Chapter 18, Part 1, of 2 years before the mast. 2 years before the mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Chapter 18, Part 1, Easter Sunday. The next Sunday was Easter, and as there had been no liberty at San Pedro, it was our turn to go ashore and miss spend another Sunday. Soon after breakfast a large boat, filled with men in blue jackets, scarlet caps, and various colored underclothes, bound ashore on liberty, left the Italian ship, and passed under our stern, the men singing beautiful Italian boat songs all the way, in fine full chorus. Among the songs I recognized the favorite, it brought back to my mind piano fortes, drawing rooms, young ladies singing, and a thousand other things, which as little befitted me in my station to be thinking upon. Supposing that the whole day would be too long a time to spend ashore, as there was no place to which we could take a ride, we remained quietly on board until after dinner. We were then pulled ashore in the stern of the boat, for it is a point with liberty men to be pulled off and back as passengers by their shipmates, and, with orders to be on the beach at sundown, we took our way for the town. There everything wore the appearance of a holiday. The people were dressed in their best, the men riding about among the horses, and the women sitting on carpets before the doors. Under the piazza of the pulpiria, two men were seated, decked out with lots of ribbons and bouquets, and playing the violin and the Spanish guitar. These are the only instruments, with the exception of the drums and trumpets at Monterey, than I ever heard in California, and I suspect they play upon no others, for at a great fandango at which I was afterwards present, and where they mustered all the music they could find, there were three violins and two guitars, and no other instruments. As it was now too near the middle of the day to see any dancing and hearing that a bull was expected down from the country to be baited in the Presidio Square in the course of an hour or two, we took a stroll among the houses. Inquiring for an American who, we had been told, had married in the place and kept a shop, we were directed to a long, low building, at the end of which was a door with a sign over it in Spanish. Entering the shop we found no one in it, and the hole had an empty, deserted air. In a few minutes the man made his appearance, and apologized for having nothing to entertain us with, saying that he had had a fandango at his house the night before, and the people had eaten and drunk up everything. Oh yes, said I, Easter holy days. No, said he, with a singular expression on his face.  At this I felt somewhat awkwardly not knowing what to say, and whether to offer consolation or not, and was beginning to retire when he opened a side door and told us to walk in. Here I was no less astonished, for I found a large room, filled with young girls from three or four years of age up to fifteen and sixteen, dressed all in white, with wreaths of flowers on their heads, and bouquets in their hands. Following our conductor among these girls, who were playing about in high spirits, we came to a table at the end of the room covered with a white cloth, on which lay a coffin, about three feet long, with the body of this child. The coffin is covered with white cloth and lined with white satin, and strewn with flowers. Through an open door we saw in another room a few elderly people in common dresses, while the benches and tables thrown up in a corner and the stained walls gave evident signs of the last night's high go. Feeling like Garrick between tragedy and comedy and uncertainty of purpose, I asked the man when the funeral would take place, and being told it would move towards the mission in about an hour, took my leave. To pass away the time we hired horses and rode to the beach, and there saw three or four Italian sailors mounted and riding up and down on the hard sand at a furious rate. We joined them and found it fine sport. The beach gave us a stretch of a mile or more, and the horses flew over the smooth hard sand, apparently invigorated and excited by the salt sea breeze, and by the continual roar and dashing of the breakers. From the beach we returned to the town, and finding that the funeral procession had moved, rode on and overtook it about half way to the mission. Here was as a peculiar sight as we had seen before in the house, the one looking as much like a funeral procession as the other did like a house of mourning. The little coffin was borne by eight girls, who were continually relieved by others running forward from the procession and taking their places. Behind it came a straggling company of girls, dressed as before in white and flowers, including, I should suppose by their numbers, nearly all the girls between five and fifteen in the place. They played along all the way, frequently stopping and running all together to talk to someone or to pick up a flower, and then running on again to overtake the coffin. There were a few elderly women in common colors and a herd of young men and boys. Some on foot and others mounted, followed them, or walked a road by their side, frequently interrupting them by jokes and questions. But the most singular thing of all was that two men walked, one on each side of the coffin carrying muskets in their hands, which they continually loaded and fired into the air. Whether this was to keep off the evil spirits or not, I do not know. It was the only interpretation that I could put upon it. As we drew near the mission, we saw the great gate thrown open and the Padres standing on the steps with a crucifix in his hand. The mission is a large and deserted looking place. The outbuilding is going to ruin and everything giving one the impression of decayed grandeur. A large stone fountain threw out pure water from four mouths into a basin before the church door, and we were on the point of riding up to let our horses drink when it occurred to us that it might be consecrated and we forebore. Just at this moment the bell set up their harsh, discordant clanger and the procession moved into the court. I wished to follow and see the ceremony, but the horse of one of my companions had become frightened and was tearing off towards the town and having thrown his rider and got one of his hoofs caught in the tackling of the saddle, which had slipped, fast dragging and ripping it into pieces. Knowing that my shipmate could not speak a word of Spanish and fearing that he would get into difficulty, I was obliged to leave the ceremony and ride after him. I soon overtook him, trudging along, swearing at the horse, and carrying the remains of the saddle, which he had picked up on the road. Going to the owner of the horse, we made a settlement with him and found him surprisingly liberal. All parts of the saddle were brought back and, being capable of repair, he was satisfied with six rails. We thought it would have been a few dollars. We put into the horse, who is now halfway up one of the mountains, but he shook his head, saying, No importa! and giving us to understand that he had plenty more. Having returned to the town, we saw a crowd collected in the square before the principal Pupiria and, writing up, found that all these people, men, women and children, had been drawn together by a couple of bantam cocks. The cocks were in full tilt, springing into one another and the people were as eager, laughing and shouting, as though the combatants had been men. There had been a disappointment about the bull. He had broken his bail and had taken himself off and it was too late to get another, so the people were obliged to put up with a cock fight. One of the bantams, having been knocked in the head and having an eye put out, gave in and two monstrous prize cocks were brought on. These were the object of the whole affair, the bantams having been merely served up as a first course to collect the people together. Two fellows came into the ring holding the cocks in their arms and stroking them with force, encouraging and setting them on. Bats ran high and, like most other contests, it remained for some time undecided. Both cocks showed great pluck and fought probably better and longer than their masters would have done. Whether in the end it was the white or the red that beat, I do not recollect. But whichever it was, he strutted off with the true pretty Ricci look, leaving the other lying panting on his beam ends. This matter having been settled, we heard some talk about caballos and carrera and seeing the people stream it off in one direction, we followed and came upon a level piece of ground just out of the town which was used as a race course. Here the crowd soon became thick again, the ground was marked off, the judges stationed the horses led up to one end. Two fine looking old gentlemen, Don Carlos and Don Domingo, so called, held the stakes and all was now ready. We waited some time during which we could just see the horses twisting round and turning until at length there was a shout along the lines and on they came, head stretched out and eyes starting, working all over both man and beast. The steeds came by us like a couple of chain shot, neck and neck, and now we could see nothing but their backs and their hind hoofs flying in the air. As fast as the horses passed the crowd broke up behind them and ran to the goal. When we got there we found the horses returning on a slow walk, having run far beyond the mark and heard that the long, bony one had come in head and shoulders The riders were light built men and had handkerchiefs tied round their heads and were bare armed and bare-legged. The horses were noble looking beasts, not so sleek and combed as our Boston stable horses but with fine limbs and spirited eyes. After this had been settled and fully talked over the crowd scattered again and flocked back to the town. Returning to the large Pupeira we heard the violin and guitar screaming and twanging away under the piazza where they had been all day. As it was now sundown there began to be some dancing. The Italian sailors danced and one of our crew exhibited himself in a sort of West Indian shuffle much to the amusement of the bystanders who cried out Bravo! Otra vez! And viva los marineros! But the dancing did not become general as the women and the gentes de raison had not yet made their appearance. We wished very much to stay and see the style of dancing but although we had had our own way during the day yet we were, after all but form-assed jacks and having been ordered to be on the beach by sunset did not venture to be more than an hour behind the time we took our way down. We found the boat just pulling ashore through the breakers which were running high there having been a heavy fog outside which, from some cause or other, always brings on or precedes a heavy sea. Liberty men are privileged from the time they leave the vessel until they step on board again so we took our places in the stern sheets and were congratulating ourselves upon getting off dry when a great comer broke four and a half the boat and wet us through and through filling the boat half full of water. Having lost her buoyancy by the weight of the water she dropped heavily into every sea that struck her and by the time we had pulled out of the surf into deep water she was but just a float and we were up to our knees. By the help of a small bucket of our hats we bailed her out got on board wasted the boats, ate our supper changed our clothes gave, as is usual the whole history of our day's adventures to those who had stayed on board and, having taken a night smoke turned in. Thus ended our second day's liberty on shore. On Monday morning as the offset of our day sport we were all set to work tearing down the rigging some got ganttlands up for running down the stays and backstays and others tarred the shrouds lifts, etc. laying out on the yards and coming down the rigging. We overhauled our bags and took out our old tarry trousers and frocks which we had used when we tarred down before and were all at work in the rigging by sunrise. After breakfast we had the satisfaction of seeing the Italian ships boat go ashore, filled with men gaily dressed as on the day before and singing their baccarolles. The Easter holidays are kept up on shore for three days and, being a Catholic vessel her crew had the advantage of them. For two successive days well perched up in the rigging covered with tar and engaged in our disagreeable work we saw these fellows going ashore in the morning off again at night in high spirits so much for being Protestants there's no danger of Catholicism spreading in New England unless the church cuts down our holidays Yankees can't afford the time. American shipmasters get nearly three weeks more labor out of their crews in the course of a year than the masters of vessels from Catholic countries. As Yankees don't usually keep Christmas and shipmasters at sea never know when Thanksgiving comes Jack has no festival at all. About noon a man aloft called out and looking off we saw the head cells of a vessel coming round the point. As she drew round she showed the broad side of a full rigged brig with the Yankee ensign at her peak. We ran off our stars and stripes and knowing that there is no American brig on the coast but ours expected to have news from home. She mounted to and let go her anchor but the dark faces on her yards when they furled the sails and the babble on deck soon made known that she was from the islands. Immediately afterwards a boat's crew came aboard bringing her skipper and from them we learned that she was from Wahoo and was engaged in the same trade with the Ayokucho and Loryat between the coast, the Sandwich Islands and the lured coast of Peru and Chile. Her captain and officers were Americans and also a part of her crew. The rest were islanders. She was called to Catalina and like the vessels in that trade except the Ayokucho her papers and colors were from Uncle Sam. They of course brought us no news and we were doubly disappointed for we had thought at first it might be the ship which we were expecting from Boston. After lying here about a fortnight and collecting all the hides the place afforded we set sail again for San Pedro. There we found the brig which we had assisted in getting off lying and anchor with a mixed crew of Americans, English Sandwich Islanders, Spaniards and Spanish Indians and though much smaller than we yet she had three times the number of men and she needed them for her officers were Californians. No vessels in the world go so sparingly manned as American and English and none do so well. A Yankee brig of that size would have had a crew of four men and would have worked round and round her. The Italian ship had a crew of 30 men nearly three times as many as the alert which was afterwards on the coast and was of the same size yet the alert would get underway and come too in half the time and get two anchors while they were all talking at once jabbering like a parcel of yahoos and running about the decks to find their cat block. There was only one point in which they had the advantage over us and that was enlightening their labors in the boats by their songs. The Americans are a time and money saving people but have not yet as a nation learned that music maybe turned to account. We pulled the long distances to and from the shore with our loaded boats without a word spoken and with discontent of looks while they not only lightened the labor of rowing but actually made it pleasant and cheerful by their music so true is it that for the tired slave song lifts the languid oar and bids it aptly fall with chime that beautifies the fairest shore and mitigates the harshest climb. End of Chapter 18 Part 1 Chapter 18 Part 2 of Two Years Before the Mast This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr. Chapter 18 Part 2 Easter Sunday After lying about a week in San Pedro we got underway for San Diego intending to stop at San Juan as the south-easter season was nearly over and there was little or no danger. This being the spring season San Pedro as well as all the other open ports upon the coast was filled with whales that had come in to make their annual visit upon soundings. For the first few days that we were here and at Santa Barbara we watched them with great interest culling out darsher blows every time we saw the spout of one breaking the surface of the water but they soon became so common that we took little notice of them. They often broke very near us and one thick foggy night during a dead calm while I was standing inker watch one of them rose so near that he struck our cable and made all surge again. He did not seem to like the encounter much himself for he sheared off and spouted at a good distance. We once came very near running one down in the gig and should probably have been knocked to pieces or thrown sky high. We had been on board the little Spanish break and were returning stretching out well at our oars the little boat going like a swallow our faces returned aft as is always the case in pulling and the captain who was steering was not looking out when all at once we heard the spout of a well directly ahead. Backwater! Backwater for your lives! shouted the captain we backed our blades in the water and brought the boat to in a smother of foam turning our heads we saw a great rough humpbacked well slowly crossing our forefoot within three or four yards of the boat's stem had we not backed water just as we did we should inevitably have gone smash upon him striking him with our stem just about amid ships he took no notice of us but passed slowly on and dived a few yards beyond us throwing his tail high in the air he was so near that we had a perfect view of him and as may be supposed had no desire to see him nearer he was a disgusting creature with a skin rough hairy and of an iron gray color this kind differs much from the sperm in color and skin and is said to be fiercer we saw a few sperm wells but most of the wells that came upon the coast are finbacks and humpbacks which are more difficult to take and are said not to give oil enough to pay for the trouble for this reason well ships do not come upon the coast after them our captain, together with captain Knye of the Loriat who had been in a well ship thought of making an attempt to come upon one of them with two boat screws but as we only had two harpoons and no proper lines they give it up during the months of March, April and May these wells appear in great numbers in the open ports of Santa Barbara San Pedro, etc and hover off the coast while a few find their way into the close harbors of San Diego and Monterey they are all off again before mid summer and make their appearance on the offshore ground we saw some fine schools of sperm wells which are easily distinguished by their spout blowing away a few miles to Wendard on our passage to San Juan coasting along on the quiet shore of the Pacific we came to anchor in 20 fathoms water almost out at sea as it were and directly abreast of a steep hill which overhung the water and was twice as high as our Royal Masthead we had heard much of this place from the Legodas crew who said it was the worst place in California the shore is rocky and directly exposed to the southeast so the vessels are obliged to slip and run for their lives on the first sign of a gale and latest it was in the season we got up our slip roping gear as though we meant to stay only 24 hours we pulled the agent ashore and were ordered to wait for him while he took a circuitous way round the hill to the mission which was hidden behind it we were glad of the opportunity to examine this singular place and hauling the boat up and making her well fast took different directions up and down the beach to explore it San Juan is the only romantic spot on the coast the country here for several miles running boldly to the shore and breaking off in a steep cliff at the foot of which the waters of the Pacific are constantly dashing for several miles the water washes the very base of the hill or breaks upon ledges and fragments of rocks which run out into the sea just where we landed was a small cove or bite which gave us at high tide a few square feet of sand beach at the bottom of the hill this was the only landing place directly before us rose the perpendicular height of 4 of 500 feet how we were to get the hides down or goods up upon the table land on which the mission was situated was more than we could tell the agent had taken a long circuit and yet had frequently to jump over breaks and climb steep places in the event no animal but a man or a monkey could get up it however that was not our look out and knowing that the agent would be gone an hour or more we strolled about picking up shells and following the sea where it tumbled in roaring and spouting among the crevices of the great rocks what a sight thought I this must be in a southeaster point or newport but to my eye more grand and broken besides there was a grandeur and everything around which gave us limnity to the scene a silence and a solitariness which affected every part not a human being but ourselves for miles and no sound heard but the pulsations of the great pacific and the great steep hill seemed like a wall and cutting us off from all the world but the world of waters I separated myself from the rest and sat down on a rock just where the sea ran in and formed a fine spouting horn compared with the plain dull sand beach of the rest of the coast this grandeur was as refreshing as a great rock in a reary land it was almost the first time that I had been positively alone free from the sense that human beings were at my elbow if not talking with me since I had left home my better nature returned strong upon me everything was in accordance with my state of feeling and I experienced a glow of pleasure at finding that what of poetry and romance I ever had in me had not been entirely deadened by the laborious life with its poultry, vulgar associations which I had been leading nearly an hour did I sit almost lost in the luxury of this entirely new scene of the play in which I had been so long acting when I was aroused by the distant shots of my companions and saw that they were collecting together as the agent had made his appearance on the way back to our boat we pulled aboard and found the long boat hoisted out and nearly laden with goods and after dinner we all went on shore in the quarter boat with a long boat in tow as we drew in we described an ox cart and a couple of men standing directly on the brow of the hill and having landed the caption took his way around the hill ordering me and one other to follow him we followed picking our way out and jumping and scrambling up walking over briars and prickly pears until we came to the top here the country stretched out for miles as far as the eye could reach on a leveled table surface and the only habitation in sight was the small white mission of San Juan Capistrano with a few Indian huts about it standing in the small hollow about a mile from where we were reaching the brow of the hill where the car stood we found several piles of hides the Indians sitting round them one or two other carts were coming slowly on from the mission and the captain told us to begin and throw the hides down this then was the way they were to be got down throwing down one at a time a distance of 400 feet this was doing the business on a great scale standing on the edge of the hill and looking down the perpendicular height the sailors that walked upon the beach appeared like mice and our tall anchoring bark diminished to her cock her cock a buoy almost too small for sight down this height we pitched the hides throwing them as far out into the air as we could and as they were all large stiff and doubled like the cover of a book the wind took them and they swayed and eddyed about plunging and rising in the air like a kite when it has broken its string as it was now low tide there was no danger of their falling into the water and as fast as they came to ground the men below picked them up and taking them on their heads walked off with them to the boat it was really a picturesque sight the great height the scaling of the hides and the continual walking to and fro of the men who looked like mites on the beach this was the romance of hide-drowing some of the hides lodged in cavities under the bank and out of our sight being directly under us but by pitching other hides in the same direction we succeeded in dislodging them had they remained there the captain said he should have sent on board for a couple of pairs of long halyards and got someone to go down for them it was said that one of the crew of an English brig went down in the same way a few years before we looked over and thought it would not be a welcome task especially for a few paltry hides but no one knows what he will do until he is called upon four, six months afterwards I descended the same place by a pair of top-gallant studying soul halyards to save half a dozen hides which had lodged there having thrown them all over we took our way back again and found the boat loaded and ready to start we pulled off took the hides all aboard hoisted in the boats hove up our anchor made sail and before a sundown were on our way to San Diego Friday May 18th 1835 arrived at San Diego we found the little harbor deserted the Lugota, Ayacucho, Lorient all had sailed away from the coast and we were left alone all the hide houses on the beach but ours were shut up and the sandwich islanders a dozen or twenty a number who had worked for the other vessels had been paid off when they sailed were living on the beach keeping up a grand carnival there was a large oven on the beach which it seems had been built by a Russian discovery ship that had been on the coast a few years ago for baking her bread this the sandwich islanders took possession of and had kept ever since undisturbed it was big enough to hold eight or ten men and had a door on the side and a vent hole on the top they covered the floor with wahoo mats for a carpet stopped up the vent hole in bad weather and made it their headquarters it was now inhabited by as many as a dozen or twenty men crowded together who lived there in complete idleness drinking, playing cards and carousing in every way they bought a bullock once a week which kept them in meat and one of them went up to the town every day to get fruit liquor and provisions besides this they had bought a cask of ship bread and a barrel of flour from the Lugota before she had sailed there they lived having a grand time caring for nobody captain Thompson wished to get three or four of them to come on board the pilgrim as we were so much diminished in numbers and went up to the oven and spent an hour or two trying to negotiate with them one of them a finally built, active, strong and intelligent fellow who was a sort of king among them acted as spokesmen he was called Manini or rather out of compliment to his known importance and influence Mr. Manini and was known all over California through him the captain offered them fifteen dollars a month and one month's pay in advance but it was like throwing pearls before swine or rather carrying coals to Newcastle so long as they had money they would not work for fifty dollars a month and when their money was gone they would work for ten what do you do here Mr. Manini said the captain oh we play cards get drunk smoke do anything with a mind too don't you want to come board and work Aloii Aloii Maki Maki Makui Ika Hanning now got plenty money no good work Mamuli Manipa'u Ah, very good work! Maika'i, hanna hanna nu'i." "'You'll spend all your money in this way,' said the captain. "'I, me, know that. Bye and bye! Money, pa'u, all gone. Then Kanaka worked plenty.'" This was a hopeless case, and the captain left them to wait patiently until their money was gone. The vows in the Sandwich Island language have the sound of those in the languages of continental Europe. End note. We discharged our hides in Tallow, and in about a week were ready to set sail again for the wintered. We enmoored and got everything ready, when the captain made another attempt upon the oven. This time he had more regard to the Molia Tempara Fandi, and succeeded very well. He went over Mr. Manini to his interest, and as the shot was getting low in the locker at the oven, prevailed upon him and three others to come on board with their chests and baggage, and sent a hasty summons to me and the boy to come ashore with our things, and join the gang at the hide-house. This was unexpected to me, but anything in the way of the variety I liked, so we made ready, and were pulled ashore. I stood on the beach while the brig got under way, and watched her until she rounded the point, and then went to the hide-house to take up my quarters for a few months. CHAPTER XIX Here was a change in my life as complete as it had been sudden. In the twinkling of an eye I was transformed from a sailor into a beachcomber or a hide-cuer, yet the novelty of the comparative independence of the life were not unpleasant. Our hide-house was a large building made of rough boards and intended to hold forty thousand hides. In one corner of it a small room was parted off, in which four berths were made, where we were to live, with mother earth for our floor. It contained a table, a small locker for pots, spoons, plates, etc., and a small hole cut to let in the light. Here we put our chests, threw our bedding into the berths, and took up our quarters. Over our heads was another small room, in which Mr. Russell lived, who had charge of the hide-house, the same man who was, for a time, an officer of the pilgrim. There he lived in solitary grandeur, eating and sleeping alone, and these were his principal occupations, and communing with his own dignity. The boy, a marble-head hopeful, whose name was Sam, was to act as cook, while I, a giant of Frenchmen named Nicholas, and four sandwich islanders were to cure the hides. Sam, Nicholas, and I lived together in the room, and the four sandwich islanders worked and ate with us, but it generally slept at the oven. My name s mate, Nicholas, was the most immense man that I had ever seen. He came on the coast in a vessel which was afterwards wrecked, and now let himself out to the different houses to cure hides. He was considerably over six feet, and of a frame so large that he might have been shown for curiosity. But the most remarkable thing about him was his feet. They were so large that he could not find a pair of shoes in California to fit him, and was obliged to send to Oahu for a pair, and when he got them, he was compelled to wear them down at the heel. He told me once that he was wrecked in an American brig on the Goodwin Sands, and was sent up to London, to the charge of the American consul, with scant clothing to his back and no shoes to his feet, and was obliged to go about London streets in his stocking feet three or four days in the month of January, until the consul could have a pair of shoes made for him.  Strong as an ox, and ignorant as strong. He knew neither how to read nor write. He had been to sea from a boy, had seen all kinds of service, and had been in all sorts of vessels. Merchantmen, men of war, privateers, and slavers. And from what I could gather from his accounts of himself, and from what he once told me in confidence, after would become better acquainted, he had been an even worse business than slave trading. He was once tried for his life in Charleston, South Carolina, and, though acquitted, was so frightened that he would never show himself in the United States again. I was not able to persuade him that he could not be tried a second time for the same offense. He said that he had got safe off in the breakers, and was too good a sailor to risk his timbers again. Though I knew what his life had been, yet I never had the slightest fear of him. We always got along very well together, and though so much older, stronger, and larger than I, he showed a marked respect for me, on account of my education, and of what he had heard of my situation before coming to sea, such as might be expected from a European of the humble class. I will be good friends with you, he used to say. For by and by you'll come out here a captain, and then you'll haze me well. By holding together we kept the officer in good order, for he was evidently afraid of Nicholas, and never interfered with us except when employed upon the hides. My other companions, the Sandwich Islanders, deserve particular notice. A considerable trade has been carried on for several years between California and the Sandwich Islands, and most of the vessels are manned with Islanders, who, as they for the most part sign no articles, leave whenever they choose, and let themselves out to cure hides at San Diego, and to supply the places of the men left to shore from the American vessels while on the coast. In this way, a little colony of them had become settled at San Diego as their headquarters. Some of these had recently gone off in the Ayacucho and the Laureat, and the pilgrim had taken Mr. Manini and three others, so that there were not more than twenty left. Of these, four were on pay at the Ayacucho's house, four more working with us, and the rest were living at the oven in a quiet way, for their money was nearly gone, and they must make it last until some other vessel came down to employ them. During the four months that I lived here, I got well acquainted with all of them, and took the greatest pains to become familiar with their language, habits, and characters. Their language I could only learn orally, for they had not any books among them, though many of them had been taught to read and write by the missionaries at home. They spoke a little English, and by a sort of compromise, a mixed language was used on the beach, which could be understood by all. The long name of Sandwich Islanders is dropped, and they are called by the Whites, all over the Pacific Ocean. Kanakas, from a word in their own language, signifying, I believe, man, human being, which they applied to themselves, and to all South Sea Islanders, in distinction from the Whites, whom they call Haoli. This name, Kanaka, they answer to both collectively and individually. Their proper names in their own language, being difficult to pronounce or remember, they are called by any names which the captain or crews may choose to give them. Some are called after the vessels they are in, others by our proper names, as Jack, Tom, Bill, and some have fancy names as Banyan, Fortop, Rope, Yarn, Pelican, et cetera, et cetera. Of the four who worked in our house, one was named Mr. Bingham, after the missionary at Wahoo, another hope after a vessel he had been in, a third Tom Davis, the name of his first captain, and the fourth Pelican, from his fancied resemblance to that bird. Then there were Legoda Jack, California Bill, et cetera, et cetera. But by whatever names they might be called, they were the most interesting, intelligent, and kind-hearted people that I ever felt in with. I felt a positive attachment for all of them, and many of them I have to this day of filling for, which would lead me to go a great way for the pleasure of seeing them, and which will always make me feel a strong interest in the mere name of a Sandwich Islander. Tom Davis knew how to read, write, and cipher in common arithmetic. He had been to the United States and spoke English quite well. His education was as good as that of three quarters of the Yankees in California, in his manners and principles a good deal better. And he was so quick of apprehension that he might have been taught navigation and the elements of many of the sciences with ease. Old Mr. Bingham spoke very little English. Almost none, and could neither read nor write. But he was the best-hearted old fellow in the world. He must have been over fifty years of age. He had two of his front teeth knocked out, which was done by his parents as a sign of grief at the death of Kamehameha, the great king of the Sandwich Islands. We used to tell him that he ate Captain Cook, and lost his teeth that way. That was the only thing that ever made him angry. He would always be quite excited at that and say, Aloe. No. None of them liked of anything said about Captain Cook, for the sailors all believed that he was eaten. And that they cannot endure to be taunted with. Mr. Bingham was a sort of patriarch among them, and was treated with great respect, though he had not the education and energy which gave Mr. Manini his power over them. I have spent hours in talking with this old fellow about Kamehameha, the Charlemagne of the Sandwich Islands, his son and successor, Rio Rio, who died in England and was brought to Oahu in the frigate blonde, Captain Lord Byron, and whose funeral he remembered perfectly, and also about the customs of his boyhood and the changes which had been made by the missionaries. He never would allow that human beings had been eaten there, and indeed it always seemed an insult to tell so affectionate, intelligent, and civilized a class of men that such barbarities had been practiced in their own country within the recollection of many of them. Certainly the history of no people in the globe can show anything like so rapid an advance from barbarism. I would have trusted my life, and all I had in the hands of any one of these people. And certainly, had I wished for a favor or act of sacrifice, I would have gone to them all, in turn, before I should have applied to one of my own countrymen on the coast, and should have expected to see it done before my own countrymen had got half through counting the cost. Their customs and the manner of treating one another show a simple, primitive generosity, which is truly delightful, and which is often of approach to our own people. Whatever one has they all have, money, food, clothes, they share with one another, even to the last piece of tobacco to put in their pipes. I once heard old Mr. Bingham say, with the highest indignation to a Yankee trainer, who is trying to persuade him to keep his money to himself. No, we know Ali's name by you. Suppose one got money, all got money. You suppose one got money? Lock him up on a chest. No good. Kanaka Ali's name by one. This principle they carry so far that none of them will eat anything in the sight of others without offering it all round. I have seen one of them break a biscuit, which had been given to him into five parts at a time when I knew he was on a very short allowance, as there was but little to eat on the beach. My favorite among all of them, and one who was liked by both officers and men, and by whomever he had anything to do with, was Hope. He was an intelligent, kind-hearted little fellow, and I never saw him angry, though I knew him for more than a year, and have seen him imposed upon by white people and abused by insolent mates of vessels. He was always civil, and always ready, and never forgot a benefit. I once took care of him when he was ill, getting medicines from the ship's chest, when no captain or officer would do anything for him, and he never forgot it. Every Kanaka has one particular friend, whom he considers himself bound to do everything for, and with whom he has a sort of contract, an alliance offensive and defensive, and for whom he will often make the greatest sacrifices. This friend they call Aikani, and for such did Hope adopt me. I do not believe I could have wanted anything which he had that he would not have given me. In return for this I was his friend among the Americans, and used to teach him letters and numbers, for he left home before he had learned how to read. He was very curious, respected Boston, as they called the United States, asking many questions about the houses, the people, etc., and always wished to have the pictures and books explained to him. They were all astonishingly quick in catching at explanations, and many things which I had thought it utterly impossible to make them understand. They often seized in an instant, and asked questions which showed that they knew enough to make them wish to go farther. The pictures of steamboats and railroad cars in the columns of some newspapers, which I had, gave me great difficulty to explain. The grading of the roads, the rails, the construction of the carriages, they could easily understand, but the motion produced by steam was a little too refined for them. I attempted to show it to them once by an experiment upon the cook's coppers, but failed, probably as much from my own ignorances from their want of apprehension, and I have no doubt left them with about as clear an idea of the principle as I had myself. This difficulty, of course, existed in the same force with respect to the steamboats, and all I could do was to give them some account of the results and the shape of speed. Before, felling in the reason, I had to fall back upon the fact. In my account of the speed I was supported by Tom, who had been to Nantucket and seen a little steamboat, which ran over to New Bedford. And, by the way, it was strange to hear Tom speak of America when the poor fellow had been all the way round Cape Horn and back, and had seen nothing but Nantucket. A map of the world which I once showed them kept their attention for hours. Those who knew how to read pointing out the places and referring to me for distances. I remember it being much amused with a question which Hope asked me, pointing to the large irregular place, which is always left blank around the poles, to denote that it is undiscovered. He looked up and asked, Pau, done, ended? The system of naming the streets and numbering the houses they easily understood, and the utility of it. They had a great desire to see America, but were afraid of doubling the Cape Horn. For they suffered much in cold weather, and had heard dreadful accounts of the Cape from those of their number who had been rounded. They smoke a great deal, though not much at a time, using pipes with large bowls and very short stems, or no stems at all. These, they light and, putting them to their mouths, take a long draft, getting their mouths as full as they can hold of smoke, and their cheeks distended, and then let it slowly out through their mouths and nostrils. The pipe is then passed to others who draw in the same manner, one pipe full serving for half a dozen. They never take short continuous drafts, like Europeans, but one of these Oahu puffs, as the sailors call them, serves for an hour or two until someone else lights his pipe and it is passed round in the same manner. Each Kanaka on the beach had a pipe, flint, still, tinder, a hand of tobacco, and a jackknife, which he always carried about with him. Matches had not come into use then. I think that there were none on board any vessels on the coast. We use the tinder box in our folksal. That which strikes a stranger most peculiarly is their style of singing. They run on in a low guttural, monotonous sort of chant, their lips and tongues seeming hardly to move, and the sounds apparently modulated solely in the throat. There is very little tune to it, and the words so far as I could learn are extemporary. They sing about persons and things which are around them, and adopt this method when they do not wish to be understood by any but themselves, and it is very effectual, for with the most careful attention I never could detect a word that I knew. I have often heard Mr. Manini, who was the most noted improvisatory among them, sing for an hour together when at work in the midst of Americans and Englishmen, and by the occasional shouts of laughter the Kanakas, who were at a distance, it was evident that he was singing about the different men that he was at work with. They have great powers of ridicule and are excellent mimics, many of them discovering and imitating the peculiarities of our own people before we had observed them ourselves. These were the people with whom I was to spend a few months, and who, with the exception of the officer Nicholas the Frenchman and the boy, made the whole population of the beach. I ought perhaps to accept the dogs, for they were an important part of our settlement. Some of the first vessels brought dogs out with them, who, for convenience, were left ashore, and they were multiplied until they came to be a great people. While I was on the beach the average number was about forty, and probably an equal or greater number are drowned or killed in some other way every year. They are very useful in guarding the beach, the Indians being afraid to come down at night, for it was impossible for anyone to get within half a mile the hide houses without a general alarm. The father of the colony, old Sachem, so called from the ship in which he was brought out, died while I was there, full of years, and was honorably buried. Hogs and a few chickens were the rest of the animal tribe, and formed, like the dogs, a common company, though they were all known and usually fed at the houses to which they belonged. I had been but a few hours on the beach, and the pilgrim was hardly out of sight when the cry of, sale, ho! was raised, and a small hermaphrodite brig rounded the point, bore up into the harbor, and came to anchor. It was the Mexican brig Fejio, which we had left at San Pedro, and which had come down to land her tallow, try it all over, and make new bags, and then take it in and leave the coast. They moored ship, erected their tri works on shore, and put up a small tent, in which they all lived and commenced operations. This change in addition gave a variety to our society, and we spent many evenings in their tent, where, amid the battle of English, Spanish, French, Indian, and Kanaka, we found some words that we could understand in common. End of Chapter 19, Part 1, Chapter 19, Part 2. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 19, Part 2, of Two Years Before the Mast. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Chapter 19, Part 2. Sandwich Islanders. The morning after my landing, I begin the duties of hide curing. In order to understand these, it will be necessary to give the whole history of a hide, from the time it is taken from a bullock until it is put on board the vessel to be carried to Boston. When the hide is taken from the bullock, holes are cut rounded near the edge, by which it is staked out to dry. In this manner, it dries without shrinking. After the hides are thus dried in the sun and doubled with the skin out, they are received by the vessels at the different ports on the coast and brought down to the depot at San Diego. The vessels land them and leave them in large piles near the houses. Then begins the hide curers duty. The first thing is to put them in soak. This is done by carrying them down at low tide, making them fast and small piles by ropes and letting the tide come up and cover them. Every day we put in soak twenty-five for each man, which, with us, made a hundred and fifty. There they lie forty-eight hours when they are taken out and rolled up in wheelbarrows and thrown into the vats. These vats contain brine, made very strong, being saltwater, with great quantities of salt thrown in. This pickles the hides, and in this they lie forty-eight hours. The use of seawater into which they are first put, being merely to soften and clean them. From these vats they are taken and lie on a platform for twenty-four hours, and then are spread upon the ground, and carefully stretched and staked out, with the skin up that they may dry smooth. After they had been staked, and while yet wet and soft, we used to go upon them with our knives and carefully cut out all the bad parts. The pieces of meat and fat which would corrupt in effect the whole if stowed away in vessels for many months, the large flippers, the ears, and all other parts which would prevent close stowage. This was the most difficult part of our duty, as it required much skill to take off everything that ought to come off, and not to cut or injure the hide. It was also a long process, as six of us had to clean a hundred and fifty, most of which required a great deal to be done to them, as the Spaniards are very careless in skinning their cattle. Then, too, as we cleaned them while they were staked out, we were obliged to kneel down upon them, which always gives beginners the backache. The first day I was so slow and awkward that I only cleaned eight. At the end of a few days, I doubled my number, and in a fortnight or three weeks, I could keep up with the others and clean my twenty-five. This cleaning must be got through with before noon, for by that time the hides get too dry. After the sun has been upon them for a few hours, they are carefully gone over with scrapers to get off all the grease which the sun brings out. This being done, the stakes are pulled up, and the hides carefully doubled, with the hair side out and left to dry. About the middle of the afternoon they are turned over, for the other side to dry, and at sundown, piled up and covered over. The next day, they are spread out and opened again, and at night, if fully dry, are thrown upon a long, horizontal pole, five at a time, and beaten with flails. This takes all the dust from them. Then, having been salted, scraped, cleaned, dried, and beaten, they are stowed away in the house. Here ends their history, except they are taken out again when the vessel is ready to go home. Beaten, stowed away on board, carried to Boston, tanned, made into shoes and other articles for which leather is used, and many of them, very probably in the end, are brought back again to California in the shape of shoes, and worn out in pursuit of other bullocks, or in the curing of other hides. By putting a hundred and fifty in soak every day, we had the same number at each stage of curing on each day, so that we had, every day, the same work to do upon the same number. A hundred and fifty to put in soak, a hundred and fifty to wash out and put in the vat, the same number to haul from the vat and put on the platform to drain, the same number to spread and stake out and clean, the same number to beat and stow away in the house. I ought to accept Sunday, for, by a prescription which no captain or agent has yet ventured to break in upon, Sunday has been a day of leisure on the beach for years. On Saturday night the hides, in every stage of process, are carefully covered up and not uncovered until Monday morning. On Sundays we had absolutely no work to do, unless it might be to kill a bullock, which was sent down for our youth about once a week, and sometimes came on Sunday. Another advantage of hide curing life was that we had just so much work to do, and when that was through the time was our own. Knowing this we worked hard and needed no driving. We turned out every morning with the first signs of daylight, and allowing a short time at about eight o'clock for breakfast, generally got through our labor between one and two o'clock, when we dined and had the rest of the time to ourselves, until just before sundown when we beat the dry hides and put them in the house, and covered over all the others. By this means we had about three hours to ourselves every afternoon, and at sundown we had our supper, and our work was done for the day. There was no watch to stand, and no topsoil to reef. The evenings we generally spent at one of those houses, and I often went up and spent an hour or so in the oven, which was called the Kanaka Hotel, and the Wahoo Coffee House. Immediately after dinner we usually took a short siesta to make up for our early rising, and spent the rest of the afternoon according to our own fancies. I generally read, wrote, and made amended clothes. For necessity the mother of invention had taught me these two latter arts. The Kanakos went up to the oven, and spent the time in sleeping, talking, and smoking, and my messmate Nicholas, who neither knew how to read nor write, passed away the time by a long siesta, two or three smokes with his pipe, and a paseo to the other houses. This leisure time is never interfered with, for the captains know that the men earn it by working hard and fast, and that, if they interfered with it, the men could easily make their twenty-five hides apiece last of the day. We were pretty independent, too, for the master of the house, Captain de la Casa, had nothing to say to us except when we are at work on the hides. And although we could not go up to town without his permission, this was seldom or never refused. The great weight of the wet hides, which we are obliged to rule about in wool-bearers, the continual stooping upon those which were pegged out to be cleaned, and the smell of the nasty vats into which we were often obliged to wade, knee deep, to press down the hides, all made the work disagreeable and fatiguing. But we soon became hardened to it, and the comparative independence of our life reconciled us to it, for there is nobody to haze us and find fault. And when we were through for the day, we had only to wash and change our clothes, and our time was our own. There was, however, one exception to the time being our own, which was that on two afternoons of every week we were obliged to go off for wood, for the cook to use in the galley. Wood is very scarce in the vicinity of San Diego, there being no trees of any size for miles. In the town the inhabitants burn the small wood which grows in thickets, and for which they send out Indians in large numbers every few days.  With us the getting of wood was a great trouble, for all that in the vicinity of the houses had been cut down, and we were obliged to go off a mile or two and to carry it some distance on our backs, as we could not get the handcart of the hills and over the uneven places. Two afternoons in the week, generally Monday and Thursday, as soon as we were through dinner, we started off for the bush. Each of us furnished with a hatchet and a long piece of rope, and dragging the handcart behind us, and followed by the whole colony of dogs, which were always ready for the bush, and were half mad whenever they saw our preparations. We went with the handcart as far as we could conveniently drag it, and leaving it in an open, conspicuous place, separated ourselves, each taking his own course, and looking about for some place, and looking about for some good place to begin upon. Frequently we had to go nearly a mile from the handcart before we could find any fit place. Having lighted upon a good thicket, the next thing was to clear away the underbrush, and have fair play at the trees. These trees are seldom more than five or six feet high, and the highest I ever saw in these expeditions could not have been more than twelve. So that, with lopping off the branches and clearing away the underwood, we had a good deal of cutting to do for a very little wood. Having cut enough for a back load, the next thing was to make it well fast with the rope, and heaving the bundle upon our backs, and taking the hatchet in hand, to walk off, uphill, and down-dale to the handcart. Two good back loads of piece filled the handcart, and that was each one's proportion. When each had brought down his second load, we filled the handcart, and took our way again slowly back to the beach. It was generally a sundown when we got back, and unloading, covering the hides from the night, and getting our supper finished the day's work. These wooding excursions had always a mixture of something rather pleasant in them. Roaming about the woods with a hatchet in hand like a back woodsman, followed by a troop of dogs, starting up birds, snakes, hares, and foxes, and examining the various kinds of trees, flowers, and bird's nest, was, at least, a change from the monotonous dragon pole on Shipport. Frequently, too, we had some amusement and adventure, the coyotes, of which I have before spoken, a sort of mixture of the fox and wolf breeds, fierce little animals, with bushy tails and large heads, and a quick, sharp bark, around here as in all other parts of California. These the dogs were very watchful for, and whenever they saw them, started off in full run after them. We had many fine chases, yet, although our dogs ran finally. The rascals generally escaped. They are a match for the dog, one to one, but as the dogs generally went in squads, there was seldom a fair fight. A smaller dog, belonging to us, once attacked a coyote singly, and was considerably worsted, and might perhaps have been killed had we not come to his assistance. We had, however, one dog which gave them a good deal of trouble and many hard runs. He was a fine, tall fellow, and united strength and agility better than any dog that I have ever seen. He was born at the islands, his father being an English mastiff, and his mother a greyhound. He had the high head, long legs, narrow body, and springing gait of the latter, and the heavy jaw, thick jowls, and strong forequarters of the mastiff. When he was brought to San Diego, an English sailor said that he looked about the face like the Duke of Wellington, whom he had once seen at the tower, and in need there was something about him which resembled the portraits of the Duke. From this time he was christened welly, and became the favorite and bully of the beach. He always led the dogs by several yards in the chase, and had killed two coyotes at different times in single combats. We often had fine sport with these fellows.  A few minutes made up for an unfair start, and gave each dog his right place. Welly at the head seemed almost a skim over the bushes, and after him came Fanny, Feliciana, Childers, and the other fleet ones, the Spaniel's interiors, and then behind, followed by the heavy core, bulldogs, etc., for we had every breed. Pursuit by us was in vain, and in about half an hour the dogs would begin to come, panting and straggling back. Besides the coyotes, the dogs sometimes made prizes of rabbits and hares, which are plentiful here, and numbers of which we often shot for our dinners. Among the other animals, there was a reptile I was not so much disposed to find amusement from, the rattlesnake. These snakes are very abundant here, especially during the spring of the year. A lot of part of the time that I was on shore, I did not meet with so many. But for the first two months, we seldom went into the bush without one of our number, starting some of them. I remember perfectly well the first one that ever I saw. I had left my companions and was beginning to clear away a fine clump of trees, when, just in the midst of a thicket, but a few yards from me, one of these fellows set up his hiss. It is a sharp, continuous sound, and resembles very much the letting off of the steam from the small pipe of the steamboat, except that it is on a smaller scale. I knew, by the sound of an axe, that one of my companions was near, and called out to him, to let him know what I had fallen upon. He took it very lightly, and as he seemed inclined to laugh at me for being afraid, I determined to keep my place. I knew that so long as I could hear the rattle, I was safe, for these snakes never make a noise when they are in motion. Accordingly, I continued my work, and the noise which I made, with cutting and breaking the trees, kept him an alarm, so that I had the rattle to show me his whereabouts. Once or twice, the noise stopped for a short time, which gave me a little uneasiness, and retreating a few steps, I threw something into the bush, at which he would set his rattle a-going, and, finding that he had not moved from his place, I was easy again. In this way I continued up my work until I had cut a full load, never suffering him to be quiet for a moment. Having cut my load, I strapped it together, and got everything ready for starting. I felt that I could now call the others without the imputation of being afraid, and went in search of them. In a few minutes we were all collected, and begin an attack upon the bush. The big Frenchman, who was the one that I had called to at first, I found as little inclined to approach the snake as I had been. The dogs, too, seemed afraid of the rattle, and kept up a bark unit a safe distance. But the canakas showed no fear, and getting long sticks went into the bush, and keeping a bright look out stood within a few feet of him. One or two blows struck near him, and a few stones thrown startled him, and we lost his track, and had the pleasant consciousness that he might be directly under our feet. By throwing stones and chips in different directions, we made him spring his rattle again, and begin another attack. This time we drove him into clear ground, and saw him gliding off, with head and tail erect. When a stone, well aimed, knocked him over the bank, down into clevity of fifteen or twenty feet, and stretched him at his length. Having made sure of him by a few more stones, we went down, and one of the canakas cut off his rattle. These rattles vary in number, it is said, according to the age of the snake, though the Indians think they indicate the number of creatures they have killed. We always preserved them as trophies, and at the end of the summer had a considerable collection. None of our people were ever bitten by them, but one of our dogs died of a bite, and another was supposed to have been bitten, but recovered. We had no remedy for the bite, though it was said that the Indians of the country had, and the canakas professed to have a herb which would cure it, but it was fortunately never brought to the test. Hares and rabbits, as I said before, were abundant, and during the winter months the waters are covered with wild ducks and geese. Crows, too, abounded, and frequently alighted in great numbers upon our hides, picking up the pieces of dried meat and fat. Bears and wolves are numerous in the upper parts of the coast, and in the interior. And indeed, a man was killed by a bear within a few miles of San Pedro while we were there, but there were none in our immediate neighborhood. The only other animals were horses. Over a dozen of these were owned by men on the beach, and were allowed to run loose among the hills, with a long lasso attached to them, to pick up feed wherever they could find it. We were sure of seeing them once a day, for there was no water among the hills, and they were obliged to come down to the well, which had been dug upon the beach. These horses were bought at from two to six and eight dollars apiece, and were held very much as common property. We generally kept one of the fast horses, so that we could mount him and catch any of the others. Some of them were really fine animals, and gave us many good runs up to the Presidio, and over the country. After it had been a few weeks on shore, and had begun to feel broken into the regularity of our life, its monotony was interrupted by the arrival of two vessels from the Wunderd. We were sitting at dinner in our little room, when we heard the cry of, SALE HO! This we had learned did not always signify a vessel, but was raised whenever a woman was seen coming down from the town, or an ox cart, or anything unusual hoven sight upon the road, so we took no notice of it. But it soon became so loud and general from all parts of the beach, that we were led to go to the door. And there, sure enough, were two sails coming round the point, and leaning over from the strong northwest wind, which blows down the coast every afternoon. The headmost was a ship, and the other a brig. Everybody was alive on the beach, and all manner of conjectures were abroad. Some said it was the pilgrim, with the Boston ship which we were expecting, but we soon saw that the brig was not the pilgrim, and the ship, with their stump-top gallant mast and rusty sides, could not be a dandy Boston Indian man. As the journeyer we discovered the high poop, and top gallant forksle, and other marks of the Italian ship Rosa, and the brig proved to be the Catalina, which we saw at Santa Barbara just arrived from Valparaiso. They came to anchor, moored ship, and begin discharging hides in tallow. The Rosa had purchased the house occupied by the Lugota, and the Catalina took the other spare one between ours and the Ayacuchos, so that now each house was occupied in the beach for several days, was all animation. The Catalina had several canacas on board, who were immediately laid hold of by the others, and carried up to the oven, where they had a long powwow and a smoke. Two Frenchmen who belonged to the Rosa's crew came in every evening to see Nicholas, and from them we learned that the pilgrim was at San Pedro, and was the only vessel from the United States now on the coast. Several of the Italians slept on shore at their hidehouse, and there and at the tent in which the Fongio's crew lived we had some singing almost every evening. The Italians sang a variety of songs, barcarolas, provincial eras, etc., in several of which I recognized parts of our favorite operas and sentimental songs. They often joined in a song, taking the different parts which produced a fine effect. As many of them had good voices, and all sang with spirit. One young man, in particular, had a falsetto as clear as a clarinet. The greater part of the crews of the vessels came ashore every evening, and we passed the time going about from one house to another, and listening to all men of languages. The Spanish was the common ground upon which we all met, for everyone knew more or less of that. We had now, out of 40 or 50, representatives from almost every nation under the sun. Two Englishmen, three Yankees, two Scotsmen, two Welshmen, one Irishmen, three Frenchmen, two of whom were Normans, and a 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 Chile, and the island of Chiloé. One Negro, one mulatto, about 20 Italians from all parts of Italy, as many more sandwich islanders. One Tahitian, and one Canaca from the Marquises Island. The night before the vessels were ready to sell, all the Europeans united and had an entertainment at the Rosa's Highthouse. And we had songs of every nation and tongue. A German gave us, Ach mein lieber Augusten. The three Frenchmen roared through the Marseille Hymn. The English and Scotsmen gave us Ruel Botania, and Hualbe 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 manner. After these national tributes had been paid, the Austrians gave us a pretty little love song, and the Frenchmen sang a spirited theme, Centenya oprene garde vous, and then followed the melange which might have been expected. When I left them, the Aguardiente and the Aniseux were pretty well in their heads. They were all singing and talking at once, and their peculiar national oaths were getting as plenty as pronouns. The next day the two vessels got underway for the winderd, 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 California's house was an old Scotsman, Robert, who, like most of his countrymen, had some education, and, like many of them, was rather pragmatical and had a looted, crisley, solemn conceit of himself. He employed his time in taking care of his pigs, chickens, turkeys, dogs, etc., 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 chronometer, but as he kept very much by himself, was not a great addition to our society. He hardly spent ascent all the time he was on the beach, and the others said that he was no shipmate. He had been a petty officer on board the British frigate Dublin, Captain Lord James Townsend, and had great ideas of his own importance. The man in charge of the Rose's house, Schmidt, was an Austrian, but spoke, 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. 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 propriety and steadiness, and gave good advice to the youngsters and canakas, but seldom went up to town without coming down three sheets in the wind. One holiday, he and old Robert, the Scotsman from the Catalina, went up to the town and got so cozy 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 pretensions, and they never heard the last of it from the rest of the men. On the night of the entertainment at the Rose's house, I saw Old Schmidt—that was the Austrian's name—standing up by the hog shed, 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 of war jack, a thorough seaman, a hardy 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 Chilean and half a dozen Canacas, formed the addition to our company. In about six weeks from the time when the pilgrims sailed, we had all the hides which she left us cured and stowed away. And having cleared up the ground and emptied the vats, 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 determined 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 hatchets 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, although I liked staying in the woods and cutting very well, yet the backing the wood for so great a distance over an uneven country was, without exception, the hardest work I have ever done. I usually had to kneel down and contrive to heave the load, which was well strapped together upon my back, and then rise up and start off with it, up the hills and down the veils, sometimes through thickets, and 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 gotten through our provisions too, as well as our work, for our officer had been very wasteful 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.  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, with the sailors called, a blowout on sleep, not turning out in the morning till breakfast was ready. I employed several days in overhauling my chest, and mending up all my old clothes, until I put everything in order, patch upon patch, like a sand barge's main sole. 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 up most of the examples. That done, and there being no signs of the pilgrim, I made a dissent upon Old Schmidt, and borrowed and read all the books there were upon the beach. Such a dearth was there of these latter articles, that anything, even a little child's storybook, or the half of a shipping calendar, seemed a treasure. I actually read a jestbook through from beginning to end in one day, as I should a novel, and enjoyed it much. At last, when I thought there were no more to be had, I found at the bottom of Old Schmidt's chest, Mondeville, a romance, by Goodwin, in five volumes. This I had never read, but Goodwin's name was enough, and, after the wretched trash I had devoured, 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 and a desert land, from the sublime to the ridiculous, so with me. From Mondeville to hidecuring was but a step. Four, Wednesday, July 18th, brought us the big pilgrim from the Wynard. As she came in we found that she was a good deal altered in her appearance. Her short top-gallant masks were up, her bolans 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 up 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 high leather cap. These changes, of course, set the whole beach on the covive, 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 ingure 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, Falcon, 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 foxtail, I found the same old crew, and was really glad to see them again. Numerous inquiries passed as to the new ship, the latest news from Boston, et cetera, et cetera. Stimson had received letters from home, and nothing remarkable 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 all the hides so in California, real as high as a man's head, a crack ship, a regular dandy, et cetera, et cetera. 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 foxtail the evening before she sailed. They said her decks were as white as snow, wholly stoned every morning, like a man of oars. 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 on that ship, and not a bloody 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 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 mast, and unraving all the studding sailgear 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, flannel shirts, shoes, et cetera, and, what was still more valuable, a packet of 11 letters.  There came half a dozen newspapers, the last of which gave notice of Thanksgiving, and of the clearance of Ship Alert, Edward H. Falcon Master, for Kaleo, and California, by Bryant, Sturgis, and Co. Only those who have been on distant voyages, and after a long absence, receive 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, auction sales, and all. Nothing carries you so entirely to a place, and makes you feel so perfectly at home as a newspaper. The very name of Boston Daily Advertiser sounded hospitably 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, et cetera. Captain Falcon 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, titere tu patui recobons sub tagmeni fagi. Very apropos, fa'ai, and at the same time shows that you have studied Latin. However, it was kind of him, and an intention from a captain is a thing not to be slighted. Thompson's Majesty could not have bent to it in the sight of so many mates and men, but Falcon was a man of education, literary habits, and good social position, and held things in their right value. Saturday, July 11th, the pilgrim set sail for the winderd, and left us to go on in our old way. Having laid in such a supply of wood, in the days being now long and invariably pleasant, we had a good deal of time to ourselves. The deck 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 in 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 crawfish. For this purpose we procured a pair of grains, with a long staff like a harpoon, 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 torchbearer in the bow, a steersman in the stern, and one man on each side of 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 up everything so that one could almost have seen a pin among the grains of sand. The crawfish are an easy prey, 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 cod 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, in a few minutes heard a great shouting between two Kanakas who were fishing on the rock opposite us. Et cetera et cetera, and saw them pulling away on a stout line in Johnny's shark, floundering at the other end. The line soon broke, but the Kanakas would not let him off so easily and spring directly into the water after him. Now came the tug 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 Kanakas 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 towards deep water. But here again, before he was fairly off, the other Kanakas seized him by the tail and made a spring towards the beach, his companion at the same time, paying away upon him a stone and 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 tops of their voices. But the shark at last got off, carrying away a hook and line, and not a few severe bruises. We kept up a constant connection with the Presidio, and by the close of summer I had added much to my vocabulary, besides having made the acquaintance of nearly everybody in the place, and acquired some knowledge of the character and inhabitants of the people, as well as the institutions under which they live. California was discovered in 1534 by Zamanes, or in 1536 by Cortez. I cannot settle which, and was subsequently visited by many other adventurers, as well as commissioned voyagers of the Spanish Crown. It was found to be inhabited by numerous tribes of Indians, and to be in many parts extremely fertile, to which of course were added rumors of gold mines, pearl fisheries, etc. No sooner was the importance of the country known than the Jesuits obtained leave to establish themselves in it, to Christianize and enlighten the Indians. They established missions in various parts of the country, towards the close of the 17th century, and collected the natives about them, baptizing them into the church, and teaching them the arts of civilized life. To protect the Jesuits in their missions, and at the same time to support the power of the Crown over the civilized Indians, two forts were erected and garrisoned, one at San Diego and the other at Monterey. These were called Presidios, and divided the command of the whole country between them. Presidios have since been established at Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and other places, dividing the country into large districts, each with its Presidio, and governed by a commandant. The soldiers, for the most part, married civilized Indians, and thus in the vicinity of each Presidio, sprung up gradually, small towns. In the course of time, vessels began to come into the ports to trade with the missions, and receive hides in return, and thus begin the great trade of California. Nearly all the cattle in the country belonged to the missions, and they employed their Indians, who became in fact their serfs, intending their vast herds. In the year 1793, when Vancouver visited San Diego, the missions had obtained great wealth and power, and are accused of having depreciated the country with the sovereign, that they might be allowed to retain their possessions. On the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish Dominions, the missions passed into the hands of the Franciscans, though without any essential change in their management. Ever since the independence of Mexico, the missions had been going down, until at last a law was passed, stripping them of all their possessions, and confiding the priests to their spiritual duties, at the same time declaring all the Indians free and independent rancheros. The change in the condition of the Indians was, as may be supposed, only nominal. They are virtually serfs, as much as they ever were, but in the missions the change was complete. The priests have now no power, except in their religious character, and the great possessions of the missions are given over to be preyed upon by the harpies of the civil power, who are sent there in the capacity of administradores to settle up the concerns, and to usually end in a few years by making themselves fortunes and leaving their stewardship worse than they found them. The dynasty of the priest was much more acceptable to the people of the country, and indeed to everyone concerned with the country by traitor otherwise than that of the administradores. The priests were connected permanently to one mission, and felt the necessity of keeping up its credit. Accordingly the debts of the missions were regularly paid, and the people were, in the main, well treated, and attached to those who had spent their whole lives among them. But the administradores are strangers sent from Mexico, having no interest in the country, not identified in any way with their charge, and, for the most part, men of desperate fortunes, broken down politicians and soldiers, whose only object is to retrieve their condition in as short a time as possible. The change had been made but a few years before our arrival upon the coast, yet in that short time the trade was much diminished, credit impaired, and the venerable missions were going rapidly to decay. The external political arrangements remain the same. There are four or more presidios, having under their protection the various missions, and the pueblos, which are towns formed by the civil power, and containing no mission or presidio. The most northerly presidio is San Francisco, the next Monterey, the next Santa Barbara, including the mission of the same, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Buena Ventura, which is said to be the best mission in the whole country, having fertile soil and rich vineyards. The last, and most southerly, is San Diego, including the mission of the same, San Juan Capestrino, the Pueblo de los Angelos, the largest town in California, with the neighboring mission of San Gabriel. The priests and spiritual matters are subject to the archbishop of Mexico, and in temple matters to the governor general, who is the great civil and military head of the country. The government of the country is an arbitrary democracy, having no common law, and nothing that we should call a judiciary. Their only laws are made and unmade at the caprice of the legislature, and are as variable as the legislature itself. They pastor the form of sending representatives to the Congress at Mexico, but as it takes several months to go in return, and there is very little communication between the capital and the distant province, a member usually stays there as permanent member, knowing very well that there will be a revolutions at home before he can write and receive an answer, and if another member should be sent, he has only to challenge him, and decide the contested election in that way. Revolutions are matters of frequent occurrence in California. They are got up by men who are at the foot of the ladder and in desperate circumstances, just as a new political organization may be started by such men in our own country. The only object, of course, is the loaves and fishes. And instead of caucusing, paragraphing, libeling, feasting, promising, and lying, they take muskets and bayonets, and seizing upon the presidio and custom house, divide the spoils, and declare a new dynasty. As for justice, they know little law but will and fear. A Yankee who had been naturalized and become a Catholic, and had married in the country, was sitting in his house at the Pueblo de Los Angeles, with his wife and children, when a Mexican, with whom he had had a difficulty, entered the house and stabbed him to the heart before them all. The murderer was seized by some Yankees who had settled there and kept in confinement until a statement of the whole affair could be sent to the Governor-General. The Governor-General refused to do anything about it, and the countrymen of the murdered man, seeing no prospect of justice being administered, gave notice that, if nothing was done, they should try the man themselves. It chanced that, at this time, there was a company of some thirty or forty trappers and hunters from the western states, with their rifles, who had made their headquarters at the Pueblo, and these together with the Americans and Englishmen in the place, who were between twenty and thirty in number, took possession of the town, and, waiting a reasonable time, proceeded to try the man according to the forms in their own country. A judge and jury were appointed, and he was tried, convicted, sentenced to be shot, and carried out before the town blindfolded. The names of all the men were put into the hat, and each one pledging himself to perform his duty. Twelve names were drawn out, and the men took their stations with their rifles, and, firing at the word, laid him dead. He was recently buried, and the place restored quietly to the proper authorities. The General, with titles enough for Hidalgo, was at San Gabriel, and issued a proclamation as long as a four-top boleyn, threatening destruction to the rebels, but never stirred from his fort. For forty Kentucky hunters, with their rifles, and a dozen of Yankees and Englishmen, were a match for a whole regiment of hungry, drawing, lazy half-brades. This affair happened while we were at San Pedro, the port of the Pueblo, and we had the particulars from those who were on the spot. A few months afterwards, another man was murdered on the high road between the Pueblo and the San Luis Ray, by his own wife, and a man with whom she ran off. The foreigners pursued and shot them both, according to one story. According to another version, nothing was done about it, as the parties were natives, and a man whom my frequently saw in San Diego was pointing out as the murderer. Perhaps there were two cases that had got mixed. When a crime has been committed by Indians, justice, or rather vengeance, is not so tardy. One Sunday afternoon, while I was in San Diego, an Indian was sitting on his horse, when another, with whom he had had some difficulty, came up to him, drew a long knife, and plunged it directly into the horse's heart. The Indian sprang from his falling horse, drew out a knife, and plunged it into the other Indian's breast, over his shoulder, and laid him dead. The fellow was seized at once, clapped into the calabozo, and kept there until an answer could be received from Monterey. A few weeks afterwards, I saw the poor wretch, sitting on the bare ground in front of the calabozo, with his feet chained to a stake, and handcuffs about his wrists. I knew there was very little hope for him. Although the deed was done in hot blood, the horse on which he was sitting being his own, and afraid it with him, yet he was an Indian, and that was enough. In about a week after I saw him, I heard that he had been shot. These few instances will serve to give one a notion of the distribution of justice in California. In their domestic relations, these people are not better than in public. Their men are thriftless, proud, extravagant, and very much given to gaming, and the women have but little education, and a good deal of beauty. And their morality, of course, is none of the best. Yet the instances of infidelity are much less frequent than one would at first suppose. In fact, one vice is set over against another, and thus something like a balance is obtained. If the women have but little virtue, the jealousy of their husbands is extreme, and their revenge deadly and almost certain. A few inches of cold still have been the punishment of many an unwary man, who has been guilty, perhaps, of nothing more than indiscretion. The difficulties of the attempt are numerous, and the consequences of discovery fatal in the better classes. With the unmarried women, too, great watchfulness is used. The main object of the parents is to marry their daughters well, and to this a fair name is necessary. The sharp eyes of a duena in the ready weapons of a father or brother are a protection which the characters of most of them, men and women, render by no means useless, for the very men who would lay down their lives to avenge the dishonor of their own family would risk the same lives to complete the dishonor of another. Of the poor Indians very little care is taken. The priests, indeed, at the missions, are said to keep them very strictly, and some rules are usually made by the alkalities to punish their misconduct, yet it all amounts to little. Indeed, to show the entire want of any sense of morality or domestic duty among them, I have frequently known an Indian to bring his wife, to whom he was lawfully married in the church, down to the beach, and carry her back again, dividing with her the money which she had got from the sailors. If any of the girls were discovered by the alcohol day to be open evil livers, they were whipped and kept at work sweeping the square of the presidio, and carrying mud and bricks for the buildings. Yet a few rails would generally buy them off. Intemperance, too, is a common vice among the Indians. The Mexicans, on the contrary, are abstinious, and I do not remember ever having seen a Mexican intoxicated. Such are the people who inhabit a country embracing four or five hundred miles of sea coast, with several good harbors, with fine forest to the north, the waters filled with fish, and the plains covered with thousands of herds of cattle, blessed with a climate than which there can be no better in the world, free from all manner of disease, with epidemic or endemic, and with the soil in which corn yields from seventy to eighty-fold. In the hands of an enterprising people, what a country this might be, we are ready to say, yet how long would a people remain so in such a country? The Americans, as those from the United States are called, and Englishmen, who are fast filling up the principal towns and getting the trade into their hands, are indeed more industrious and effective than the Mexicans, yet their children are brought up Mexicans in most respects, and if the California fever, laziness, spares the first generation, it is likely to attack the second. End of Chapter Twenty-One.


We evolved as an animal to exist in a certain environment. We don't exist in that environment anymore. We have internet and planes and toilet paper. We didn't evolve to have corporate workplaces. With suits and schedules and timetables there is more stress today. If you are in a situation which is not normal for you, you might need to revert to tools that are not normal for you.