apparently16 capable of holding my weight, to which we made one end of the halyard well fast, and, taking the coil, threw it over the brink17. The end, we saw, just reached to a landing-place, from which the descent to the beach was easy. Having nothing on but shirt, trousers, and hat, the common sea rig of warm weather, I had no stripping to do, and began my descent by taking hold of the rope with both hands, and slipping down, sometimes with hands and feet round the rope, and sometimes breasting off with one hand and foot against the precipice18, and holding on to the rope with the other. In this way I descended19 until I came to a place which shelved in, and in which the hides were lodged. Keeping hold of the rope with one hand, I scrambled20 in, and by aid of my feet and the other hand succeeded in dislodging all the hides, and continued on my way. Just below this place, the precipice projected again, and, going over the projection21, I could see nothing below me but the sea and the rocks upon which it broke, and a few gulls22 flying in mid-air. I got down in safety, pretty well covered with dirt; and for my pains was told, “What a d —— d fool you were to risk your life for half a dozen hides!”
While we were carrying the hides to the boat, I perceived, what I had been too busy to observe before, that heavy black clouds were rolling up from seaward, a strong swell heaving in, and every sign of a southeaster. The captain hurried everything. The hides were pitched into the boats, and, with some difficulty, and by wading23 nearly up to our armpits, we got the boats through the surf, and began pulling aboard. Our gig’s crew towed the pinnace astern of the gig, and the launch was towed by six men in the jolly-boat. The ship was lying three miles off, pitching at her anchor, and the farther we pulled, the heavier grew the swell. Our boat stood nearly up and down several times; the pinnace parted her tow-line, and we expected every moment to see the launch swamped. At length we got alongside, our boats half full of water; and now came the greatest trouble of all — unloading the boats in a heavy sea, which pitched them about so that it was almost impossible to stand in them, raising them sometimes even with the rail, and again dropping them below the bends. With great difficulty we got all the hides aboard and stowed under hatches, the yard and stay tackles hooked on, and the launch and pinnace hoisted25, chocked, and griped. The quarter-boats were then hoisted up, and we began heaving in on the chain. Getting the anchor was no easy work in such a sea, but as we were not coming back to this port, the captain determined not to slip. The ship’s head pitched into the sea, and the water rushed through the hawse-holes, and the chain surged so as almost to unship the barrel of the windlass. “Hove short, sir!” said the mate. “Aye, aye! Weather-bit your chain and loose the topsails! Make sail on her, men — with a will!” A few moments served to loose the topsails, which were furled with reefs, to sheet them home, and hoist26 them up. “Bear a hand!” was the order of the day; and every one saw the necessity of it, for the gale27 was already upon us. The ship broke out her own anchor, which we catted and fished, after a fashion, and were soon close-hauled, under reefed sails, standing28 off from the lee shore and rocks against a heavy head sea. The fore9 course was given to her, which helped her a little; but as she hardly held her own against the sea, which was setting her to leeward — “Board the main tack24!” shouted the captain, when the tack was carried forward and taken to the windlass, and all hands called to the handspikes. The great sail bellied29 out horizontally, as though it would lift up the main stay; the blocks rattled30 and flew about; but the force of machinery31 was too much for her. “Heave ho! Heave and pawl! Yo, heave, hearty32, ho!” and, in time with the song, by the force of twenty strong arms, the windlass came slowly round, pawl after pawl, and the weather clew of the sail was brought down to the water-ways. The starboard watch hauled aft the sheet, and the ship tore through the water like a mad horse, quivering and shaking at every joint33, and dashing from her head the foam34, which flew off at each blow, yards and yards to leeward. A half-hour of such sailing served our turn, when the clews of the sail were hauled up, the sail furled, and the ship, eased of her press, went more quietly on her way. Soon after, the foresail was reefed, and we mizzen-top men were sent up to take another reef in the mizzen topsail. This was the first time I had taken a weather earing, and I felt not a little proud to sit astride of the weather yard-arm, pass the earing, and sing out, “Haul out to leeward!” From this time until we got to Boston the mate never suffered any one but our own gang to go upon the mizzen topsail yard, either for reefing or furling, and the young English lad and I generally took the earings between us.
Having cleared the point and got well out to sea, we squared away the yards, made more sail, and stood on, nearly before the wind, for San Pedro. It blew strong, with some rain, nearly all night, but fell calm toward morning, and the gale having blown itself out, we came-to —
Thursday, October 22d, at San Pedro, in the old southeaster berth35, a league from shore, with a slip-rope on the cable, reefs in the topsails, and rope-yarns for gaskets. Here we lay ten days, with the usual boating, hide-carrying, rolling of cargo36 up the steep hill, walking barefooted over stones, and getting drenched37 in salt water.
The third day after our arrival, the Rosa came in from San Juan, where she went the day after the southeaster. 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 southeaster. This mortified38 us: not only that an Italian ship should have got to windward of us in the trade, but because every thousand hides went towards 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 six-and-twenty years, who was 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 remarkable39 history. He called himself George P. Marsh40; professed41 to have been at sea from a small boy, and to have served his time in the smuggling42 trade between Germany and the coasts of France and England. Thus he accounted for his knowledge of the French language, which he spoke43 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 smuggler44; for he wrote an uncommonly45 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 a college (probably a naval46 one, as he knew no Latin or Greek), where he learned French and mathematics. He was not 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. Neither had George the character, strength of mind, or memory of Harris; yet there was about him the remains47 of a pretty good education, which enabled him to talk quite up to his brains, and a high spirit and amenability48 to the point 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 adventures of the last two years, which we afterwards heard confirmed in such a manner as put the truth of them 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 schooner49, bound on a trading voyage among the Ladrone and Pelew Islands. On one of the latter islands their schooner was wrecked50 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 gave way to the captain, upon his promising51 to send them aid if he escaped. He was successful in his attempt; got on board an American vessel52, 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, tattooed53 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 a pet of him. In this way he lived for thirteen months, in a delicious climate, with plenty to eat, half naked, and nothing to do. He soon, however, became tired, and went round the island, on different pretences54, 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 windward, about a league and a half off, passing abreast55 of the island and standing westward56. 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 in which the ship was bound, 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. She was bound to Manilla, from across the Pacific; and George did seaman’s duty in her until her arrival in Manilla, when he left her, and shipped in a brig bound to the Sandwich Islands. From Oahu, he came, in the British brig Clementine, to Monterey, as second officer, where, having some difficulty with the captain, he left her, and, coming down the coast, joined us at San Pedro. Nearly six months after this, among some papers we received by an arrival from Boston, we found a letter from Captain Low, of the Cabot, published immediately upon his arrival at New York, giving all the particulars just as we had them from George. The letter was published for the information of the friends of George, and Captain Low added that he left him at Manilla to go to Oahu, and he had heard nothing of him since.
George had an interesting journal of his adventures in the Pelew Islands, which he had written out at length, in a handsome hand, and in correct English.1
1 In the spring of 1841, a sea-faring man called at my rooms, in Boston and said he wished to see me, as he knew something about a man I had spoken of in my book. He then told me that he was second mate of the bark Mary Frazer, which sailed from Batavia in company with the Cabot, bound to Manilla, that when off the Pelew Islands they fell in with a canoe with two natives on board, who told them that there was an American ship ahead, out of sight, and that they had put a white man on board of her. The bark gave the canoe a tow for a short distance. When the Mary Frazer arrived at Manilla, they found the Cabot there; and my informant said that George came on board several times, and told the same story that I had given of him in this book. He said the name of George’s schooner was the Dash, and that she was wrecked, and attacked by the natives, as George had told me.
This man, whose name was Beauchamp, was second mate of the Mary Frazer when she took the missionaries57 to Oahu. He became religious during the passage, and joined the mission church at Oahu upon his arrival. When I saw him, he was master of a bark.
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1
leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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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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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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circuitous
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| adj.迂回的路的，迂曲的，绕行的 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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dwarfed
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| vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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12
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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13
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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requisites
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| n.必要的事物( requisite的名词复数 ) | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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projection
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| n.发射，计划，突出部分 | |
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gulls
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| n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 ) | |
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wading
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
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tack
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| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
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hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hoist
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| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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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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bellied
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| adj.有腹的，大肚子的 | |
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rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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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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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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38
mortified
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| v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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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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marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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41
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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42
smuggling
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| n.走私 | |
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43
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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44
smuggler
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| n.走私者 | |
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45
uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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46
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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47
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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48
amenability
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| n.服从的义务 | |
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49
schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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50
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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51
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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52
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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53
tattooed
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| v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
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54
pretences
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| n.假装( pretence的名词复数 )；作假；自命；自称 | |
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55
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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56
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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