thc23
thc23f
Vol 23: The Classics
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST
AND TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER
BY R H DANA JR
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
VOLUME 23
P F COLLIER & SON
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1909
By p. F. Collier & Son
By permission of, and by special arrangement with,
Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers of the au-
thorized edition of "Two Years Before the Mast"
Designed, rrintod. and Boiina at
CONTENTS
Bage
Chapter I 7
Chapter II 10
Chapter III 16
Chapter IV 22
Chapter V 30
Chapter VI 39
Chapter VII 45
Chapter VIII 53
Chapter IX 59
Chapter X 67
Chapter XI 72
Chapter XII 'jj
Chapter XIII 8r
Chapter XIV 92
Chapter XV 104
Chapter XVI 118
Chapter XVII 126
Chapter XVIII 134
Chapter XIX 148
Chapter XX 164
Chapter XXI 173
Chapter XXII . . . 179
Chapter XXIII 186
Chapter XXIV 205
Chapter XXV 213
Chapter XXVI 231
A — VOL. XXIII ■ HC
2 CONTENTS
PAGB
Chapter XXVII 240
Chapter XXVIII 252
Chapter XXIX 266
Chapter XXX 289
Chapter XXXI 301
Chapter XXXII 324
Chapter XXXIII 335
Chapter XXXIV 346
Chapter XXXV 354
Chapter XXXVI 363
Concluding Chapter 373
Twenty-Four Years After 395
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Richard Henry Dana, the second of that name, was born in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, August i, 1815. He came of a stock
that had resided there since the days of the early settlements ; his
grandfather, Francis Dana, had been the first American min-
ister to Russia and later became Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of Massachusetts; his father was distinguished as a man
of letters. He entered Harvard College in 1831; but near the
beginning of his third year an attack of measles left his eyesight
so weak that study was impossible. Tired of the tedium of a
slow convalescence, he decided on a sea-voyage; and choosing
to go as a sailor rather than a passenger, he shipped from Bos-
ton on August 14, 1834, on the brig "Pilgrim," bound for the
coast of California. His experiences for the next two years
form the subject of the present volume.
In the December following his return to Boston in 1836, Dana
reentered Harvard, the hero of his fellow students, graduating
in the following June. He next took up the study of law, at the
same time teaching elocution in the College, and in 1840 he
opened an office in Boston. While in the law school he had written
out the narrative of his voyage, which he now published; and
in the following year, 1841, issued "The Seaman's Friend." Both
books were republished in England, and brought him an imme-
diate reputation.
After several years of the practise of law, during which he
dealt largely with cases involving the rights of seamen, he began
to take part in politics as an active viember of the Free-Soil
Party. During the operation of the Fugitive-Slave Law he acted
as counsel in behalf of the fugitives Shadrach, Sims, and Burns,
and on one occasion suffered a serious assault as a consequence
of his zeal. His prominence in these cases, along with his fame
as a writer, brought him much social recognition on his visit
to England in 1856. Three years later, his health gave way
from overwork, and he set out on a voyage round the world,
revisiting California, where he made the observations which ap-
pear in the postscript to this book.
On his return, Dana was appointed by Lincoln United States
District Attorney for Massachusetts; and in his arguments be-
3
4 INTRODUCTION
fore the Supreme Court in Washington in connection with the
"Price causes," dealing with the capture of private property at
sea in time of war, he greatly increased an already brilliant
legal reputation.
After the close of the War he resigned his office of District
Attorney, as he could not approve of President Johnson's policy
of Reconstruction, and returned to private practice. This he
relinquished in 1878, in order to go to Europe to devote himself
to the preparation of a treatise on international law; but the
actual composition of this work was little more than begun when
he died in Rome, January 6, 1S82, and was buried in the Protes-
tant Cemetery, where lie the ashes of Keats and Shelley.
The record of Dana's life agrees with the picture of his tem-
perament which lie unconsciously painted in his first and greatest
book. The ready sympathy for the suffering and the oppressed,
the courage, unselfishness, and fair-mindedness which he ex-
hibited on the merchant vessel when a boy of twenty, continued
to characterize him tlirougJiout his long and distinguished career
as lawyer and citizen.
The merit of "Two Years Before the Mast" was recognized
in both America and England immediately after its appearance,
and it at once took rank as the most vivid and accurate picture
in literature of the side of life it sought to portray. W. Clark
Russell, himself one of the best writers of sea-stories in English,
called it "the greatest sea-book that was ever written in any
language," and the convincing detail of its narrative led to com-
parisons with the masterpiece of Defoe. Its value and interest
to-day are even greater than they were when it was written;
for, while tlie purely human element remains the same, the ac-
count of the routine on board tlie old sailing sJiips, the picture
of the trading on the coast of California, and the description of
that country in the days before the discovery of gold had trans-
formed its civilisation, have all acquired a historical importance.
Much is added, also, by the unaffected literary skill of the nar-
rator. Such episodes as the flogging of Sam and John the
Swede, the dry gale off Point Conception, the wedding fandango
at Santa Barbara, the Kanakas in the oven, the funeral in San
Pedro, the rounding of Cape Horn in the "Alert," have passed
into the list of the memorable things in literature.
PREFACE
I AM unwilling to present this narrative to the public without a
few words in explanation of my reasons for publishing it. Since
Mr. Cooper's Pilot and Red Rover, there have been so many-
stories of sea-life written, that I should really think it unjustifi-
able in me to add one to the number without being able to give
reasons in some measure warranting me in so doing.
With the single exception, as I am quite confident, of Mr.
Ames' entertaining, but hasty and desultory work, called " Mar-
iner's Sketches," all the books professing to give life at sea
have been written by persons who have gained their experience
as naval officers, or passengers, and of these, there are very few
which are intended to be taken as narratives of facts.
Now, in the first place, the whole course of life, and daily
duties, the discipline, habits and customs of a man-of-war are
very different from those of the merchant service; and in the
next place, however entertaining and well written these books
may be, and however accurately they may give sea-life as it
appears to their authors, it must still be plain to every one
that a naval officer, who goes to sea as a gentleman, " with his
gloves on," (as the phrase is,) and who associates only with
his fellow-officers, and hardly speaks to a sailor except through
a boatswain's mate, must take a very different view of the whole
matter from that which would be taken by a common sailor.
Besides the interest which every one must feel in exhibitions
of life in those forms in which he himself has never experienced
it, there has been, of late years, a great deal of attention directed
toward common seamen, and a strong sympathy awakened in
their behalf. Yet I believe that, with the single exception which
I have mentioned, there has not been a book written, professi^g
to give their life and experiences, by one who has been of
them, and can know what their life really is. A voice from the
forecastle has hardly yet been heard.
In the following pages I design to give an accurate and authen-
tic narrative of a little more than two years spent as a common
sailor, before the mast, in the American merchant service. It is
5
6 PREFACE
written out from a journal which I kept at the time, and from
notes which I made of most of the events as they happened;
and in it I have adhered closely to fact in every particular, and
endeavored to give each thing its true character. In so doing,
I have been obliged occasionally to use strong and coarse ex-
pressions, and in some instances to give scenes which may be
painful to nice feelings; but I have very carefully avoided doing
so, whenever I have not felt them essential to giving the true
character of a scene. My design is, and it is this which has in-
duced me to publish the book, to present the life of a common
sailor at sea as it really is, — the light and the dark together.
There may be in some parts a good deal that is unintelligible
to the general reader; but I have found from my own experi-
ence, and from what I have heard from others, that plain matters
of fact in relation to customs and habits of life new to us, and
descriptions of life under new aspects, act upon the inexperienced
through the imagination, so that we are hardly aware of our
want of technical knowledge. Thousands read the escape of
the American frigate through the British channel, and the chase
and wreck of the Bristol trader in the Red Rover, and follow
the minute nautical manoeuvres with breathless interest, who do
not know the name of a rope in the ship ; and perhaps with none
the less admiration and enthusiasm for their want of acquaint-
ance with the professional detail.
In preparing this narrative I have carefully avoided incorpo-
rating into it any impressions but those made upon me by the
events as they occurred, leaving to my concluding chapter, to
which I shall respectfully call the reader's attention, those views
which have been suggested to me by subsequent reflection.
These reasons, and the advice of a few friends, have led me
to give this narrative to the press. If it shall interest the gen-
eral reader, and call more attention to the welfare of seamen,
or give any information as to their real condition, which may
serve to raise them in the rank of beings, and to promote in any
measure their religious and moral improvement, and diminish
the hardships of their daily life, the end of its publication will
be answered.
R. H. D., Jr.
Boston, July, 1840.
TWO YEARS
BEFORE THE MAST
CHAPTER I
Departure
THE fourteenth of August was the day fixed upon for
the sailing of the brig Pilgrim on her voyage from
Boston round Cape Horn to the western coast of
North America. As she was to get under weigh early in the
afternoon, I made my appearance on board at twelve o'clock,
in full sea-rig, and with my chest, containing an outfit for a
two or three years' voyage, which I had undertaken from a
determination to cure, if possible, by an entire change of
life, and by a long absence from books and study, a weak-
ness of the eyes, which had obliged me to give up my pur-
suits, and which no medical aid seemed likely to cure.
The change from the tight dress coat, silk cap and kid
gloves of an undergraduate at Cambridge, to the loose duck
trowsers, checked shirt and tarpaulin hat of a sailor, though
somewhat of a transformation, was soon made, and I sup-
posed that I should pass very well for a jack tar. But
it is impossible to deceive the practised eye in these mat-
ters; and while I supposed myself to be looking as salt
as Neptune himself, I was, no doubt, known for a lands-
man by every one on board as soon as I hove in sight. A
sailor has a peculiar cut to his clothes, and a way of wear-
ing them which a green hand can never get. The trowsers,
tight round the hips, and thence hanging long and loose
round the feet, a superabundance of checked shirt, a low-
crowned, well varnished black hat, worn on the back of the
head, with half a fathom of black ribbon hanging over the
7
8 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
left eye, and a peculiar tie to the black silk neckerchief,
with sundry other minutiae, are signs, the want of which
betray the beginner, at once. Beside the points in my
dress which were out of the way, doubtless my complexion
and hands were enough to distinguish me from the regular
salt, who, with a sunburnt cheek, wide step, and rolling
gait, swings his bronzed and toughened hands athwart-
ships, half open, as though just ready to grasp a rope.
" With all my imperfections on my head," I joined the
crew, and we hauled out into the stream, and came to
anchor for the night. The next day we were employed
in preparations for sea, reeving studding-sail gear, crossing
royal yards, putting on chafing gear, and taking on board
our powder. On the following night, I stood my first
watch. I remained awake nearly all the first part of the
night from fear that I might not hear when I was called;
and when I went on deck, so great were my ideas of the
importance of my trust, that I walked regularly fore and
aft the whole length of the vessel, looking out over the
bows and taffrail at each turn, and was not a little sur-
prised at the coolness of the old salt whom I called to take
my place, in stowing himself snugly away under the long
boat, for a nap. That was a sufficient look-out, he thought,
for a fine night, at anchor in a safe harbor.
The next morning was Saturday, and a breeze having
sprung up from the southward, we took a pilot on board,
hove up our anchor, and began beating down the bay. I
took leave of those of my friends who came to see me off,
and had barely opportunity to take a last look at the city,
and well-known objects, as no time is allowed on board ship
for sentiment. As we drew down into the lower harbor, we
found the wind ahead in the bay, and were obliged to come
to anchor in the roads. We remained there through the
day and a part of the night. My watch began at eleven
o'clock at night, and I received orders to call the captain
if the wind came out from the westward. About mid-
night the wind became fair, and having called the captain,
I was ordered to call all hands. How I accomplished this
I do not know, but I am quite sure that I did not give
the true hoarse, boatswain call of " A-a-U ha-a-a-nds ! up
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 9
anchor, a-ho-oy ! " In a short time every one was in mo-
tion, the sails loosed, the yards braced, and we began to
heave up the anchor, which was our last hold upon Yankee
land. I could take but little part in all these preparations.
My little knowledge of a vessel was all at fault. Unin-
telligible orders were so rapidly given and so immediately
executed; there was such a hurrying about, and such an
intermingling of strange cries and stranger actions, that
I was completely bewildered. There is not so helpless and
pitiable an object in the world as a landsman beginning a
sailor's life. At length those peculiar, long-drawn sounds,
which denote that the crew are heaving at the windlass,
began, and in a few moments we were under weigh. The
noise of the water thrown from the bows began to be heard,
the vessel leaned over from the damp night breeze, and
rolled with the heavy ground swell, and we had actually
begun our long, long journey. This was literally bidding
" good night " to my native land.
CHAPTER II
First Impressions — "Sail Ho!"
THE first day we passed at sea was the Sabbath. As we
were just from port, and there was a great deal to be
done on board, we were kept at work all day, and at
night the watches were set, and everything put into sea
order. When we were called aft to be divided into watches,
I had a good specimen of the manner of a sea captain.
After the division had been made, he gave a short charac-
teristic speech, walking the quarter deck with a cigar in his
mouth, and dropping the words out between the puffs.
" Now, my men, we have begun a long voyage. If we
get along well together, we shall have a comfortable time ;
if we don't, we shall have hell afloat. — All you've got to do
is to obey your orders and do your duty like men, — then
you'll fare well enough; — if you don't, you'll fare hard
enough, — I can tell you. If we pull together, you'll find
me a clever fellow; if we don't, you'll find me a bloody
rascal. — That's all I've got to say. — Go below, the larboard
watch ! "
I being in the starboard, or second mate's watch, had the
opportunity of keeping the first watch at sea. S , a
young man, making, like myself, his first voyage, was in
the same watch, and as he was the son of a professional
man, and had been in a counting-room in Boston, we found
that we had many friends and topics in common. We
talked these matters over, — Boston, what our friends were
probably doing, our voyage, etc., until he went to take his
turn at the look-out, and left me to myself. I had now a
fine time for reflection. I felt for the first time the per-
fect silence of the sea. The officer was walking the quarter
deck, where I had no right to go, one or two men were
talking on the forecastle, whom I had little inclination to
join, so that I was left open to the full impression of every-
10
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 11
thing about me. However much I was affected by the
beauty of the sea, the bright stars, and the clouds driven
swiftly over them, I could not but remember that I was
separating myself from all the social and intellectual en-
joyments of life. Yet, strange as it may seem, I did then
and afterwards take pleasure in these reflections, hoping
by them to prevent my becoming insensible to the value of
what I was leaving.
But all my dreams were soon put to flight by an order
from the officer to trim the yards, as the wind was getting
ahead; and I could plainly see by the looks the sailors oc-
casionally cast to windward, and by the dark clouds that
were fast coming up, that we had bad weather to prepare
for, and had heard the captain say that he expected to be
in the Gulf Stream by twelve o'clock. In a few minutes
eight bells were struck, the watch called, and we went be-
low. I now began to feel the first discomforts of a sailor's
life. The steerage in which I lived was filled with coils
of rigging, spare sails, old junk and ship stores, which had
not been stowed away. Moreover, there had been no berths
built for us to sleep in, and we were not allowed to drive
nails to hang our clothes upon. The sea, too, had risen,
the vessel was rolling heavily, and everything was pitched
about in grand confusion. There was a complete " hur-
rah's nest," as the sailors say, " everything on top and
nothing at hand." A large hawser had been coiled away
upon my chest; my hats, boots, mattress and blankets had
all fetched away and gone over to leeward, and were
jammed and broken under the boxes and coils of rigging.
To crown all, we were allowed no light to find anything
with, and I was just beginning to feel strong symptoms of
sea-sickness, and that listlessness and inactivity which ac-
company it. Giving up all attempts to collect my things
together, I lay down upon the sails, expecting every
moment to hear the cry of " all hands ahoy," which the
approaching storm would soon make necessary. I shortly
' heard the rain-drops falling on deck, thick and fast, and
the watch evidently had their hands full of work, for I
could hear the loud and repeated orders of the mate, the
trampling of feet, the creaking of blocks, and all the ac-
13 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
companiments of a coming storm. In a few minutes the
slide of the hatch was thrown back, which let down the
noise and tumult of the deck still louder, the loud cry
of " All hands, ahoy ! tumble up here and take in sail,"
saluted our ears, and the hatch was quickly shut again.
When I got upon deck, a new scene and a new experience
was before me. The little brig was close hauled upon the
wind, and lying over, as it then seemed to me, nearly upon
her beam ends. The heavy head sea was beating against
her bows with the noise and force almost of a sledge ham-
mer, and flying over the deck, drenching us completely
through. The topsail halyards had been let go, and the
great sails were filling out and backing against the masts
with a noise like thunder. The wind was whistling through
the rigging, loose ropes flying about; loud and, to me, unin-
telligible orders constantly given and rapidly executed, and
the sailors " singing out " at the ropes in their hoarse and
peculiar strains. In addition to all this, I had not got my
" sea legs on," was dreadfully sick, with hardly strength
enough to hold on to anything, and it was " pitch dark."
This was my state when I was ordered aloft, for the first
time, to reef topsails.
How I got along, I cannot now remember. I " laid
out " on the yards and held on with all my strength. I
could not have been of much service, for I remember having
been sick several times before I left the topsail yard. Soon
all was snug aloft, and we were again allowed to go below.
This I did not consider much of a favor, for the confusion
of everything below, and that inexpressible sickening smell,
caused by the shaking up of the bilge-water in the hold,
made the steerage but an indifferent refuge from the cold,
wet decks. I had often read of the nautical experiences of
others, but I felt as though there could be none worse than
mine; for in addition to every other evil, I could not but
remember that this was only the first night of a two years'
voyage. When we were on deck we were not much better
off, for we were continually ordered about by the officer,
who said that it was good for us to be in motion. Yet any-
thing was better than the horrible state of things below.
I remember very well going to the hatchway and putting
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 13
my head down, when I was oppressed by nausea, and al-
ways being relieved immediately. It was as good as an
emetic.
This state of things continued for two days.
Wednesday, Aug. 20th. We had the watch on deck from
four till eight, this morning. When we came on deck at
four o'clock, we found things much changed for the better.
The sea and wind had gone down, and the stars were out
bright. I experienced a corresponding change in my feel-
ings ; yet continued extremely weak from my sickness. I
stood in the waist on the weather side, watching the gradual
breaking of the day, and the first streaks of the early light.
Much has been said of the sun-rise at sea ; but it will not
compare with the sun-rise on shore. It wants the accom-
paniments of the songs of birds, the awakening hum of men,
and the glancing of the first beams upon trees, hills, spires,
and house-tops, to give it life and spirit. But though the
actual rise of the sun at sea is not so beautiful, yet nothing
will compare with the early breaking of day upon the wide
ocean.
There is something in the first grey streaks stretching
along the eastern horizon and throwing an indistinct light
upon the face of the deep, which combines with the bound-
lessness and unknown depth of the sea around you, and
gives one a feeling of loneliness, of dread, and of melan-
choly foreboding, which nothing else in nature can give.
This gradually passes away as the light grows brighter, and
when the sun comes up, the ordinary monotonous sea day
begins.
From such reflections as these, I was aroused by the order
from the officer, " Forward there ! rig the head-pump ! "
I found that no time was allowed for day-dreaming, but
that we must " turn to " at the first light. Having called
up the " idlers," namely, carpenter, cook, steward, etc., and
rigged the pump, we commenced washing down the decks.
This operation, which is performed every morning at sea,
takes nearly two hours ; and I had hardly strength enough
to get through it. After we had finished, swabbed down,
and coiled up the rigging, I sat down on the spars, wait-
ing for seven bells, which was the sign for breakfast. The
14 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
officer, seeing my lazy posture, ordered me to slush the
main-mast from the royal-mast-head, down. The vessel
was then rolling a little, and I had taken no sustenance
for three days, so that I felt tempted to tell him that I
had rather wait till after breakfast; but I knew that I
must " take the bull by the horns," and that if I showed
any sign of want of spirit or of backwardness, that I should
be ruined at once. So I took my bucket of grease and
climbed up to the royal-mast-head. Here the rocking of
the vessel, which increases the higher you go from the foot
of the mast, which is the fulcrum of the lever, and the
smell of the grease, which offended my fastidious senses, up-
set my stomach again, and I was not a little rejoiced when
I got upon the comparative terra firma of the deck. In a
few minutes seven bells were struck, the log hove, the
watch called, and we went to breakfast. Here I cannot but
remember the advice of the cook, a simple-hearted African.
" Now," says he, " my lad, you are well cleaned out ; you
haven't got a drop of your 'long-shore swash aboard of you.
You must begin on a new tack, — pitch all your sweetmeats
overboard, and turn-to upon good hearty salt beef and sea
bread, and I'll promise you, you'll have your ribs well
sheathed, and be as hearty as any of 'em, afore you are up
to the Horn." This would be good advice to give to pas-
sengers, when they speak of the little niceties which they
have laid in, in case of sea-sickness.
I cannot describe the change which half a pound of cold
salt beef and a biscuit or two produced in me. I was a new
being. We had a watch below until noon, so that I had
some time to myself; and getting a huge piece of strong,
cold, salt beef from the cook, I kept gnawing upon it until
twelve o'clock. When we went on deck I felt somewhat
like a man, and could begin to learn my sea duty with con-
siderable spirit. At about two o'clock we heard the loud
cry of " sail ho ! " from aloft, and soon saw two sails to
windward, going directly athwart our hawse. This was
the first time that I had seen a sail at sea. I thought then,
and have always since, that it exceeds every other sight in
interest and beauty. They passed to leeward of us, and
out of hailing distance ; but the captain could read the names
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST IS
on their sterns with the glass. They were the ship
Helen Mar, of New York, and the brig Mermaid, of Boston.
They were both steering westward, and were bound in for
our " dear native land."
Thursday, Aug. 2ist. This day the sun rose clear, we
had a fine wind, and everything was bright and cheerful.
I had now got my sea legs on, and was beginning to enter
upon the regular duties of a sea-life. About six bells, that
is, three o'clock P. M., we saw a sail on our larboard bow.
I was very anxious, like every new sailor, to speak her.
She came down to us, backed her main-topsail, and the
two vessels stood " head on," bowing and curvetting at
each other like a couple of war-horses reined in by their
riders. It was the first vessel that I had seen near, and I
was surprised to find out how much she rolled and pitched
in so quiet a sea. She plunged her head into the sea, and
then, her stern settling gradually down, her huge bows
rose up, showing the bright copper, and her stern, and
breast-hooks dripping, like old Neptune's locks, with the
brine. Her decks were filled with passengers who had
come up at the cry of " sail ho," and who by their dress and
features appeared to be Swiss and French emigrants. She
hailed us at first in French, but receiving no answer, she
tried us in English. She was the ship La Carolina, from
Havre, for New York. We desired her to report the brig
Pilgrim, from Boston, for the north-west coast of America,
five days out. She then filled away and left us to plough
on through our waste of waters. This day ended pleas-
antly ; we had got into regular and comfortable weather,
and into that routine of sea-life which is only broken by
a storm, a sail, or the sight of land.
CHAPTER Iir
Ship's Duties — Tropics
4 S we had now a long " spell " of fine weather, without
l\ any incident to break the monotony of our Hves,
-^ — *■ there can be no better place to describe the duties,
regulations, and customs of an American merchantman, of
which ours was a fair specimen.
The captain, in the first place, is lord paramount. He
stands no watch, comes and goes when he pleases, and is
accountable to no one, and must be obeyed in everything,
without a question, even from his chief officer. He has the
power to turn his officers off duty, and even to break them
and make them do duty as sailors in the forecastle. Where
there are no passengers and no supercargo, as in our
vessel, he has no companion but his own dignity, and no
pleasures, unless he differs from most of his kind, but the
consciousness of possessing supreme power, and, occasion-
ally, the exercise of it.
The prime minister, the official organ, and the active
and superintending officer, is the chief mate. He is first
lieutenant, boatswain, sailing-master, and quarter-master.
The captain tells him what he wishes to have done, and
leaves to him the care of overseeing, of allotting the work,
and also the responsibility of its being well done. The
mate (as he is always called, par excellence) also keeps the
log-book, for which he is responsible to the owners and in-
surers, and has the charge of the stowage, safe keeping, and
delivery of the cargo. He is also, ex-officio, the wit of the
crew; for the captain does not condescend to joke with the
men, and the second mate no one cares for; so that when
" the mate " thinks fit to entertain " the people " with a
coarse joke or a little practical wit, every one feels bound
to laugh.
16
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 17
The second mate's is proverbially a dog's berth. He is
neither officer nor man. The men do not respect him as
an officer, and he is obliged to go aloft to reef and furl the
topsails, and to put his hands into the tar and slush, with
the rest. The crew call him the " sailors' waiter," as he has
to furnish them with spun-yarn, marline, and all other
stuffs that they need in their work, and has charge of the
boatswain's locker, which includes serving-boards, marline-
spikes, etc., etc. He is expected by the captain to maintain
his dignity and to enforce obedience, and still is kept at a
great distance from the mate, and obliged to work with the
crew. He is one to whom little is given and of whom
much is required. His wages are usually double those of
a common sailor, and ht eats and sleeps in the cabin ; but
he is obliged to be on deck nearly all his time, and eats at
the second table, that is, makes a meal out of what the
captain and chief mate leave.
The steward is the captain's servant, and has charge of
the pantry, from which every one, even the mate himself,
is excluded. These distinctions usually find him an enemy in
the mate, who does not like to have any one on b6ard who
is not entirely under his control ; the crew do not consider
him as one of their number, so he is left to the mercy of the
captain.
The cook is the patron of the crew, and those who are in
his favor can get their wet mittens and stockings dried, or
light their pipes at the galley on the night watch. These
two worthies, together with the carpenter and sailmaker, if
there be one, stand no watch, but, being employed all day,
are allowed to " sleep in " at night, unless all hands are
called.
The crew are divided into two divisions, as equally as
may be, called the watches. Of these the chief mate com-
mands the larboard, and the second mate the starboard.
They divide the time between them, being on and off duty,
or, as it is called, on deck and below, every other four hours.
If, for instance, the chief mate with the larboard watch
have the first night-watch from eight to twelve; at the end
of the four hours, the starboard watch is called, and the
second mate takes the deck, while the larboard watch and
18 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the first mate go below until four in the morning, when
they come on deck again and remain until eight; having
what is called the morning watch. As they will have been
on deck eight hours out of twelve, while those who had the
middle watch — from twelve to four, will only have been up
four hours, they have what is called a " forenoon watch
below," that is, from eight. A, M., till twelve, M. In a
man-of-war, and in some merchantmen, this alternation of
watches is kept up throughout the twenty- four hours; but
our ship, like most merchantmen, had " all hands " from
twelve o'clock till dark, except in bad weather, when we had
" watch and watch."
An explanation of the " dog watches " may, perhaps, be
of use to one who has never been at sea. They are to shift
the watches each night, so that the same watch need not
be on deck at the same hours. In order to effect this, the
watch from four to eight, P. M., is divided into two half,
or dog watches, one from four to six, and the other from
six to eight. By this means they divide the twenty-four hours
into seven watches instead of six, and thus shift the hours
every night. As the dog watches come during twilight,
after the day's work is done, and before the night watch
is set, they are the watches in which everybody is on deck.
The captain is up, walking on the weather side of the quar-
ter-deck, the chief mate on the leeside, and the second mate
about the weather gangway. The steward has finished his
work in the cabin, and has come up to smoke his pipe with
the cook in the galley. The crew are sitting on the windlass
or lying on the forecastle, smoking, singing, or telling long
yarns. At eight o'clock, eight bells are struck, the log is
hove, the watch set, the wheel relieved, the galley shut up,
and the other watch goes below.
The morning commences with the watch on deck's "turn-
ing-to " at day-break and washing down, scrubbing and
swabbing the decks. This, together with filling the " scuttled
butt " with fresh water, and coiling up the rigging, usually
occupies the time until seven bells, (half after seven,)
when all hands get breakfast. At eight, the day's work
begins, and lasts until sundown, with the exception of an
hour for dinner.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 19
Before I end my explanations, it may be well to define
a day's work, and to correct a mistake prevalent among
landsmen about a sailor's life. Nothing is more common
than to hear people say — "Are not sailors very idle at sea?
— what can they find to do ? " This is a very natural mis-
take, and being very frequently made, it is one which every
sailor feels interested in having corrected. In the first
place, then, the discipline of the ship requires every man to
be at work upon something when he is on deck, except at
night and on Sundays. Except at these times, you will never
see a man, on board a well-ordered vessel, standing idle
on deck, sitting down or leaning over the side. It is the
officers' duty to keep every one at work, even if there is
nothing to be done but to scrape the rust from the chain
cables. In no state prison are the convicts more regularly
set to work, and more closely watched. No conversation is
allowed among the crew at their duty, and though they
frequently do talk when aloft, or when near one another,
yet they always stop when an officer is nigh.
With regard to the work upon which the men are put,
it is a matter which probably would not be understood by
one who has not been at sea. When I first left port, and
found that we were kept regularly employed for a week or
two, I supposed that we were getting the vessel into sea
trim, and that it would soon be over, and we should have
nothing to do but to sail the ship but I found that it con-
tinued so for two years, and at the end of the two years
there was as much to be done as ever. As has often been
said, a ship is like a lady's watch, always out of repair.
When first leaving port, studding-sail gear is to be rove, all
the running rigging to be examined, that which is unfit for
use to be got down, and new rigging rove in its place :
then the standing rigging is to be overhauled, replaced, and
repaired, in a thousand different ways; and wherever any
of the numberless ropes or the yards are chafing or wear-
ing upon it, there " chafing gear," as it is called, must be put
on. This chafing gear consists of worming, parcelling,
rounding, battens, and service of all kinds — both rope-
yarns, spun-yarn, marline and seizing-stuffs. Taking off,
putting on, and mending the chafing gear alone, upon a
20 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
vessel, would find constant employment for two or three
men, during working hours, for a whole voyage.
The next point to be considered is, that all the " small
stuffs" which are used on board a ship — such as spun-yarn,
marline, seizing-stuff, etc., etc. — are made on board. The
owners of a vessel buy up incredible quantities of " old
junk," which the sailors unlay, after drawing out the yarns,
knot them together, and roll them up in balls. These " rope-
yarns " are constantly used for various purposes, but the
greater part is manufactured into spun-yarn. For this
purpose every vessel is furnished with a " spun-yarn
winch ;" which is very simple, consisting of a wheel and
spindle. This may be heard constantly going on deck in
pleasant weather ; and we had employment, during a great
part of the time, for three hands in drawing and knotting
yarns, and making spun-yarn.
Another method of employing the crew is, " setting up "
rigging. Whenever any of the standing rigging becomes
slack, (which is continually happening,) the seizings and
coverings must be taken off, tackles got up, and after the rig-
ging is bowsed well taught, the seizings and coverings re-
placed; which is a very nice piece of work. There is also
such a connection between different parts of a vessel, that one
rope can seldom be touched without altering another. You
cannot stay a mast aft by the back stays, without slacking up
the head stays, etc., etc. If we add to this all the tarring,
greasing, oiling, varnishing, painting, scraping, and scrubbing
which is required in the course of a long voyage, and also re-
member this is all to be done in addition to watching at
night, steering, reefing, furling, bracing, making and setting
sail, and pulling, hauling and climbing in every direction, one
will hardly ask, " What can a sailor find to do at sea ? "
If, after all this labor — after exposing their lives and
limbs in storms, wet and cold,
"Wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch:
The lion and the belly-pinched wolf
Keep their furs dry;—"
the merchants and captains think that they have not earned
their twelve dollars a month, (out of v/hich they clothe
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 21
themselves,) and their salt beef and hard bread, they keep
them picking oakum — ad infinitum. This is the usual re-
source upon a rainy day, for then it will not do to work
upon rigging; and when it is pouring down in floods, instead
of letting the sailors stand about in sheltered places, and
talk, and keep themselves comfortable, they are separated
to different parts of the ship and kept at work picking oakum.
I have seen oakum stuff placed about in different parts of
the ship, so that the sailors might not be idle in the
snatches between the frequent squalls upon crossing the
equator. Some officers have been so driven to find work for
the crew in a ship ready for sea, that they have set them to
pounding the anchors (often done) and scraping the chain
cables. The " Philadelphia Catechism " is,
"Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able,
And on the seventh — holystone the decks and scrape the cable."
This kind of work, of course, is not kept up off Cape HorHj
Cape of Good Hope, and in extreme north and south lati-
tudes ; but I have seen the decks washed down and scrubbed,
when the water would have frozen if it had been fresh;
and all hands kept at work upon the rigging, when we had
on our pea-jackets, and our hands so numb that we could
hardly hold our marline-spikes.
I have here gone out of my narrative course in order
that any who may read this may form as correct an idea of
a sailor's life and duty as possible. I have done it in this
place because, for some time, our life was nothing but the
unvarying repetition of these duties, which can be better
described together. Before leaving this description, how-
ever, I would state, in order to show landsmen how little
they know of the nature of a ship, that a ship-carpenter is
kept in constant employ during good weather on board
vessels which are in, what is called, perfect sea order.
CHAPTER IV
A Rogue — Trouble on Board — " Land Ho ! " — Pompero —
Cape Horn
AFTER speaking the Carolina, on the 21st August,
I\ nothing occurred to break the monotony of our
XA. life until
Friday, September ^th, when we saw a sail on our
weather (starboard) beam. She proved to be a brig under
English colors, and passing under our stern, reported her-
self as forty-nine days from Buenos Ayres, bound to Liver-
pool. Before she had passed us, " sail ho ! " was cried
again, and we made another sail, far on our weather bow,
and steering athwart our hawse. She passed out of hail,
but we made her out to be an hermaphrodite brig, with
Brazilian colors in her main rigging. By her course, she
must have been bound from Brazil to the south of Europe,
probably Portugal.
Sunday, September yth. Fell in with the north-east trade-
winds. This morning we caught our first dolphin, which
I was very eager to see. I was disappointed in the colors
of this fish when dying. They were certainly very beauti-
ful, but not equal to what had been said of them. They
are too indistinct. To do the fish justice, there is nothing
more beautiful than the dolphin when swimming a few feet
below the surface, on a bright day. It is the most elegantly
formed, and also the quickest fish, in salt water; and the
rays of the sun striking upon it, in its rapid and changing
motions, reflected from the water, make it look like a stray
beam from a rainbow.
This day was spent like all pleasant Sabbaths at sea. The
decks are washed down, the rigging coiled up, and every-
thing put in order; and throughout the day only one watch
is kept on deck at a time. The men are all dressed in their
best white duck trowsers, and red or checked shirts, and
22
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 23
have nothing to do but to make the necessary changes in the
sails. They employ themselves in reading, talking, smoking,
and mending their clothes. If the weather is pleasant, they
bring their work and their books upon deck, and sit down
upon the forecastle and windlass. This is the only day on
which these privileges are allowed them. When Monday
comes, they put on their tarry trowsers again, and prepare
for six days of labor.
To enhance the value of the Sabbath to the crew, they
are allowed on that day a pudding, or, as it is called, a
" duff." This is nothing more than flour boiled with water,
and eaten with molasses. It is very heavy, dark, and
clammy, yet it is looked upon as a luxury, and really forms
an agreeable variety with salt beef and pork. Many a ras-
cally captain has made friends of his crew by allowing them
duff twice a week on the passage home.
On board some vessels this is made a day of instruction
and of religious exercises ; but we had a crew of swearers,
from the captain to the smallest boy; and a day of rest and
of something like quiet, social enjoyment, was all that we
could expect.
We continued running large before the north-east trade
winds for several days, until Monday —
September 22d, when, upon coming on deck at seven
bells in the morning, we found the other watch aloft,
throwing water upon the sails ; and looking astern, we saw
a small clipper-built brig with a black hull heading di-
rectly after us. We went to work immediately, and put
all the canvas upon the brig which we could get upon her,
rigging out oars for studding-sail yards; and continued
wetting down the sails by buckets of water whipped up to
the mast-head, until about nine o'clock, when there came on
a drizzling rain. The vessel continued in pursuit, chang-
ing her course as we changed ours to keep before the wind.
The captain, who watched her with his glass, said that
she was armed, and full of men, and showed no colors.
We continued running dead before the wind, knowing that
we sailed better so, and that clippers are fastest on the
wind. We had also another advantage. The wind was
light, and we spread more canvas than she did, having
24 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
royals and sky-sails fore and aft, and ten studding-sails;
while she, being an hermaphrodite brig, had only a gaff
top-sail, aft. Early in the morning she was overhauling
us a little, but after the rain came on and the wind grew
lighter, we began to leave her astern. All hands remained
on deck throughout the day, and we got our arms in order;
but we were too few to have done anything with her, if she
had proved to be what we feared. Fortunately there was no
moon, and the night which followed was exceedingly dark,
so that by putting out all the lights on board and altering
our course four points, we hoped to get out of her reach.
We had no light in the binnacle, but steered by the stars,
and kept perfect silence through the night. At day-break
there was no sign of anything in the horizon, and we kept
the vessel off to her course.
Wednesday, October ist. Crossed the equator in long.
24° 24' W. I now, for the first time, felt at liberty, accord-
ing to the old usage, to call myself a son of Neptune, and
was very glad to be able to claim the title without the
disagreeable initiation which so many have to go through.
After once crossing the line you can never be subjected
to the process, but are considered as a son of Neptune, with
full powers to play tricks upon others. This ancient custom
is now seldom allowed, unless there are passengers on board,
in which case there is always a good deal of sport.
It had been obvious to all hands for some time' that the
second mate, whose name was F , was an idle, careless
fellow, and not much of a sailor, and that the captain was
exceedingly dissatisfied with him. The power of the cap-
tain in these cases was well known, and we all anticipated
a difficulty. F (called Mr. by virtue of his office) was
but half a sailor, having always been short voyages and
remained at home a long time between them. His father
was a man of some property, and intended to have given
his son a liberal education ; but he, being idle and worth-
less, was sent off to sea, and succeeded no better there; for,
unlike many scamps, he had none of the qualities of a
sailor — he was " not of the stuff that they make sailors of."
He was one of that class of officers who are disliked by their
captain and despised by the crew. He used to hold long
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 25
yarns with the crew, and talk about the captain, and play
with the boys, and relax discipline in every way. This kind
of conduct always makes the captain suspicious, and is
never pleasant, in the end, to the men ; they preferring to
have an officer active, vigilant, and distant as may be, with
kindness. Among other bad practices, he frequently slept
on his watch, and having been discovered asleep by the
captain, he was told that he would be turned off duty if
he did it again. To prevent it in every way possible, the
hen-coops were ordered to be knocked up, for the captain
never sat down on deck himself, and never permitted an
officer to do so.
The second night after crossing the equator, we had the
watch from eight till twelve, and it was " my helm " for the
last two hours. There had been light squalls through the
night, and the captain told Mr. F , who commanded
our watch, to keep a bright look-out. Soon after I came
to the helm, I found that he was quite drowsy, and at last
he stretched himself on the companion and went fast asleep.
Soon afterwards, the captain came very quietly on deck^
and stood by me for some time looking at the compass.
The officer at length became aware of the captain's presence,
but pretending not to know it, began humming and whistling
to himself, to show that he was not asleep, and went for-
ward, without looking behind him, and ordered the main
royal to be loosed. On turning round to come aft, he pre-
tended surprise at seeing the master on deck. This would
not do. The captain was too " wide awake " for him, and
beginning upon him at once, gave him a grand blow-up, in
true nautical style — " You're a lazy, good-for-nothing rascal ;
you're neither man, boy, soger, nor sailor ! you're no more
than a thing aboard a vessel ! you don't earn your salt; you're
worse than a Mahon soger!" and other still more choice
extracts from the sailor's vocabulary. After the poor fellow
had taken this harangue, he was sent into his stateroom,
and the captain stood the rest of the watch himself.
At seven bells in the morning, all hands were called aft and
told that F was no longer an officer on board, and that
we might choose one of our own number for second mate.
It is usual for the captain to make this offer, and it is very
26 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
good policy, for the crew think themselves the choosers and
are flattered by it, but have to obey, nevertheless. Our crew,
as is usual, refused to take the responsibility of choosing
a man of whom we would never be able to complain, and
left it to the captain. He picked out an active and intelligent
young sailor, born near the Kennebec, who had been several
Canton voyages, and proclaimed him in the following man-
ner : " I choose Jim Hall — he's your second mate. All you've
got to do is to obey him as you would me ; and remember
that he is Mr. Hall." F went forward into the fore-
castle as a common sailor, and lost the handle to his name,
while young foremast Jim became Mr. Hall, and took up his
quarters in the land of knives and forks and tea-cups.
Sunday, October §th. It was our morning watch; when,
soon after the day began to break, a man on the forecastle
called out, " Land ho ! " I had never heard the cry before,
and did not know what it meant, (and few would suspect
what the words were, when hearing the strange sound for
the first time,) but I soon found, by the direction of all
eyes, that there was land stretching along on our weather
beam. We immediately took in studding-sails and hauled
our wind, running in for the land. This was done to de-
termine our longitude; for by the captain's chronometer we
were in 25° W., but by his observations we were much
farther, and he had been for some time in doubt whether
it was his chronometer or his sextant which was out of
order. This land-fall settled the matter, and the former
instrument was condemned, and, becoming still worse, was
never afterwards used.
As we ran in towards the coast, we found that we were
directly off the port of Pernambuco, and could see with the
telescope the roofs of the houses, and one large church, and
the town of Olinda. We ran along by the mouth of the
harbor, and saw a full-rigged brig going in. At two, P. M.,
we again kept off before the wind, leaving the land on our
quarter, and at sun-down, it was out of sight. It was here
that I first saw one of those singular things called cata-
marans. They are composed of logs lashed together upon
the water; have one large sail, are quite fast, and, strange
as it may seem, are trusted as good sea boats. We saw
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 27
several, with from one to three men in each, boldly putting
out to sea, after it had become almost dark. The Indians
go out in them after fish, and as the weather is regular in
certain seasons, they have no fear. After taking a new de-
parture from Olinda, we kept off on our way to Cape Horn.
We met with nothing remarkable until we were in the
latitude of the river La Plata. Here there are violent
gales from the south-west, called Pamperos, which are very
destructive to the shipping in the river, and are felt for
many leagues at sea. They are usually preceded by light-
ning. The captain told the mates to keep a bright look-
out, and if they saw lightning at the south-west, to take in
sail at once. We got the first touch of one during my
watch on deck. I was walking in the lee gangway, and
thought that I saw lightning on the lee bow. I told the
second mate, who came over and looked out for some time.
It was very black in the south-west, and in about ten min^
utes we saw a distinct flash. The wind, which had been
south-east, had now left us, and it was dead calm. We
sprang aloft immediately and furled the royals and top-
gallant-sails, and took in the flying jib, hauled up the main-
sail and trysail, squared the after yards, and awaited the
attack. A huge mist capped with black clouds came driv-
ing towards us, extending over that quarter of the horizon,
and covering the stars, which shone brightly in the other
part of the heavens. It came upon us at once with a blast,
and a shower of hail and rain, which almost took our
breath from us. The hardiest was obliged to turn his back.
We let the halyards run, and fortunately were not taken
aback. The little vessel " paid off " from the wind, and
ran for some time directly before it, tearing through the
water with everything flying. Having called all hands,
we close-reefed the topsails and trysail, furled the courses
and jib, set the fore-topmast staysail, and brought her up
nearly to her course, with the weather braces hauled in a
little, to ease her.
This was the first blow, that I had seen, which could
really be called a gale. We had reefed our topsails in the
Gulf Stream, and I thought it something serious, but an
older sailor would have thought nothing of it. As I had
28 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
now become used to the vessel and to my duty, I was of
some service on a yard, and could knot my reef-point as
well as anybody. I obeyed the order to lay' aloft with
the rest, and found the reefing a very exciting scene; for
one watch reefed the fore-topsail, and the other the main,
and every one did his utmost to get his topsail hoisted
first. We had a great advantage over the larboard watch,
because the chief mate never goes aloft, while our new
second mate used to jump into the rigging as soon as we
began to haul out the reef-tackle, and have the weather
earing passed before there was a man upon the yard. In
this way we were almost always able to raise the cry of
" Haul out to leeward " before them, and having knotted
our points, would slide down the shrouds and back-stays,
and sing out at the topsail halyards to let it be known that
we were ahead of them. Reefing is the most exciting part
of a sailor's duty. All hands are engaged upon it, and
after the halyards are let go, there is no time to be lost —
no " sogering," or hanging back, then. If one is not quick
enough, another runs over him. The first on the yard
goes to the weather earing, the second to the lee, and the
next two to the " dog's ears ; " while the others lay along
into the bunt, just giving each other elbow-room. In reef-
ing, the yard-arms (the extremes of the yards) are the
posts of honor ; but in furling, the strongest and most ex-
perienced stand in the slings, (or, middle of the yard,) to
make up the bunt. If the second mate is a smart fellow,
he will never let any one take either of these posts from
him ; but if he is wanting either in seamanship, strength,
or activity, some better man will get the bunt and earings
from him ; which immediately brings him into disrepute.
We remained for the rest of the night, and throughout
the next day, under the same close sail, for it continued to
blow very fresh ; and though we had no more hail, yet there
was a soaking rain, and it was quite cold and uncomfort-
able; the more so because we were not prepared for cold
"■ This word " lay," which is in such general use on board ship, being
u=ed in giving orders instead of "go;" as, "Lay forward!" "Lay aft!
"Lay aloft!" etc., I do not understand to be the neuter verb lie, mispro-
nounced, but to be the active verb lay, with the objective case understood;
as, "Lay yourselves forward! " "Lay yourselves aft! " etc.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 29
weather, but had on our thin clothes. We were glad to
get a watch below, and put on our thick clothing, boots,
and south-westers. Towards sundown the gale moderated
a little, and it began to clear off in the south-west. We
shook our reefs out, one by one, and before midnight had
top-gallant sails upon her.
We had now made up our minds for Cape Horn and cold
weather, and entered upon every necessary preparation.
Tuesday, Nov. 4th. At day-break saw land upon our
larboard quarter. There were two islands, of different size
but of the same shape; rather high, beginning low at the
water's edge, and running with a curved ascent to the
middle. They were so far off as to be of a deep blue color,
and in a few hours we sank them in the north-east. These
were the Falkland Islands. We had run between them and
the main land of Patagonia. At sunset the second mate,
who was at the mast-head, said that he saw land on the
starboard bow. This must have been the island of Staten
Land; and we were now in the region of Cape Horn, with
a fine breeze from the northward, top-mast and top-gallant
studding-sails set, and every prospect of a speedy and pleas-
ant passage round
CHAPTER V
Cape Horn — A Visit
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 5th.— The weather was fine
during the previous night, and we had a clear view
of the Magellan Clouds, and of the Southern
Cross, The Magellan Clouds consist of three small nebulas
in the southern part of the heavens, — two bright, like the
milky-way, and one dark. These are first seen, just above
the horizon, soon after crossing the southern tropic. When
off Cape Horn, they are nearly over head. The cross is
composed of four stars in that form, and is said to be the
brightest constellation in the heavens.
During the first part of this day (Wednesday) the wind
was light, but after noon it came on fresh, and we furled
the royals. We still kept the studding-sails out, and the
captain said he should go round with them, if he could.
Just before eight o'clock (then about sundown, in that
latitude) the cry of " All hands ahoy ! " was sounded down
the fore scuttle and the after hatchway, and hurrying upon
deck, we found a large black cloud rolling on toward us
from the south-west, and blackening the whole heavens.
" Here comes Cape Horn ! " said the chief mate ; and we
had hardly time to haul down and clew up, before it was
upon us. In a few moments, a heavier sea was raised than
I had ever seen before, and as it was directly ahead, the
little brig, which was no better than a bathing machine,
plunged into it, and all the forward part of her was under
water; the sea pouring in through the bow-ports and hawse-
hole and over the knightheads, threatening to wash every-
thing overboard. In the lee scuppers it was up to a man's
waist. We sprang aloft and double reefed the topsails,
and furled all the other sails, and made all snus:. But this
would not do; the brig was laboring and straining against
30
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 31
the head sea, and the gale was growing worse and worse.
At the same time sleet and hail were driving with all fury
against us. We clewed down, and hauled out the reef-
tackles again, and close-reefed the fore-topsail, and furled
the main, and hove her to on the starboard tack. Here was
an end to our fine prospects. We made up our minds to
head winds and cold weather; sent down the royal yards,
and unrove the gear; but all the rest of the top hamper
remained aloft, even to the sky-sail masts and studding-
sail booms.
Throughout the night it stormed violently — rain, hail,
snow, and sleet beating upon the vessel — the wind con-
tinuing ahead, and the sea running high. At day-break
(about three, A. M.) the deck was covered with snow. The
captain sent up the steward with a glass of grog to each of
the watch; and all the time that we were off the Cape,
grog was given to the morning watch, and to all hands
whenever we reefed topsails. The clouds cleared away at
sunrise, and the wind becoming more fair, we again made
sail and stood nearly up to our course.
Thursday, Nov. 6th. It continued more pleasant through
the first part of the day, but at night we had the same
scene over again. This time, we did not heave to, as on
the night before, but endeavored to beat to windward under
close-reefed topsails, balance-reefed trysail, and fore-top-
mast staysail. This night it was my turn to steer, or, as
the sailors say, my trick at the helm, for two hours. In-
experienced as I was, I made out to steer to the satisfac-
tion of the officer, and neither S nor myself gave up
our tricks, all the time that we were off the Cape. This
was something to boast of, for it requires a good deal of
skill and watchfulness to steer a vessel close hauled, in a
gale of wind, against a heavy head sea. " Ease her when
she pitches," is the word ; and a little carelessness in letting
her ship a heavy sea, might sweep the decks, or knock the
masts out of her.
Friday, Nov. yth. Towards morning the wind went down,
and during the whole forenoon we lay tossing about in a
dead calm, and in the midst of a thick fog. The calms
here are unlike those in most parts of the world, for there
32 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
is always a high sea running, and the periods of calm are
so short, that it has no time to go down; and vessels, being
under no command of sails or rudder, lie like logs upon
the water. We were obliged to steady the booms and yards
by guys and braces, and to lash everything well below. We
now found our top hamper of some use, for though it is
liable to be carried av/ay or sprung by the sudden " bring-
ing up " of a vessel when pitching in a chopping sea, yet
it is a great help in steadying a vessel when rolling in a
long swell; giving more slowness, ease, and regularity to
the motion.
The calm of the morning reminds me of a scene which I
forgot to describe at the time of its occurrence, but which
I remember from its being the first time that I had heard
the near breathing of whales. It was on the night that
we passed between the Falkland Islands and Staten Land.
We had the watch from twelve to four, and coming upon
deck, found the little brig lying perfectly still, surrounded
by a thick fog, and the sea as smooth as though oil had
been poured upon it ; yet now and then a long, low swell
rolling under its surface, slightly lifting the vessel, but with-
out breaking the glassy smoothness of the water. We were
surrounded far and near by shoals of sluggish whales and
grampuses, which the fog prevented our seeing, rising
slowly to the surface, or perhaps lying out at length,
heaving out those peculiar lazy, deep, and long-drawn
breathings which give such an impression of supineness
and strength. Some of the watch were asleep, and the
others were perfectly still, so that there was nothing to
break the illusion, and I stood leaning over the bulwarks,
listening to the slow breathings of the mighty creatures —
now one breaking the water just alongside, whose black
body I almost fancied that I could see through the fog;
and again another, which I could just hear in the distance
— until the low and regular swell seemed like the heaving
of the ocean's mighty bosom to the sound of its heavy and
long-drawn respirations.
Towards the evening of this day, (Friday, yth,) the fog
cleared off, and we had every appearance of a cold blow;
and soon after sundown it came on. Again it was a clew
A — VOL. XXIII HC
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 33
up and haul down, reef and furl, until we had got her down
to close-reefed topsails, double-reefed trysail, and reefed
forespenser. Snow, hail, and sleet were driving upon us
most of the night, and the sea breaking over the bows and
covering the forward part of the little vessel; but as she
would lay her course the captain refused to heave her to.
Saturday, Nov. 8th. This day commenced with calm and
thick fog, and ended with hail, snow, a violent wind, and
close-reefed topsails.
Sunday, Nov. pth. To-day the sun rose clear, and
continued so until twelve o'clock, when the captain got an
observation. This was very well for Cape Horn, and we
thought it a little remarkable that, as we had not had one
unpleasant Sunday during the whole voyage, the only toler-
able day here should be a Sunday. We got time to clear up
the steerage and forecastle, and set things to rights, and to
overhaul our wet clothes a little. But this did not last very
long. Between five and six — the sun was then nearly three
hours high — the cry of " All starbowlines ahoy ! " summoned
our watch on deck ; and immediately all hands were called.
A true specimen of Cape Horn was coming upon us. A great
cloud of a dark slate-color was driving on us from the south-
west; and we did our best to take in sail (for the light sails
had been set during the first part of the day) before we
were in the midst of it We had got the light sails furled,
the courses hauled up, and the topsail reef-tackles hauled
out, and were just mounting the fore-rigging, when the
storm struck us. In an instant the sea, which had been com-
paratively quiet, was running higher and higher ; and it
became almost as dark as night. The hail and sleet were
harder than I had yet felt them ; seeming almost to pin us
down to the rigging. We were longer taking in sail than
ever before ; for the sails were stiff and wet, the ropes and
rigging covered with snow and sleet, and we ourselves cold
and nearly blinded with the violence of the storm. By the
time we had got down upon deck again, the little brig was
plunging madly into a tremendous head sea, which at every
drive rushed in through the bow-ports and over the bows,
and buried all the forward part of the vessel. At this in-
stant the chief mate, who was standing on the top of the
Br-VOL. XXIII HC
34 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
windlass, at the foot of the spenser mast, called out, "Lay
out there and furl the jib ! " This was no agreeable or safe
duty, yet it must be done. An old Swede, (the best sailor
on board,) who belonged on the forecastle, sprang out upon
the bowsprit. Another one must go : I was near the mate,
and sprang forward, threw the downhaul over the windlass,
and jumped between the knight-heads out upon the bow-
sprit. The crew stood abaft the windlass and hauled the
jib down while we got out upon the weather side of the jib-
boom, our feet on the foot-ropes, holding on by the spar, the
great jib flying off to leeward and slatting so as almost to
throw us off of the boom. For some time we could do
nothing but hold on, and the vessel diving into two huge
seas, one after the other, plunged us twice into the water up
to our chins. We hardly knew whether we were on or off;
when coming up, dripping from the water, we were raised
high into the air. John (that was the sailor's name) thought
the boom would go, every moment, and called out to the
mate to keep the vessel off, and haul down the stay-sail;
but the fury of the wind and the breaking of the seas against
the bows defied every attempt to make ourselves heard, and
we were obliged to do the best we could in our situation.
Fortunately, no other seas so heavy struck her, and we suc-
ceeded in furling the jib "after a fashion;" and, coming in
over the staysail nettings, were not a little pleased to find
that all was snug, and the watch gone below; for we were
soaked through, and it was very cold. The weather con-
tinued nearly the same through the night.
Monday, Nov. loth. During a part of this day we were
hove to, but the rest of the time were driving on, under
close-reefed sails, with a heavy sea, a strong gale, and fre-
quent squalls of hail and snow.
Tuesday, Nov. nth. The same.
Wednesday. The same.
Thursday. The same.
We had now got hardened to Cape weather, the vessel
was under reduced sail, and everything secured on deck
and below, so that we had little to do but to steer and to
stand our watch. Our clothes were all wet through, and the
only change was from wet to more wet. It was in vain to
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 3S
think of reading or working below, for we were too tired,
the hatchways were closed down, and everything was wet
and uncomfortable, black and dirty, heaving and pitching.
We had only to come below when the watch was out, wring
out our wet clothes, hang them up, and turn in and sleep as
soundly as we could, until the watch was called again. A
sailor can sleep anywhere — no sound of wind, water, wood
or iron can keep him awake — and we were always fast
asleep when three blows on the hatchway, and the unwel-
come cry of " All starbowlines ahoy ! Eight bells there
below! do you hear the news?" (the usual formula of
calling the watch,) roused us up from our berths upon the
cold, wet decks. The only time when we could be said to
take any pleasure was at night and morning, when we were
allowed a tin pot full of hot tea, (or, as the sailors signifi-
cantly call it " water bewitched,") sweetened with molasses.
This, bad as it was, was still warm and comforting, and,
together with our sea biscuit and cold salt beef, made quite
a meal. Yet even this meal was attended with some uncer-
tainty. We had to go ourselves to the galley and take our
kid of beef and tin pots of tea, and run the risk of losing
them before we could get below. Many a kid of beef have I
seen rolling in the scuppers, and the bearer lying at his
length on the decks. I remember an English lad who was
always the life of the crew, but whom we afterwards lost
overboard, standing for nearly ten minutes at the galley,
with his pot of tea in his hand, waiting for a chance to get
down into the forecastle ; and seeing what he thought was
a " smooth spell," started to go forward. He had just got
to the end of the windlass, when a great sea broke over the
bows, and for a moment I saw nothing of him but his head
and shoulders ; and at the next instant, being taken off his
legs, he was carried aft with the sea, until her stern lifting
up and sending the water forward, he was left high and
dry at the side of the long-boat, still holding on to his tin
pot, which had now nothing in it but salt water. But noth-
ing could ever daunt him, or overcome, for a moment, his
habitual good humor. Regaining his legs, and shaking his
fist at the man at the wheel, he rolled below, saying, as he
passed, "A man's no sailor, if he can't take a joke." The
36 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
ducking was not the worst of such an affair, for, as there
was an allowance of tea, you could get no more from the
galley ; and though the sailors would never suffer a man to
go without, but would always turn in a little from their
own pots to fill up his, yet this was at best but dividing the
loss among all hands.
Something of the same kind befell me a few days after.
The cook had just made for us a mess of hot " scouse " —
that is, biscuit pounded fine, salt beef cut into small pieces,
and a few potatoes, boiled up together and seasoned with
pepper. This was a rare treat, and I, being the last at the
galley, had it put in my charge to carry down for the mess.
I got along very well as far as the hatchway, and was just
getting down the steps, when a heavy sea, lifting the stern
out of water, and passing forward, dropping it down again,
threw the steps from their place, and I came down into the
steerage a little faster than I meant to, with the kid on top
of me, and the whole precious mess scattered over the
floor. Whatever your feelings may be, you must make a
joke of everything at sea ; and if you were to fall from
aloft and be caught in the belly of a sail, and thus saved
from instant death, it would not do to look at all disturbed,
or to make a serious matter of it.
Friday, Nov. 14th. We were now well to the westward
of the Cape, and were changing our course to the northward
as much as we dared, since the strong south-west winds,
which prevailed then, carried us in towards Patagonia. At
two, P. M., we saw a sail on our larboard beam, and at four
we made it out to be a large ship steering our course, under
single-reefed topsails. We at that time had shaken the
reefs out of our topsails, as the wind was lighter, and set
the main top-gallant sail. As soon as our captain saw what
sail she was under, he set the fore top-gallant sail and
flying jib; and the old whaler — for such, his boats and short
sail showed him to be — felt a little ashamed, and shook the
reefs out of his topsails, but could do no more, for he had
sent down his top-gallant masts off the Cape. He ran down
for us, and answered our hail as the whale-ship. New Eng-
land, of Poughkeepsie, one hundred and twenty days from
New York. Our captain gave our name, and added ninety-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 37
two days from Boston. They then had a little conversation
about longitude, in which they found that they could not
agree. The ship fell astern, and continued in sight during
the night. Toward morning, the wind having become light,
we crossed our royal and skysail yards, and at daylight, we
were seen under a cloud of sail, having royals and skysails
fore and aft. The " spouter," as the sailors call a whale-
man, had sent out his main top-gallant mast and set the sail,
and made signal for us to heave to. About half-past seven
their whale-boat came alongside, and Captain Job Terry
sprang on board, a man known in every port and by every
vessel in the Pacific ocean. "Don't you know Job Terry?
I thought everybody knew Job Terry," said a green-hand,
who came in the boat, to me, when I asked him about his
captain. He was indeed a singular man. He was six feet
high, wore thick cowhide boots, and brown coat and trowsers,
and, except a sun-burnt complexion, had not the slightest
appearance of a sailor; yet he had been forty years in the
whale trade, and, as he said himself, had owned ships, built
ships, and sailed ships. His boat's crew were a pretty raw
set, just set out of the bush, and, as the sailor's phrase is,
" hadn't got the hayseed out of their hair." Captain Terry
convinced our captain that our reckoning was a little out,
and, having spent the day on board, put ofif in his boat at
sunset for his ship, which was now six or eight miles astern.
He began a " yarn " when he came aboard, which lasted,
with but little intermission, for four hours. It was ali about
himself, and the Peruvian government, and the Dublin
frigate, and Lord James Townshend, and President Jackson,
and the ship Ann M'Kim of Baltimore. It would probably
never have come to an end, had not a good breeze sprung
up, which sent him off to his own vessel. One of the lads
who came in his boat, a thoroughly countrified-looking fel-
low, seemed to care very little about the vessel, rigging, or
anything else, but went round looking at the live stock, and
leaned over the pig-sty, and said he wished he was back
again tending his father's pigs.
At eight o'clock we altered our course to the northward,
bound for Juan Fernandez.
This day we saw the last of the albatrosses, which had
38 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
been our companions a great part of the time off the Cape.
I had been interested in the bird from descriptions which
I had read of it, and was not at all disappointed. We caught
one or two with a baited hook which we floated astern upon
a shingle. Their long, flapping wings, long legs, and large
staring eyes, give them a very peculiar appearance. They
look well on the wing; but one of the finest sights that I
have ever seen, was an albatross asleep upon the water,
during a calm, off Cape Horn, when a heavy sea was run-
ning. There being no breeze, the surface of the water was
unbroken, but a long, heavy swell was rolling, and we saw
the fellow, all white, directly ahead of us, asleep upon the
waves, with his head under his wing; now rising on the
top of a huge billow, and then falling slowly until he was
lost in the hollow between. He was undisturbed for some
time, until the noise of our bows, gradually approaching,
roused him, when, lifting his head, he stared upon us for a
moment, and then spread his wide wings and took his
flight.
CHAPTER VI
Loss OF A Man — Superstition
MONDAY, Nov. 19TH. This was a black day in our
calendar. At seven o'clock in the morning, it being
our watch below, we were aroused from a sound
sleep by the cry of " All hands ahoy ! a man overboard ! "
This unwonted cry sent a thrill through the heart of every
one, and hurrying on deck, we found the vessel hove flat
aback, with all her studding-sails set ; for the boy who was
at the helm left it to throw something overboard, and the
carpenter, who was an old sailor, knowing that the wind
was light, put the helm down and hove her aback. The
watch on deck were lowering away the quarter-boat, and I
got on deck just in time to heave myself into her as she
was leaving the side ; but it was not until out upon the wide
Pacific, in our little boat, that I knew whom we had lost.
It was George Ballmer, a young English sailor, who was
prized by the officers as an active and willing seaman, and
by the crew as a lively, hearty fellow, and a good shipmate.
He was going aloft to fit a strap round the main top-mast-
head, for ringtail halyards, and had the strap and block, a
coil of halyards, and a marline-spike about his neck. He
fell from the starboard futtock shrouds, and not knowing
how to swim, and being heavily dressed, with all those
things round his neck, he probably sank immediately. We
pulled astern, in the direction in which he fell, and though
we knew that there was no hope of saving him, yet no one
wished to speak of returning, and we rowed about for nearly
an hour, without the hope of doing anything, but unwilling
to acknowledge to ourselves that we must give him up. At
length we turned the boat's head and made towards the
vessel.
Death is at all times solemn, but never so much so as at
39
40 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
sea. A man dies on shore ; his body remains with his
friends, and " the mourners go about the streets ;" but when
a man falls overboard at sea and is lost, there is a sudden-
ness in the event, and a difficulty in realizing it, which give
to it an air of awful mystery. A man dies on shore — you
follow his body to the grave, and a stone marks the spot.
You are often prepared for the event. There is always
something which helps you to realize it when it happens,
and to recall it when it has passed. A man is shot down
by your side in battle, and the mangled body remains an
object, and a real evidence; but at sea, the man is near you
— at your side — you hear his voice, and in an instant he is
gone, and nothing but a vacancy shows his loss. Then, too,
at sea — to use a homely but expressive phrase — you miss
a man so much. A dozen men are shut up together in a little
bark, upon the wide, wide sea, and for months and months
see no forms and hear no voices but their own and one is
taken suddenly from among them, and they miss him at
every turn. It is like losing a limb. There are no new faces
or new scenes to fill up the gap. There is always an empty
berth in the forecastle, and one man wanting when the small
night watch is mustered. There is one less to take the
wheel and one less to lay out with you upon the yard. You
miss his form, and the sound of his voice, for habit had
made them almost necessary to you, and each of your senses
feels the loss.
All these things make such a death peculiarly solemn,
and the effect of it remains upon the crew for some time.
There is more kindness shown by the officers to the crew,
and by the crew to one another. There is more quietness
and seriousness. The oath and the loud laugh are gone.
The officers are more watchful, and the crew go more care-
fully aloft. The lost man is seldom mentioned, or is dis-
missed with a sailor's rude eulogy — " Well, poor George
is gone ! His cruise is up soon ! He knew his work, and
did his duty, and was a good shipmate." Then usually fol-
lows some allusion to another world, for sailors are almost
all believers ; but their notions and opinions are unfixed and
at loose ends. They say, — " God won't be hard upon the
poor fellow," and seldom get beyond the common phrase
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 41
which seems to imply that their sufferings and hard treat-
ment here will excuse them hereafter, — " To work hard,
live hard, die hard, and go to hell after all, would he hard
indeed!" Our cook, a simple-hearted old African, who had
been through a good deal in his day, and was rather seri-
ously inclined, always going to church twice a day when
on shore, and reading his Bible on a Sunday in the galley,
talked to the crew about spending their Sabbaths badly, and
told them that they might go as suddenly as George had, and
be as little prepared.
Yet a sailor's life is at best but a mixture of a little good
with much evil, and a little pleasure with much pain. The
beautiful is linked with the revolting, the sublime with the
commonplace, and the solemn with the ludicrous.
We had hardly returned on board with our sad report,
before an auction was held of the poor man's clothes. The
captain had first, however, called all hands aft and asked
them if they were satisfied that everything had been done
to save the man, and if they thought there was any use in
remaining there longer. The crew all said that it was in
vain, for the man did not know how to swim, and was very
heavily dressed. So we then filed away and kept her off to
her course.
The laws regulating navigation make the captain answer-
able for the effects of a sailor who dies during the voyage,
and it is either a law or a universal custom, established for
convenience, that the captain should immediately hold an
auction of his things, in which they are bid off by the sail-
ors, and the sums which they give are deducted from their
wages at the end of the voyage. In this way the trouble
and risk of keeping his things through the voyage are
avoided, and the clothes are usually sold for more than
they would be worth on shore. Accordingly, we had no
sooner got the ship before the wind, than his chest was
brought up upon the forecastle, and the sale began. The
jackets and trowsers in which we had seen him dressed but
a few days before, were exposed and bid off while the life
was hardly out of his body, and his chest was taken aft and
used as a store-chest, so that there was nothing left which
could be called his. Sailors have an unwillingness to wear
42 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
a dead man's clothes during the same voyage, and they
seldom do so unless they are in absolute want.
As is usual after a death, many stories were told about
George. Some had heard him say that he repented never
having learned to swim, and that he knew that he should
meet his death by drowning. Another said that he never
knew any good to come of a voyage made against the will,
and the deceased man shipped and spent his advance, and
was afterwards very unwilling to go, but not being able to
refund, was obliged to sail with us. A boy, too, who had
become quite attached to him, said that George talked
to him during most of the watch on the night before about
his mother and family at home, and this was the first time
that he had mentioned the subject during the voyage.
The night after this event, when I went to the galley to
get a light, I found the cook inclined to be talkative, so I
sat down on the spars, and gave him an opportunity to hold
a yarn. I was the more inclined to do so, as I found that he
was full of the superstitions once more common among
seamen, and which the recent death had waked up in his
mind. He talked about George's having spoken of his
friends, and said he believed few men died without having
a warning of it, which he supported by a great many stories
of dreams, and the unusual behavior of men before death.
From this he went on to other superstitions, the Flying
Dutchman, etc., and talked rather mysteriously, having
something evidently on his mind. At length he put his head
out of the galley and looked carefully about to see if any
one was within hearing, and being satisfied on that point,
asked me in a low tone —
"I say! you know what countryman 'e carpenter be?"
" Yes," said I " he's a German."
" What kind of a German ? " said the cook.
" He belongs to Bremen," said I.
" Are you sure o' dat ? " said he.
I satisfied him on that point by saying that he could speak
no language but the German and English.
" I'm plaguy glad o' dat," said the cook. " I was mighty
'fraid he was a Fin. I tell you what, I been plaguy civil to
that man all the voyage."
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 43
I asked him the reason of this, and found that he was
fully possessed with the notion that Fins are wizards, and
especially have power over winds and storms. I tried to
reason with him about it, but he had the best of all
arguments, that from experience, at hand, and was not to be
moved. He had been in a vessel to the Sandwich Islands,
in which the sail-maker was a Fin, and could do anything he
was of a mind to. This sail-maker kept a junk bottle in his
berth, which was always just half full of rum, though he got
drunk upon it nearly every day. He had seen him sit for
hours together, talking to this bottle, which he stood up be-
fore him on the table. The same man cut his throat in his
berth, and everybody said he was possessed.
He had heard of ships, too, beating up the gulf of Fin-
land against a head wind and having a ship heave in sight
astern, overhaul and pass them, with as fair a wind as
could blow, and all studding-sails out, and find she was
from Finland.
" Oh, no ! " said he ; " I've seen too much of them men to
want to see 'em 'board a ship. If they can't have their own
way, they'll play the d 1 with you."
As I still doubted, he said he would leave it to John, who
was the oldest seaman aboard, and would know, if anybody
did. John, to be sure, was the oldest, and at the same time
the most ignorant, man in the ship ; but I consented to have
him called. The cook stated the matter to him, and John,
as I anticipated, sided with the cook, and said that he him-
self had been in a ship where they had a head wind for a
fortnight, and the captain found out at last that one of the
men, whom he had had some hard words with a short time
before, was a Fin, and immediately told him if he didn't
stop the head wind he would shut him down in the fore
peak. The Fin would not give in, and the captain shut
him down in the fore peak, and would not give him anything
to eat. The Fin held out for a day and a half, when he
could not stand it any longer, and did something or
other which brought the wind round again, and they let
him up.
"There," said the cook, "what you think o' dat?"
I told him I had no doubt it was true, and that it would
44 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
have been odd if the wind had not changed in fifteen days,
Fin or no Fin.
" Oh," says he, " go 'way ! You think, 'cause you been to
college, you know better than anybody. You know better
than them as has seen it with their own eyes. You wait
till you've been to sea as long as I have, and you'll know."
CHAPTER VII
Juan Fernandez — The Pacific
WE CONTINUED sailing along with a fair wind and
fine weather until
Tuesday, Nov. 2^th, when at daylight we saw
the island of Juan Fernandez, directly ahead, rising like a
deep blue cloud out of the sea. We were then probably near-
ly seventy miles from it ; and so high and so blue did it ap-
pear, that I mistook it for a cloud, resting over the island,
and looked for the island under it, until it gradually turned
to a deader and greener color, and I could mark the
inequalities upon its surface. At length we could dis-
tinguish trees and rocks ; and by the afternoon, this beauti-
ful island lay fairly before us, and we directed our course
to the only harbor. Arriving at the entrance soon after
sun-down, we found a Chilian man-of-war brig, the only
vessel, coming out. She hailed us, and an officer on
board, whom we supposed to be an American, advised us
to run in before night, and said that they were bound to
Valparaiso. We ran immediately for the anchorage, but,
owing to the winds which drew about the mountains and
came to us in flaws from every point of the compass, we
did not come to an anchor until nearly midnight. We
had a boat ahead all the time that we were working in, and
those aboard were continually bracing the yards about for
every pufif that struck us, until about 12 o'clock, when
we came-to in 40 fathoms water, and our anchor struck
bottom for the first time since we left Boston — one hundred
and three days. We were then divided into three watches,
and thus stood out the remainder of the night.
I was called on deck to stand my watch at about three
in the morning, and I shall never forget the peculiar sen-
sation which I experienced on finding myself once more
45
46 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
surrounded by land, feeling the night breeze coming from
off shore, and hearing the frogs and crickets. The moun-
tains seemed almost to hang over us, and apparently from
the very heart of them there came out, at regular intervals,
a loud echoing sound, which affected me as hardly human.
We saw no lights, and could hardly account for the sound,
until the mate, who had been there before, told us that
it was the "Alerta" of the Chilian soldiers, who were
stationed over some convicts confined in caves nearly half
way up the mountain. At the expiration of my watch I
went below, feeling not a little anxious for the day, that I
might see more nearly, and perhaps tread upon, this ro-
mantic, I may almost say, classic island.
When all hands were called it was nearly sunrise, and
between that time and breakfast, although quite busy on
board in getting up water-casks, etc., I had a good view
of the objects about me. The harbor was nearly land-
locked, and at the head of it was a landing-place, protected
by a small breakwater of stones, upon which two large
boats were hauled up, with a sentry standing over them.
Near this was a variety of huts or cottages, nearly an
hundred in number, the best of them built of mud and
whitewashed, but the greater part only Robinson Crusoe
like — of posts and branches of trees. The governor's
house, as it is called, was the most conspicuous, being large,
with grated windows, plastered walls, and roof of red tiles;
yet, like all the rest, only of one story. Near it was a
small chapel, distinguished by a cross ; and a long, low
brown-looking building, surrounded by something like
a palisade, from which an old and dingy-looking Chilian
flag was flying. This, of course, was dignified by the
title of Presidio. A sentinel was stationed at the chapel,
another at the governor's house, and a few soldiers armed
with bayonets, looking rather ragged, with shoes out at
the toes, were strolling about among the houses, or wait-
ing at the landing-place for our boat to come ashore.
The mountains were high, but not so overhanging as
they appeared to be by starlight. They seemed to bear
off towards the centre of the island, and were green and
well wooded, with some large, and, I am told, exceedingly
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 47
iertile valleys, with mule-tracks leading to different parts
of the island.
I cannot here forget how my friend S and myself
got the laugh of the crew upon us by our eagerness to get
on shore. The captain having ordered the quarter-boat to
be lowered, we both sprang down into the forecastle,
filled our jacket pockets with tobacco to barter with the
people ashore, and when the officer called for "four
hands in the boat," nearly broke our necks in our haste to
be first over the side, and had the pleasure of pulling ahead
of the brig with a tow-line for a half an hour, and com-
ing on board again to be laughed at by the crew, who had
seen our manoeuvre.
After breakfast the second mate was ordered ashore
with five hands to fill the water-casks, and to my joy I
was among the number. We pulled ashore with the empty
casks; and here again fortune favored me, for the water
was too thick and muddy to be put into the casks, and the
governor had sent men up to the head of the stream to clear
it out for us, which gave us nearly two hours of leisure.
This leisure we employed in wandering about among the
houses, and eating a little fruit which was offered to us.
Ground apples, melons, grapes, strawberries of an enor-
mous size, and cherries, abound here. The latter are said
to have been planted by Lord Anson. The soldiers were
miserably clad, and asked with some interest whether we
had shoes to sell on board. I doubt very much if they
had the means of buying them. They were very eager to
get tobacco, for which they gave shells, fruit, etc. Knives
also were in demand, but we were forbidden by the gov-
ernor to let any one have them, as he told us that all the
people there, except the soldiers and a few officers, were
convicts sent from Valparaiso, and that it was necessary
to keep all weapons from their hands. The island, it
seems, belongs to Chili, and had been used by the govern-
ment as a sort of Botany Bay for nearly two years; and
the governor — an Englishman who had entered the Chil-
ian navy — with a priest, half a dozen task-masters, and a
body of soldiers, were stationed there to keep them in
order. This was no easy task; and only a few months be-
48 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR. /
fore our arrival, a few of them had stolen a boat at night,
boarded a brig lying in the harbor, sent the captain and
crew ashore in their boat, and gone off to sea. We were
informed of this, and loaded our arms and kept strict
watch on board through the night, and were careful not
to let the convicts get our knives from us when on shore.
The worst part of the convicts, I found, were locked up
under sentry in caves dug into the side of the mountain,
nearly half way up, with mule-tracks leading to them,
whence they were taken by day and set to work under
task-masters upon building an aqueduct, a wharf, and other
public works ; while the rest lived in the houses which they
put up for themselves, had their families with them, and
seemed to me to be the laziest people on the face of the
earth. They did nothing but take a paseo into the woods,
a paseo among the houses, a paseo at the landing-place,
looking at us and our vessel, and too lazy to speak fast;
while the others were driving — or rather, driven — about,
at a rapid trot, in single file, with burdens on their shoul-
ders, and followed up by their task-masters, with long
rods in their hands, and broad-brimmed straw hats upon
their heads. Upon what precise grounds this great
distinction was made, I do not know, and I could not
very well know, for the governor was the only man
who spoke English upon the island, and he was out of
my walk.
Having filled our casks, we returned on board, and soon
after, the governor, dressed in a uniform like that of an
American militia officer, the Padre, in the dress of the
grey friars, with hood and all complete, and the Capitan,
with big whiskers and dirty regimentals, came on board
to dine. While at dinner, a large ship appeared in the
offing, and soon afterwards we saw a light whale-boat pull-
ing into the harbor. The ship lay off and on, and a boat
came alongside of us, and put on board the captain, a
plain young Quaker, dressed all in brown. The ship was
the Cortes, whaleman, of New Bedford, and had put in
to see if there were any vessels from round the Horn, and
to hear the latest news from America. They remained
aboard a short time and had a little talk with the crew.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 49
when they left us and pulled off to their ship, which, hav-
ing filled away, was soon out of sight.
A small boat which came from the shore to take away
the governor and suite — as they styled themselves —
brought, as a present to the crew, a large pail of milk, a
few shells, and a block of sandal wood. The milk, which
was the first we had tasted since leaving Boston, we soon
despatched; a piece of the sandal wood I obtained, and
learned that it grew on the hills in the centre of the island.
I have always regretted that I did not bring away other
specimens of the products of the island, having after-
wards lost all that I had with me — the piece of sandal
wood, and a small flower which I plucked and brought on
board in the crown of my tarpaulin, and carefully pressed
between the leaves of a book.
About an hour before sun-down, having stowed our water-
casks, we commenced getting under weigh, and were not
a little while about it; for we were in thirty fathoms water,
and in one of the gusts which came from off shore had
let go our other bow anchor ; and as the southerly wind draws
round the mountains and comes off in uncertain flaws,
we were continually swinging round, and had thus got
a very foul hawse. We hove in upon our chain, and after
stoppering and unshackling it again and again, and hoisting
and hauling down sail, we at length tipped our anchor and
stood out to sea. It was bright starlight when we were clear
of the bay, and the lofty island lay behind us, in its still
beauty, and I gave a parting look, and bid farewell, to the
most romantic spot of earth that my eyes had ever seen. I did
then, and have ever since, felt an attachment for that island,
altogether peculiar. It was partly, no doubt, from its hav-
ing been the first land that I had seen since leaving home,
and still more from the associations which every one has
connected with it in their childhood from reading Robin-
son Crusoe. To this I may add the height and romantic
outlines of its mountains, the beauty and freshness of
its verdure, and the extreme fertility of its soil, and its
solitary position in the midst of the wide expanse of
the South Pacific, as all concurring to give it its peculiar
charm.
so RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
When thoughts of this place have occurred to me at
different times, I have endeavored to recall more particu-
lars with regard to it. It is situated in about 33° 30'
S., and is distant a little more than three hundred miles
from Valparaiso, on the coast of Chili, w^hich is in the
same latitude. It is about fifteen miles in length and
five in breadth. The harbor in which we anchored
(called by Lord Anson, Cumberland bay) is the only one
in the island; two small bights of land on each side of the
main bay (sometimes dignified by the name of bays) being
little more than landing-places for boats. The best an-
chorage is at the western side of the bay, where we lay at
about three cables' lengths from the shore, in a little
more than thirty fathoms water. This harbor is open to
the N. N. E., and in fact nearly from N. to E., but the
only dangerous winds being the south-west, on which side
are the highest mountains, it is considered very safe. The
most remarkable thing perhaps about it is the fish with
which it abounds. Two of our crew, who remained on
board, caught in a few minutes enough to last us for sev-
eral days, and one of the men, who was a Marblehead man,
said that he never saw or heard of such an abundance.
There were cod, breams, silver-fish, and other kinds whose
names they did not know, or which I have forgotten.
There is an abundance of the best of water upon the
island, small streams running through every valley, and
leaping down from the sides of the hills. One stream of
considerable size flows through the centre of the lawn
upon which the houses are built, and furnishes an easy
and abundant supply to the inhabitants. This, by means
of a short wooden aqueduct, was brought quite down to
our boats. The convicts had also built something in the
way of a breakwater, and were to build a landing-place
for boats and goods, after which the Chilian government
intended to lay port charges.
Of the wood I can only say, that it appeared to be
abundant; the island in the month of November, when we
were there, being in all the freshness and beauty of
spring, appeared covered with trees. These were chiefly
aromatic, and the largest was the myrtle. The soil is
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 51
very loose and rich, and wherever it is broken up, there
spring up presently radishes, turnips, ground apples,
and other garden fruits. Goats, we were told, were not
abundant, and we saw none, though it was said we might
if we had gone into the interior. We saw a few bullocks
winding about in the narrow tracks upon the sides of the
mountains, and the settlement was completely overrun
with dogs of every nation, kindred, and degree. Hens
and chickens were also abundant, and seemed to be taken
good care of by the women. The men appeared to be the
laziest people upon the face of the earth; and indeed, as
far as my observation goes, there are no people to whom
the newly invented Yankee word of " loafer " is more
applicable than to the Spanish Americans. These men
stood about doing nothing, with their cloaks, little better
in texture than an Indian's blanket, but of rich colors,
thrown over their shoulders with an air which it is said
that a Spanish beggar can always give to his rags ; and
with great politeness and courtesy in their address, though
with holes in their shoes and without a sou in their pockets.
The only interruption to the monotony of their day seemed
to be when a gust of wind drew round between the moun-
tains and blew off the boughs which they had placed for
roofs to their houses, and gave them a few minutes' oc-
cupation in running about after them. One of these gusts
occurred while we were ashore, and afforded us no little
amusement at seeing the men look round, and if they
found that their roofs had stood, conclude that they might
stand too, while those who saw theirs blown off, after utter-
ing a few Spanish oaths, gathered their cloaks over their
shoulders, and started off after them. However, they
were not gone long, but soon returned to their habitual
occupation of doing nothing.
It is perhaps needless to say that we saw nothing of the
interior ; but all who have seen it, give very glowing ac-
counts of it. Our captain went with the governor and a few
servants upon mules over the mountains, and upon their
return, I heard the governor request him to stop at the
island on his passage home, and offer him a handsome sum
to bring a few deer with him from California, for he said
52 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
that there were none upon the island, and he was very
desirous of having it stocked.
A steady, though light south-westerly wind carried us
well ofif from the island, and when I came on deck for the
middle watch I could just distinguish it from its hiding a
few low stars in the southern horizon, though my un-
practised eye would hardly have known it for land. At
the close of the watch a few trade-wind clouds which had
arisen, though we were hardly yet in their latitude, shut
it out from our view, and the next day,
Thursday, Nov. 2/th, upon coming on deck in the
morning, we were again upon the wide Pacific, and saw
no more land until we arrived upon the western coast of
the great continent of America.
CHAPTER VIII
" Tarring Down " — Daily Life — " Going Aft " —
California
A S WE saw neither land nor sail from the time of leav-
l\ ing Juan Fernandez until our arrival in California,
-^-^ nothing of interest occurred except our own doings on
board. We caught the south-east trades, and ran before them
for nearly three weeks, without so much as altering a sail or
bracing a yard. The captain took advantage of this fine
weather to get the vessel in order for coming upon the
coast. The carpenter was employed in fitting up a part
of the steerage into a trade-room ; for our cargo, we now
learned, was not to be landed, but to be sold by retail from
on board; and this trade-room was built for the samples
and the lighter goods to be kept in, and as a place for the
general business. In the mean time we were employed in
working upon the rigging. Everything was set up taut,
the lower rigging rattled down, or rather rattled up, (ac-
cording to the modern fashion,) an abundance of spun-
yarn and seizing-stuff made, and finally, the whole stand-
ing rigging, fore and aft, was tarred down. This was my
first essay at this latter business, and I had enough of it;
for nearly all of it came upon my friend S and my-
self. The men were needed at the other work, and M ,
the other young man who came out with us, was laid up
with the rheumatism in his feet, and the boy Sam was rather
too young and small for the business ; and as the winds
were light and regular, he was kept during most of the
daytime at the helm; so that nearly all the tarring came
upon us. We put on short duck frocks, and taking a small
bucket of tar and a bunch of oakum in our hands, went
aloft, one at the main royal-mast-head and the other at
the fore, and began tarring down. This is an important
53
54 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
operation, and is usually done about once in six months
in vessels upon a long voyage. It was done in our vessel
several times afterwards, but by the whole crew at once,
and finished off in a day; but at this time, as most of it
came upon two of us, and we were new at the business, it
took us several days. In this operation they always begin
at the mast-head and work down, tarring the shrouds, back-
stays, standing parts of the lifts, the ties, runners, etc., and
go out to the yard-arms, and come in, tarring, as they come,
the lifts and foot-ropes. Tarring the stays is more difficult,
and is done by an operation which the sailors call " riding
down." A long piece of rope — top-gallant-studding-sail hal-
yards, or something of the kind — is taken up to the mast-
head from which the stay leads, and rove through a block
for a girt-line, or, as the sailors usually call it, a ^raHf-line;
with the end of this a bowline is taken round the stay, into
which the man gets with his bucket of tar and a bunch
of oakum, and the other end being fast on deck, with some
one to tend it, he is lowered down gradually, and tars the
stay carefully as he goes. There he "swings aloft 'twixt
heaven and earth," and if the rope slips, breaks, or is let go,
or if the bowline slips, he falls overboard or breaks his neck.
This, however, is a thing which never enters into a sailor's
calculation. He only thinks of leaving no holydays, (places
not tarred,) for in case he should, he would have to go
over the whole again ; or of dropping no tar upon the
deck, for then there would be a soft word in his ear from
the mate. In this manner I tarred down all the head-
stays, but found the rigging about the jib-booms, martin-
gale, and spritsail yard, upon which I was afterwards put,
the hardest. Here you have to hang on with your eye-lids
and tar with your hands.
This dirty work could not last forever, and on Saturday
night we finished it, scraped all the spots from the deck
and rails, and, what was of more importance to us, cleaned
ourselves thoroughly, rolled up our tarry frocks and trow-
sers and laid them away for the next occasion, and put
on our clean duck clothes, and had a good comfortable
sailor's Saturday night. The next day was pleasant, and
indeed we had but one unpleasant Sunday during the whole
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 55
voyage, and that was off Cape Horn, where we could
expect nothing better. On Monday we commenced paint-
ing, and getting the vessel ready for port. This work, too,
is done by the crew, and every sailor who has been long
voyages is a little of a painter, in addition to his other
accomplishments. We painted her, both inside and out,
from the truck to the water's edge. The outside is painted
by lowering stages over the side by ropes, and on those we
sat, with our brushes and paint-pots by us, and our feet
half the time in the water. This must be done, of course,
on a smooth day when the vessel does not roll much. I
remember very well being over the side painting in this
way, one fine afternoon, our vessel going quietly along at
the rate of four or five knots, and a pilot-fish, the sure
precursor of a shark, swimming alongside of us. The
captain was leaning over the rail watching him, and we
went quietly on with our work. In the midst of our
painting, on
Friday, Dec. ipth, we crossed the equator for the sec-
ond time. I had the feeling which all have when, for the
first time, they find themselves living under an entire
change of seasons ; as, crossing the line under a burning sun
in the midst of December, and, as I afterwards was, beat-
ing about among ice and snow on the Fourth of July.
Thursday, Dec. 2§th. This day was Christmas, but it
brought us no holiday. The only change was that we
had a "plum duff" for dinner, and the crew quarrelled
with the steward because he did not give us our usual
allowance of molasses to eat with it. He thought the
plums would be a substitute for the molasses, but we were
not to be cheated out of our rights in this way.
Such are the trifles which produce quarrels on ship-
board. In fact, we had been too long from port. We were
getting tired of one another, and were in an irritable state,
both forward and aft. Our fresh provisions were, of course,
gone, and the captain had stopped our rice, so that we
had nothing but salt beef and salt pork throughout the
week, with the exception of a very small duff on Sunday.
This added to the discontent ; and a thousand little things,
daily and almost hourly occurring, which no one who has
56 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
not himself been on a long and tedious voyage can con-
ceive of or properly appreciate — little wars and rumors of
wa.Ts, — reports of things said in the cabin, — misunderstand-
ing of words and looks — apparent abuses, — brought us into
a state in which everything seemed to go wrong. Every
encroachment upon the time allowed for rest, appeared
unnecessary. Every shifting of the studding-sails was only
to " haze "^ the crew.
In the midst of this state of things, my messmate S
and myself petitioned the captain for leave to shift our
berths from the steerage, where we had previously lived,
into the forecastle. This, to our delight, was granted, and
we turned in to bunk and mess with the crew forward.
We now began to feel like sailors, which we never fully
did when we were in the steerage. While there, however
useful and active you may be, you are but a mongrel, — a
sort of afterguard and " ship's cousin." You are imme-
diately under the eye of the officers, cannot dance, sing,
play, smoke, make a noise, or growl, (i. e. complain,) or
take any other sailor's pleasure ; and you live with the
steward, who is usually a go-between ; and the crew never
feel as though you were one of them. But if you live in
the forecastle, you are "as independent as a wood-sawyer's
clerk," (nautice,) and are a sailor. You hear sailors'
talk, learn their ways, their peculiarities of feeling as well
as speaking and acting; and moreover pick up a great deal
of curious and useful information in seamanship, ship's
customs, foreign countries, etc., from their long yarns and
equally long disputes. No man can be a sailor, or know
what sailors are, unless he has lived in the forecastle with
them — turned in and out with them, eaten of their dish
and drank of their cup. After I had been a week there,
nothing would have tempted me to go back to my old
berth, and never afterwards, even in the worst of weather,
when in a close and leaking forecastle off Cape Horn, did
I for a moment wish myself in the steerage. Another
thing which you learn better in the forecastle than you
1 Hase is a word of frequent use on board ship, and never, I believe, used
elsewhere. It is very expressive to a sailor, and means to punish by hard
work. Let an officer once say, " I'll hace you," and your fate is fixed.
You will be " worked up," if you are not a better man than he is.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 57
can anywhere else, is to make and mend clothes, and this
is indispensable to sailors. A large part of their watches
below they spend at this work, and here I learned that
art which stood me in so good stead afterwards.
But to return to the state of the crew. Upon our
coming into the forecastle, there was some difficulty about
the uniting of the allowances of bread, by which we thought
we were to lose a few pounds. This set us into a ferment.
The captain would not condescend to explain, and we went
aft in a body, with a Swede, the oldest and best sailor of
the crew, for spokesman. The recollection of the scene
that followed always brings up a smile, especially the
quarter-deck dignity and eloquence of the captain. He
was walking the weather side of the quarter-deck, and see-
ing us coming aft, stopped short in his walk, and with a
voice and look intended to annihilate us, called out, "Well,
what the d 1 do you want now ? " Whereupon we stated
our grievances as respectfully as we could, but he broke
in upon us, saying that we were getting fat and lazy, didn't
have enough to do, and that made us find fault. This pro-
voked us, and we began to give word for word. This would
never answer. He clenched his fist, stamped and swore,
and sent us all forward, saying, with oaths enough inter-
spersed to send the words home, — " Away with you ! go
forward every one of you ! I'll ha:;e you ! I'll work you
up ! You don't have enough to do ! If you a'n't careful
I'll make a hell of the ship ! . . . . You've mistaken your man !
I'm F T , all the way from ' down east.' I've been
through the mill, ground, and bolted, and come out a
regular-hnilt down-east johnny-cake, good when it's hot,
but when it's cold, sour and indigestible; — and you'll find me
so ! The latter part of this harangue I remember well,
for it made a strong impression, and the " down-east johnny-
cake " became a by-word for the rest of the voyage. So
much for our petition for the redress of grievances. The
matter was however set right, for the mate, after allowing
the captain due time to cool off, explained it to him, and at
night we were all called aft to hear another harangue, in
which, of course, the whole blame of the misunderstanding
was thrown upon us. We ventured to hint that he would not
58 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
give us time to explain ; but it wouldn't do. We were
driven back discomfited. Thus the affair blew over, but
the irritation caused by it remained; and we never had
peace or a good understanding again so long as the captain
and crew remained together.
We continued sailing along in the beautiful temperate
climate of the Pacific. The Pacific well deserves its name,
for except in the southern part, at Cape Horn, and in the
western parts, near the China and Indian oceans, it has
few storms, and is never either extremely hot or cold. Be-
tween the tropics there is a slight haziness, like a thin
gauze, drawn over the sun, which, without obstructing or
obscuring the light, tempers the heat which comes down
with perpendicular fierceness in the Atlantic and Indian
tropics. We sailed well to the westward to have the full ad-
vantage of the north-east trades, and when we had reached
the latitude of Point Conception, where it is usual to make
the land, we were several hundred miles to the westward of
it. We immediately changed our course due east, and
sailed in that direction for a number of days. At length
we began to heave-to after dark, for fear of making the
land at night on a coast where there are no light-houses and
but indifferent charts, and at daybreak on the morning of
Tuesday, Jan 13th, 18 j§, we made the land at Point Con-
ception, lat. 34° 32' N., long. 120° 06' W. The port of
Santa Barbara, to which we were bound, lying about fifty
miles to the southward of this point, we continued sailing
down the coast during the day and following night, and
on the next morning,
Jan. 14th, 18^5, we came to anchor in the spacious bay
of Santa Barbara, after a voyage of one hundred and fifty
days from Boston.
CHAPTER IX
California — A South-easter
CALIFORNIA extends along nearly the whole of the
western coast of Mexico, between the gulf of Cali-
fornia in the south and the bay of Sir Francis Drake
on the north, or between the 22d and 38th degrees of north
latitude. It is subdivided into two provinces — Lower or Old
California, lying between the gulf and the 32d degree of
latitude, or near it; (the division line running, I believe,
between the bay of Todos Santos and the port of San
Diego;) and New or Upper California, the southernmost
port of which is San Diego, in lat. 32° 39', and the northern-
most, San Francisco, situated in the large bay discovered by
Sir Francis Drake, in lat. 37° 58', and called after him by
the English, though the Mexicans call it Yerba Buena.
Upper California has the seat of its government at Monterey,
where is also the custom-house, the only one on the coast,
and at which every vessel intending to trade on the coast
must enter its cargo before it can commence its traffic. We
were to trade upon this coast exclusively, and therefore
expected to go to Monterey at first; but the captain's orders
from home were to put in at Santa Barbara, which is the
central port of the coast, and wait there for the agent who
lives there, and transacts all the business for the firm to
which our vessel belonged.
The bay, or, as it was commonly called, the canal of
Santa Barbara, is very large, being formed by the main
land on one side, (between Point Conception on the north
and Point St. Buena Ventura on the south,) which here
bends in like a crescent, and three large islands opposite to
it and at the distance of twenty miles. This is just suf-
ficient to give it the name of a bay, while at the same time
it is so large and so much exposed to the south-east and
59
60 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
north-west winds, that it is little better than an open road-
stead; and the whole swell of the Pacific ocean rolls in here
before a south-easter, and breaks with so heavy a surf in
the shallow waters, that it is highly dangerous to lie near
in to the shore during the south-easter season, that is, be-
tween the months of November and April.
This wind (the south-easter) is the bane of the coast
of California. Between the months of November and April,
(including a part of each,.) which is the rainy season in
this latitude, you are never safe from it, and accordingly,
in the ports which are open to it, vessels are obliged, during
these months, to lie at anchor at a distance of three miles
from the shore, with slip-ropes on their cables, ready to slip
and go to sea at a moment's warning. The only ports which
are safe from this wind are San Francisco and Monterey
in the north, and San Diego in the south.
As it was January when we arrived, and the middle of
the south-easter season, we accordingly came to anchor at
the distance of three miles from the shore, in eleven
fathoms water, and bent a slip-rope and buoys to our cables,
cast off the yard-arm gaskets from the sails, and stopped
them all with rope-yarns. After we had done this, the boat
went ashore with the captain, and returned with orders to
the mate to send a boat ashore for him at sundown. I did
not go in the first boat, and was glad to find that there was
another going before night; for after so long a voyage as
ours had been, a few hours is long to pass in sight and
out of reach of land. We spent the day on board in the
usual avocations; but as this was the first time we had
been without the captain, we felt a little more freedom,
and looked about us to see what sort of a country we had
got into, and were to spend a year or two of our lives in.
In the first place, it was a beautiful day, and so warm
that we had on straw hats, duck trowsers, and all the
summer gear; and as this was mid-winter, it spoke well
for the climate; and we afterwards found that the ther-
mometer never fell to the freezing point throughout the
winter, and that there was very little difference between the
seasons, except that during a long period of rainy and south-
easterly weather, thick clothes were not uncomfortable.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 61
The large bay lay about us, nearly smooth, as there was
hardly a breath of wind stirring, though the boat's crew
who went ashore told us that the long ground swell broke
into a heavy surf on the beach. There was only one vessel
in the port — a long, sharp brig of about 300 tons, with
raking masts and very square yards, and English colors
at her peak. We afterwards learned that she was built
at Guayaquil, and named the Ayacucho, after the place
where the battle was fought that gave Peru her independ-
ence, and was now owned by a Scotchman named Wilson,
who commanded her, and was engaged in the trade between
Callao, the Sandwich Islands, and California. She was
a fast sailer, as we frequently afterwards perceived, and
had a crew of Sandwich Islanders on board. Beside this
vessel there was no object to break the surface of the bay.
Two points ran out as the horns of the crescent, one of
which — the one to the westward — was low and sandy, and
is that to which vessels are obliged to give a wide berth
when running out for a south-easter; the other is high,
bold, and well wooded, and, we were told, has a mission
upon it, called St. Buenaventura, from which the point
is named. In the middle of this crescent, directly opposite
the anchoring ground, lie the mission and town of Santa
Barbara, on a low, flat plain, but little above the level of
the sea, covered with grass, though entirely without trees,
and surrounded on three sides by an amphitheatre of moun-
tains, which slant off to the distance of fifteen or twenty
miles. The mission stands a little back of the town, and is
a large building, or rather collection of buildings, in the
center of which is a high tower, with a belfry of five bells;
and the whole, being plastered, makes quite a show at a
distance, and is the mark by which vessels come to anchor.
The town lies a little nearer to the beach — about half a
mile from it — and is composed of one-story houses built of
brown clay — some of them plastered — with red tiles on
the roofs. I should judge that there were about an hun-
dred of them ; and in the midst of them stands the Pre-
sidio, or fort, built of the same materials, and apparently
but little stronger. The town is certainly finely situated,
with a bay in front, and an amphitheatre of hills behind.
62 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
The only thing which diminishes its beauty is, that the
hills have no large trees upon them, they having been all
burnt by a great fire which swept them off about a dozen
years before, and they had not yet grown up again. The
fire was described to me by an inhabitaiit, as having been
a very terrible and magnificent sight. The air of the whole
valley was so heated that the people were obliged to leave
the town and take up their quarters for several days upon
the beach.
Just before sundown the mate ordered a boat's crew
ashore, and I went as one of the number. We passed
under the stern of the English brig, and had a long pull
ashore. I shall never forget the impression which our
first landing on the beach of California made upon me. The
sun had just gone down; it was getting dusky; the damp
night wind was beginning to blow, and the heavy swell
of the Pacific was setting in, and breaking in loud and high
" combers " upon the beach. We lay on our oars in the
swell, just outside of the surf, waiting for a good chance
to run in, when a boat, which had put off from the Ayacucho
just after us, came alongside of us, with a crew of dusky
Sandwich Islanders, talking and hallooing in their out-
landish tongue. They knew that we were novices in this
kind of boating, and waited to see us go in. The second
mate, however, who steered our boat, determined to have
the advantage of their experience, and would not go in
first. Finding, at length, how matters stood, they gave a
shout, and taking advantage of a great comber which
came swelling in, rearing its head, and lifting up the stern
of our boat nearly perpendicular, and again dropping it in
the trough, they gave three or four long and strong pulls,
and went in on top of the great wave, throwing their
oars overboard, and as far from the boat as they could
throw them, and jumping out the instant that the boat
touched the beach, and then seizing hold of her and run-
ning her up high and dry upon the sand. We saw, at
once, how it was to be done, and also the necessity of
keeping the boat " stern on " to the sea ; for the instant
the sea should strike upon her broad-side or quarter, she
would be driven up broad-side on, and capsized. We pulled
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 63
Strongly in, and as soon as we felt that the sea had got
hold of us and was carrying us in with the speed of a race-
horse, we threw the oars as far from the boat as we could,
and took hold of the gunwale, ready to spring out and
seize her when she struck, the officer using his utmost
strength to keep her stern on. We were shot up upon the
beach like an arrow from a bow, and seizing the boat, ran
her up high and dry, and soon picked up our oars, and stood
by her, ready for the captain to come down.
Finding that the captain did not come immediately, we
put our oars in the boat, and leaving one to watch it, walked
about the beach to see what we could, of the place. The
beach is nearly a mile in length between the two points,
and of smooth sand. We had taken the only good landing-
place, which is in the middle; it being more stony toward
the ends. It is about twenty yards in width from high-
water mark to a slight bank at which the soil begins, and
so hard that it is a favorite place for running horses. It
was growing dark, so that we could just distinguish the dim
outlines of the two vessels in the offing; and the great seas
were rolling in, in regular lines, growing larger and larger
as they approached the shore, and hanging over the beach
upon which they were to break, when their tops would curl
over and turn white with foam, and, beginning at one ex-
treme of the line, break rapidly to the other, as a long
cardhouse falls when the children knock down the cards
at one end. The Sandwich Islanders, in the mean time, had
turned their boat round, and ran her down into the water,
and were loading her with hides and tallow. As this was
the work in which we were soon to be engaged, we looked
on with some curiosity. They ran the boat into the water
so far that every large sea might float her, and two of
them, with their trowsers rolled up, stood by the bows, one
on each side, keeping her in her right position. This was
hard work; for beside the force they had to use upon the
boat, the large seas nearly took them off their legs. The
others were running from the boat to the bank, upon which,
out of the reach of the water, was a pile of dry bullocks'
hides, doubled lengthwise in the middle, and nearly as stiff
as boards. These they took upon their heads, one or two
64 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
at a time, and carried down to the boat, where one of their
number, stowed them away. They were obliged to carry
them on their heads, to keep them out of the water, and
we observed that they had on thick woolen caps. " Look
here, Bill, and see what you're coming to ! " said one of
our men to another who stood by the boat. " Well, D ,"
said the second mate to me, " this does not look much like
Cambridge college, does it? This is what I call 'head
work.' " To tell the truth it did not look very encouraging.
After they had got through with the hides, they laid hold
of the bags of tallow, (the bags are made of hide, and
are about the size of a common meal bag,) and lifting
each upon the shoulders of two men, one at each end,
walked off with them to the boat, and prepared to go
aboard. Here, too, was something for us to learn. The
man who steered, shipped his oar and stood up in the stern,
and those that pulled the after oars sat upon their benches,
with their oars shipped, ready to strike out as soon as she
was afloat. The two men at the bows kept their places ;
and when, at length, a large sea came in and floated her,
seized hold of the gunwales, and ran out with her till they
were up to their armpits, and then tumbled over the gun-
wale into the bows, dripping with water. The men at the
oars struck out, but it wouldn't do ; the sea swept back and
left them nearly high and dry. The two fellows jumped
out again ; and the next time they succeeded better, and,
with the help of a deal of outlandish hallooing and bawl-
ing, got her well off. We watched them till they were out
of the breakers, and saw them steering for their vessel,
which was now hidden in the darkness.
The sand of the beach began to be cold to our bare feet;
the frogs set up their croaking in the marshes, and one soli-
tary owl, from the end of the distant point, gave out his
melancholy note, mellowed by the distance, and we began
to think that it was high time for " the old man," as the
captain is generally called, to come down. In a few min-
utes we heard something coming towards us. It was a
man on horseback. He came up on the full gallop, reined
up near us, addressed a few words to us, and receiving no
answer, wheeled round and galloped off again. He was
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 65
nearly as dark as an Indian, with a large Spanish hat,
blanket cloak or serapa, and leather leggins, with a
long knife stuck in them. " This is the seventh city that
ever I was in, and no Christian one neither," said Bill
Brown. " Stand by ! " said Tom, " you haven't seen the
worst of it yet." In the midst of this conversation the
captain appeared; and we winded the boat round, shoved
her down, and prepared to go off. The captain, who had
been on the coast before and "knew the ropes," took the
steering oar, and we went off in the same way as the other
boat. I, being the youngest, had the pleasure of standing
at the bow, and getting wet through. We went off well,
though the seas were high. Some of them lifted us up,
and sliding from under us, seemed to let us drop through
the air like a flat plank upon the body of the water. In
a few minutes we were in the low, regular swell, and pulled
for a light, which, as we came up, we found had been run
up to our trysail gaff.
Coming aboard, we hoisted up all the boats, and diving
down into the forecastle, changed our wet clothes, and got
our supper. After supper the sailors lighted their pipes,
(cigars, those of us who had them,) and we had to tell all
we had seen ashore. Then followed conjectures about the
people ashore, the length of the voyage, carrying hides,
etc., etc., until eight bells, when all hands were called aft,
and the " anchor watch " set. We were to stand two in a
watch, and as the nights were pretty long, two hours were
to make a watch. The second mate was to keep the deck
imtil eight o'clock, and all hands were to be called at day-
break, and the word was passed to keep a bright look-out,
and to call the mate if it should come on to blow from the
south-east. We had also orders to strike the bells every
half hour through the night, as at sea. My watchmate
was John, the Swedish sailor, and we stood from twelve to
two, he walking the larboard side, and I the starboard. At
daylight all hands were called, and we went through the
usual process of washing down, swabbing, etc., and got
breakfast at eight o'clock. In the course of the forenoon,
a boat went aboard of the Ayacucho and brought off a
quarter of beef, which made us a fresh bite for dinner.
C — VOL. XXIII HC
66 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
This we were glad enough to have, and the mate told us
that we should live upon fresh beef while we were on the
coast, as it was cheaper here than the salt. While at din-
ner, the cook called, *' Sail ho ! " and coming on deck, we
saw two sails coming round the point. One was a large
ship under top-gallant sails, and the other a small hermaph-
rodite brig. They both backed their top sails and sent
boats aboard of us. The ship's colors had puzzled us, and
we found that she was from Genoa, with an assorted cargo,
and was trading on the coast. She filled away again, and
stood out; being bound up the coast to San Francisco.
The crew of the brig's boat were Sandwich Islanders, but
one of them, who spoke a little English, told us that she
was the Loriotte, Captain Nye, from Oahu, and was en-
gaged in this trade. She was a lump of a thing — what the
sailors call a butter-box. This vessel, as well as the Aya-
cucho, and others which we afterwards saw engaged in the
same trade, have English or Americans for officers, and
two or three before the mast to do the work upon the rig-
ging, and to rely upon for seamanship, while the rest of
the crew are Sandwich Islanders, who are active, and very
useful in boating.
The three captains went ashore after dinner, and came
off again at night. When in port, everything is attended
to by the chief mate ; the captain, unless he is also super-
cargo, has little to do, and is usually ashore much of his
time. This we thought would be pleasanter for us, as the
mate was a good-natured man and not very strict. So it
was for a time, but we were worse off in the end ; for
wherever the captain is a severe, energetic man, and the
mate is wanting in both these qualities, there will always
be trouble. And trouble we had already begun to antici-
pate. The captain had several times found fault with the
mate, in presence of the crew; and hints had been dropped
that all was not right between them. When this is the
case, and the captain suspects that his chief officer is too
easy and familiar with the crew, then he begins to interfere
in all the duties, and to draw the reins taughter, and the
crew has to suffer.
CHAPTER X
A South-easter — Passage up the Coast
THIS night, after sundown, it looked black at the south-
ward and eastward, and we were told to keep a
bright look-out. Expecting to be called up, we turned
in early. Waking up about midnight, I found a man who
had just come down from his watch striking a light. He
said that it was beginning to puff up from the south-east,
and that the sea was rolling in, and he had called the cap-
tain ; and as he threw himself down on his chest with all his
clothes on, I knew that he expected to be called. I felt the
vessel pitching at her anchor, and the chain surging and
snapping, and lay awake, expecting an instant summons.
In a few minutes it came — three knocks on the scuttle, and
" All hands ahoy ! bear-a-hand up and make sail." We
sprang up for our clothes, and were about half way dressed,
when the mate called out, down the scuttle, " Tumble up
here, men ! tumble up ! before she drags her anchor." We
were on deck in an instant. " Lay aloft and loose the top-
sails ! " shouted the captain, as soon as the first man
showed himself. Springing into the rigging, I saw that the
Ayacucho's topsails were loosed, and heard her crew sing-
ing-out at the sheets as they were hauling them home. This
had probably started our captain; as "old Wilson" (the
captain of the Ayacucho) had been many years on the
coast, and knew the signs of the weather. We soon had
the topsails loosed; and one hand remaining, as usual, in
each top, to overhaul the rigging and light the sail out, the
rest of us came down to man the sheets. While sheeting
home, we saw the Ayacucho standing athwart our hawse,
sharp upon the wind, cutting through the head seas like
a knife, with her raking masts and sharp bows running up
like the head of a greyhound. It was a beautiful sight. She
67
68 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
was like a bird which had been frightened and had spread
her wings in flight. After the topsails had been sheeted
home, the head yards braced aback, the fore-top-mast stay-
sail hoisted, and the buoys streamed, and all ready for-
ward, for slipping, we went aft and manned the slip-rope
which came through the stern port with a turn round the
timber-heads. " All ready forward ? " asked the captain.
" Aye, aye, sir ; all ready," answered the mate. " Let go ! "
" All gone, sir ; " and the iron cable grated over the wind-
lass and through the hawse-hole, and the little vessel's head
swinging ofif from the wind under the force of her backed
head sails, brought the strain upon the slip-rope. ''Let go
aft ! " Instantly all was gone, and we were under weigh.
As soon as she was well off from the wind, we filled away
the head yards, braced all up sharp, set the foresail and
trysail, and left our anchorage well astern, giving the point
a good berth. " Nye's off too," said the captain to the mate ;
and looking astern we could just see the little hermaph-
rodite brig under sail standing after us.
It now began to blow fresh; the rain fell fast, and it
grew very black; but the captain would not take in sail
until we were well clear of the point. As soon as we left
this on our quarter, and were standing out to sea, the order
was given, and we sprang aloft, double reefed each topsail,
furled the foresail, and double reefed the trysail, and were
soon under easy sail. In these cases of slipping for south-
easters, there is nothing to be done, after 3^ou have got clear
of the coast, but to lie-to under easy sail, and wait for
the gale to be over, which seldom lasts more than two days,
and is often over in twelve hours; but the wind never
comes back to the southward until there has a good deal
of rain fallen. " Go below the watch," said the mate ; but
here was a dispute which watch it should be, which the
mate soon however settled by sending his watch below,
saying that we should have our turn the next time we got
under weigh. We remained on deck till the expiration of
the watch, the wind blowing very fresh and the rain com-
ing down in torrents. When the watch came up, we wore
ship, and stood on the other tack, in towards land. When
we came up again, which was at four in the morning, it
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 69
was very dark, and there was not much wind, but it was
raining as I thought I had never seen it rain before. We
had on oilcloth suits and south-wester caps, and had noth-
ing to do but to stand bolt upright and let it pour down
upon us. There are no umbrellas, and no sheds to go
under at sea.
While we were standing about on deck, we saw the little
brig drifting by us, hove to under her fore topsail double
reefed; and she glided by like a phantom. Not a word was
spoken, and we saw no one on deck but the man at the
wheel. Toward morning the captain put his head out of
the companion-way and told the second mate, who com-
manded our watch, to look out for a change of wind, which
usually followed a calm and heavy rain ; and it was well
that he did ; for in a few minutes it fell dead calm, the
vessel lost her steerage-way, and the rain ceased. We
hauled up the trysail and courses, squared the after yards,
and waited for the change, which came in a few minutes,
with a vengeance, from the north-west, the opposite point
of the compass. Owing to our precautions, we were not
taken aback, but ran before the wind with square yards.
The captain coming on deck, we braced up a little and
stood back for our anchorage. With the change of wind
came a change of weather, and in two hours the wind
moderated into the light steady breeze, which blows down
the coast the greater part of the year, and, from its regu-
larity, might be called a trade-wind. The sun came up
bright, and we set royals, skysails, and studding-sails, and
were under fair way for Santa Barbara. The little Lori-
otte was astern of us, nearly out of sight; but we saw
nothing of the Ayacucho. In a short time she appeared,
standing out from Santa Rosa Island, under the lee of which
she had been hove to, all night. Our captain was anxious
to get in before her, for it would be a great credit to us,
on the coast, to beat the Ayacucho, which had been called
the best sailer in the North Pacific, in which she had been
known as a trader for six years or more. We had an
advantage over her in light winds, from our royals and
skysails which we carried both at the fore and main, and
also in our studding-sails; for Captain Wilson carried noth-
70 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
ing above top-gallant-sails, and always unbent his studding-
sails when on the coast. As the wind was light and fair,
we held our own, for some time, when we were both obliged
to brace up and come upon a taught bowline, after rounding
the point; and here he had us on fair ground, and walked
away from us, as you would haul in a line. He afterwards
said that we sailed well enough with the wind free, but that
give him a taught bowline, and he would beat us, if we had
all the canvas of the Royal George.
The Ayacucho got to the anchoring ground about half
an hour before us, and was furling her sails when we came
up to it. This picking up your cables is a very nice piece
of work. It requires some seamanship to do it, and come
to at your former moorings, without letting go another
anchor. Captain Wilson was remarkable, among the sail-
ors on the coast, for his skill in doing this; and our cap-
tain never let go a second anchor during all the time that I
was with him. Coming a little to the windward of our buoy,
we clewed up the light sails, backed our main top-sail,
and lowered a boat, which pulled off, and made fast a
spare hawser to the buoy on the end of the slip-rope. We
brought the other end to the capstan, and hove in upon it
until we came to the slip-rope, which we took to the wind-
lass, and walked her up to her chain, the captain helping
her by backing and filling the sails. The chain is then
passed through the hawse-hole and round the windlass, and
bitted, the slip-rope taken round outside and brought into
the stern port, and she is safe in her old berth. After we
had got through, the mate told us that this was a small
touch of California, the like of which we must expect to
have through the winter.
After we had furled the sails and got dinner, we saw
the Loriotte nearing, and she had her anchor before night.
At sun-down we went ashore again, and found the Lori-
otte's boat waiting on the beach. The Sandwich Islander,
who could speak English, told us that he had been up to
the town; that our agent, Mr. R , and some other
passengers, were going to Monterey with us, and that we
were to sail the same night. In a few minutes Captain
T , with two gentlemen and a lady, came down,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 71
and we got ready to go off. They had a good deal of bag-
gage, which we put into the bows of the boat, and then
two of us took the senora in our arms, and waded with her
through the water, and put her down safely in the stern.
She appeared much amused with the transaction, and her
husband was perfectly satisfied, thinking any arrangement
good which saved his wetting his feet. I pulled the after
oar, so that I heard the conversation, and learned that one
of the men, who, as well as I could see in the darkness,
was a young-looking man, in the European dress, and cov-
ered up in a large cloak, was the agent of the firm to which
our vessel belonged; and the other, who was dressed in the
Spanish dress of the country, was a brother of our captain,
who had been many years a trader on the coast, and had
married the lady who was in the boat. She was a delicate,
dark-complexioned young woman, and of one of the best
families in California. I also found that we were to sail
the same night. As soon as we got on boards the boats were
hoisted up, the sails loosed, the windlass manned, the slip-
ropes and gear cast off; and after about twenty minutes of
heaving at the windlass, making sail, and bracing yards,
we were well under weigh, and going with a fair wind up
the coast to Monterey. The Loriotte got under weigh at
the same time, and was also bound up to Monterey, but
as she took a different course from us, keeping the land
aboard, while we kept well out to sea, we soon lost sight
of her. We had a fair wind, which is something unusual
when coming up, as the prevailing wind is the north, which
blows directly down the coast ; whence the northern are
called the windward, and the southern the leeward ports.
CHAPTER XI
Passage up the Coast — Monterey
WE got clear of the islands before sunrise the next
morning, and by twelve o'clock were out of the
canal, and off Point Conception, the place where
we first made the land upon our arrival. This is the largest
point on the coast, and is uninhabited headland, stretching
out into the Pacific, and has the reputation of being very
windy. Any vessel does well which gets by it without a
gale, especially in the winter season. We were going along
with studding-sails set on both sides, when, as we came
round the point, we had to haul our wind, and take in the
lee studding-sails. As the brig came more upon the wind,
she felt it more, and we doused the sky-sails, but kept the
weather studding-sails on her, bracing the yards forward
so that the swinging-boom nearly touched the sprit-sail
yard. She now lay over to it, the wind was freshening, and
the captain was evidently " dragging on to her." His brother
and Mr. R , looking a little squally, said something to
him, but he only answered that he knew the vessel and what
she would carry. He was evidently showing off his vessel,
and letting them know how he could carry sail. He stood
up to windward, holding on by the backstays, and looking
up at the sticks, to see how much they would bear ; when
a puff came which settled the matter. Then it was " haul
down," and "clew up," royals, flying- jib, and studding-sails,
all at once. There was what the sailors call a " mess " —
everything let go, nothing hauled in, and everything flying.
The poor Spanish woman came to the companion-way, look-
ing as pale as a ghost, and nearly frightened to death.
The mate and some men forward were trying to haul in
the lower studding-sail, which had blown over the sprit-sail
yard-arm and round the guys; while the topmast-studding-
72
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 73
sail boom, after buckling up and springing out again like
a piece of whalebone, broke off at the boom-iron. I sprang
aloft to take in the main top-gallant studding-sail, but before
I got into the top, the tack parted, and away went the sail,
swinging forward of the top-gallant-sail, and tearing and slat-
ting itself to pieces. The halyards were at this moment let
go by the run; and such a piece of work I never had before,
in taking in a sail. After great exertions I got it, or the
remains of it, into the top, and was making it fast, when
the captain, looking up, called out to me, " Lay aloft there,
D , and furl that main royal." Leaving the studding-sail,
I went up to the cross-trees ; and here it looked rather
squally. The foot of the top-gallant-mast was working
between the cross and trussel trees, and the royal-mast lay
over at a fearful angle with the mast below, while every-
thing was working, and cracking, strained to the utmost.
There's nothing for Jack to do but to obey orders, and
I went up upon the yard ; and there was a worse " mess,"
if possible, than I had left below. The braces had been let
go, and the yard was swinging about like a turnpike-gate,
and the whole sail having blown over to leeward, the lee
leach was over the yard-arm, and the sky-sail was all adrift
and flying over my head. I looked down, but it was in
vain to attempt to make myself heard, for every one was
busy below, and the wind roared, and sails were flapping
in every direction. Fortunately, it was noon and broad
daylight, and the man at the wheel, who had his eyes aloft,
soon saw my difficulty, and after numberless signs and
gestures, got some one to haul the necessary ropes taught.
During this interval I took a look below. Everything was
in confusion on deck; the little vessel was tearing through
the water as if she were mad, the seas flying over her, and
the masts leaning over at an angle of forty-five degrees
from the vertical. At the other royal-mast-head was
S , working away at the sail, which was blowing from
him as fast as he could gather it in. The top-gallant-sail
below me was soon clewed up, which relieved the mast,
and in a short time I got my sail furled, and went below;
but I lost overboard a new tarpaulin hat, which troubled
me more than anything else. We worked for about half an
74 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
hour with might and main; and in an hour from the time
the squall struck us, from having all our flying kites abroad,
we came down to double-reefed top-sails and the storm-sails.
The wind had hauled ahead during the squall, and we
were standing directly in for the point. So, as soon as we
had got aU snug, we wore round and stood off again, and
had the pleasant prospect of beating up to Monterey, a dis-
tance of an hundred miles, against a violent head wind.
Before night it began to rain; and we had five days of
rainy, stormy weather, under close sail all the time, and
were blown several hundred miles off the coast. In the
midst of this, we discovered that our fore topmast was
sprung, (which no doubt happened in the squall,) and
were obliged to send down the fore top-gallant-mast and
carry as little sail as possible forward. Our four passengers
were dreadfully sick, so that we saw little or nothing of
them during the five days. On the sixth day it cleared off,
and the sun came out bright, but the wind and sea were
still very high. It was quite like being at sea again: no
land for hundreds of miles, and the captain taking the sun
every day at noon. Our passengers now made their ap-
pearance, and I had for the first time the opportunity of
seeing what a miserable and forlorn creature a sea-sick
passenger is. Since I had got over my own sickness, the
third day from Boston, I had seen nothing but hale,
hearty men, with their sea legs on, and able to go any-
where, (for we had no passengers;) and I will own there
was a pleasant feeling of superiority in being able to walk
the deck, and eat, and go about, and comparing one's self
with two poor, miserable, pale creatures, staggering and
shuffling about decks, or holding on and looking up with
giddy heads, to see us climbing to the mast-heads, or sit-
ting quietly at work on the ends of the lofty yards. A well
man at sea has little sympathy with one who is seasick ; he is
too apt to be conscious of a comparison favorable to his own
manhood. After a few days we made the land at Point
Pinos, (pines,) which is the headland at the entrance of the
bay of Monterey. As we drew in, and ran down the shore,
we could distinguish well the face of the country, and
found it better wooded than that to the southward of Point
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 75
Conception. In fact, as I afterwards discovered. Point
Conception may be made the dividing line between two
different faces of the country. As you go to the north-
ward of the point, the country becomes more wooded, has
a richer appearance, and is better supplied with water.
This is the case with Monterey, and still more so with San
Francisco ; while to the southward of the point, as at
Santa Barbara, San Pedro, and particularly San Diego,
there is very little wood, and the country has a naked,
level appearance, though it is still very fertile.
The bay of Monterey is very wide at the entrance, being
about twenty-four miles between the two points, Aiio Nuevo
at the north, and Pinul at the south, but narrows gradually
as you approach the town, which is situated in a bend, or
large cove, at the south-eastern extremity, and about eigh-
teen miles from the points, which makes the whole depth
of the bay. The shores are extremely well wooded, (the
pine abounding upon them,) and as it was now the rainy
season, everything was as green as nature could make it, —
the grass, the leaves, and all ; the birds were singing in the
woods, and great numbers of wild-fowl were flying over
our heads. Here we could lie safe from the south-easters.
We came to anchor within two cable lengths of the shore,
and the town lay directly before us, making a very pretty
appearance ; its houses being plastered, which gives a much
better effect than those of Santa Barbara, which are of a
mud-color. The red tiles, too, on the roofs, contrasted well
with the white plastered sides and with the extreme green-
ness of the lawn upon which the houses — about an hundred
in number — were dotted about, here and there, irregularly.
There are in this place, and in every other town which I
saw in California, no streets, or fences, (except here and
there a small patch was fenced in for a garden,) so that the
houses are placed at random upon the green, which, as they
are of one story and of the cottage form, gives them a pretty
effect when seen from a little distance.
It was a fine Saturday afternoon when we came to
anchor, the sun about an hour high, and everything looking
pleasantly. The Mexican flag was fiying from the little
square Presidio, and the drums and trumpets of the soldiers,
76 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
who were out on parade, sounded over the water, and gave
great life to the scene. Every one was delighted with the
appearance of things. We felt as though we had got into
a Christian (which in the sailor's vocabulary means civi-
lized) country. The first impression which California had
made upon us was very disagreeable: — the open roadstead
of Santa Barbara; anchoring three miles from the shore;
running out to sea before every south-easter; landing in a
high surf; with a little dark-looking town, a mile from the
beach ; and not a sound to be heard, or anything to be seen,
but Sandwich Islanders, hides, and tallow-bags. Add to
this the gale off Point Conception, and no one can be at a
loss to account for our agreeable disappointment in Mon-
terey. Beside all this, we soon learned, which was of no
small importance to us, that there was little or no surf here,
and this afternoon the beach was as smooth as a duck-pond.
We landed the agent and passengers, and found several
persons waiting for them on the beach, among whom were
some, who, though dressed in the costume of the country,
spoke English ; and who, we afterwards learned, were English
and Americans who had married and settled in the country.
I also connected with our arrival here another circum-
stance which more nearly concerns myself; viz., my first
act of what the sailors will allow to be seamanship — send-
ing down a royal-yard. I had seen it done once or twice
at sea, and an old sailor, whose favor I had taken some
pains to gain, had taught me carefully everything which
was necessary to be done, and in its proper order, and ad-
vised me to take the first opportunity when we were in
port, and try it. I told the second mate, with whom I had
been pretty thick when he was before the mast, that I
would do it, and got him to ask the mate to send me up
the first time they were struck. Accordingly I was called
upon, and went up, repeating the operations over in my
mind, taking care to get everything in its order, for the
slightest mistake spoils the whole. Fortunately, I got
through without any word from the officer, and heard the
" well done " of the mate, when the yard reached the deck,
with as much satisfaction as I ever felt at Cambridge on
seeing a " bene " at the foot of a Latin exercise.
CHAPTER XII
Life at Monterey
THE next day being Sunday, which is the liberty-day
among merchantmen, when it is usual to let a part of
the crew go ashore, the sailors had depended upon a
day on land, and were already disputing who should ask to go,
when, upon being called in the morning, we were turned-to
upon the rigging, and found that the topmast, which had
been sprung, was to come down, and a new one to go up,
and top-gallant and royal-masts, and the rigging to be set
up. This was too bad. If there is anything that irritates
sailors and makes them feel hardly used, it is being de-
prived of their Sabbath. Not that they would always, or
indeed generally, spend it religiously, but it is their only
day of rest. Then, too, they are often necessarily deprived
of it by storms, and unavoidable duties of all kinds, that
to take it from them when lying quietly and safely in port,
without any urgent reason, bears the more hardly. The
only reason in this case was, that the captain had deter-
mined to have the custom-house officers on board on Mon-
day, and wished to have his brig in order. Jack is a slave
aboard ship; but still he has many opportunities of thwart-
ing and balking his master. When there is danger, or
necessity, or when he is well used, no one can work faster
than he ; but the instant he feels that he is kept at work
for nothing, no sloth could make less headway. He must
not refuse his duty, or be in any way disobedient, but all
the work that an officer gets out of him, he may be welcome
to. Every man who has been three months at sea knows
how to " work Tom Cox's traverse " — " three turns round
the long-boat, and a pull at the scuttled-butt." This morn-
ing everything went in this way, " Sogering" was the
order of the day. Send a man below to get a block, and
77
78 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
he would capsize everything before finding it, then not
bring it up till an officer had called him twice, and take
as much time to put things in order again. Marline-spikes
were not to be found; knives wanted a prodigious deal of
sharpening, and, generally, three or four were waiting round
the grindstone at a time. When a man got to the mast-head,
he would come slowly down again to get something which
he had forgotten; and after the tackles were got up, six
men would pull less than three who pulled " with a will."
When the mate was out of sight, nothing was done. It was
all up-hill work; and at eight o'clock, when we went to
breakfast, things were nearly where they were when we
began.
During our short meal, the matter was discussed. One
proposed refusing to work ; but that was mutiny, and of
course was rejected at once. I remember, too, that one of
the men quoted "Father Taylor," (as they call the sea-
men's preacher at Boston,) who told them that if they
were ordered to work on Sunday, they must not refuse their
duty, and the blame would not come upon them. After
breakfast, it leaked out, through the officers, that if we
would get through our work soon, we might have a boat in
the afternoon and go fishing. This bait was well thrown,
and took with several who were fond of fishing; and all
began to find that as we had one thing to do, and were not
to be kept at work for the day, the sooner we did it, the
better.
Accordingly, things took a new aspect; and before two
o'clock this work, which was in a fair way to last two days,
was done; and five of us went a fishing in the jolly-
boat, in the direction of Point Pinos; but leave to go
ashore was refused. Here we saw the Loriotte, which
sailed with us from Santa Barbara, coming slowly in with
a light sea-breeze, which sets in towards afternoon, hav-
ing been becalmed off the point all the first part of the
day. We took several fish of various kinds, among which
cod and perch abounded, and F , (the cidevant second
mate,) who was of our number, brought up with his hook
a large and beautiful pearl-oyster shell. We afterwards
learned that this place was celebrated for shells, and that a
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 79
small schooner had made a good voyage, by carrying a
cargo of theip to the United States.
We returned by sun-down, and found the Loriotte at an-
chor, within a cable's length of the Pilgrim. The next
day we were " turned-to " early, and began taking off the
hatches, overhauling the cargo, and getting everything
ready for inspection. At eight, the officers of the customs,
five in number, came on board, and began overhauling the
cargo, manifest, etc.
The Mexican revenue laws are very strict, and require
the whole cargo to be landed, examined, and taken on
board again ; but our agent, Mr. R , had succeeded in
compounding with them for the two last vessels, and saving
the trouble of taking the cargo ashore. The officers
were dressed in the costume which we found prevailed
through the country. A broad-brimmed hat, usually of a
black or dark-brown color, with a gilt or figured band
round the crown, and lined inside with silk; a short jacket
of silk or figured calico, (the European skirted body-coat
is never worn;) the shirt open in the neck; rich waistcoat,
if any; pantaloons wide, straight, and long, t:sually of velvet,
velveteen, or broadcloth ; or else short breeches and whit'^
stockings. They wear the deer-skin shoe, which is of a
dark-brown color, ^nd, (being made by Indians,) usually
a good deal ornam^mted. They have no suspenders, but
always wear a sash round the waist, which is generally
red, and varying in quality with the means of the wearer.
Add to this the never-failing cloak, and you have the dress
of the Californian. This last garment, the cloak, is always
a mark of the rank and wealth of the owner. The " gente
de rason," or aristocracy, wear cloaks of black or dark blue
broadcloth, with as much velvet and trimmings as may be;
and from this they go down to the blanket of the Indian;
the middle classes wearing something like a large table-cloth,
with a hole in the middle for the head to go through. This
is often as coarse as a blanket, but being beautifully woven
with various colors, is quite showy at a distance. Among
the Mexicans there is no working class; (the Indians being
slaves and doing all the hard work;) and every rich man
looks like a grandee, and every poor scamp like a broken-
80 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
down gentleman. I have often seen a man with a fine
figure, and courteous manners, dressed in broadcloth and
velvet, with a noble horse completely covered with trap-
pings; without a real in his pocket, and absolutely suffer-
ing for something to eat.
CHAPTER xnr
Trading — A British Sailor
THE next day, the cargo having been entered in due
form, we began trading. The trade-room was fitted
up in the steerage, and furnished out with the lighter
goods, and with specimens of the rest of the cargo ; and
M , a young man who came out from Boston with us,
before the mast, was taken out of the forecastle, and made
supercargo's clerk. He was well qualified for the business,
having been clerk in a counting-house in Boston. He had
been troubled for some time with the rheumatism, which
unfitted him for the wet and exposed duty of a sailor on
the coast. For a week or ten days all was life on board.
The people came off to look and to buy — men, women, and
children ; and we were continually going in the boats, carry-
ing goods and passengers, — for they have no boats of their
own. Everything must dress itself and come aboard and
see the new vessel, if it were only to buy a paper of pins.
The agent and his clerk managed the sales, while we were
busy in the hold or in the boats. Our cargo was an assorted
one ; that is, it consisted of everything under the sun. We
had spirits of all kinds, (sold by the cask,) teas, coffee,
sugars, spices, raisins, molasses, hardware, crockery-ware,
tinware, cutlery, clothing of all kinds, boots and shoes from
Lynn, calicoes and cottons from Lowell, crepes, silks; also
shawls, scarfs, necklaces, jewelry, and combs for the ladies;
furniture ; and in fact, everything that can be imagined, from
Chinese fire-works to English cart-wheels — of which we had
a dozen pairs with their iron rims on.
The Californians are an idle, thriftless people, and can
make nothing for themselves. The country abounds in
grapes, yet they buy bad wines made in Boston and brought
round by us, at an immense price, and retail it among them-
81
82 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
selves at a real (i2>^ cents) by the small wine-glass. Their
hides, too, which they value at two dollars in money, they
give for something which costs seventy-five cents in Boston ;
and buy shoes (like as not, made of their own hides, and
which have been carried twice around Cape Horn) at three
or four dollars, and " chicken-skin " boots at fifteen dollars
apiece. Things sell, on an average, at an advance of nearly
three hundred per cent upon the Boston prices. This is
partly owing to the heavy duties which the government, in
their wisdom, with the intent, no doubt, of keeping the silver
in the country, has laid upon imports. These duties, and the
enormous expenses of so long a voyage, keep all mer-
chants, but those of heavy capital, from engaging in the
trade. Nearly two-thirds of all the articles imported into
the country from round Cape Horn, for the last six years,
have been by the single house of Bryant, Sturgis & Co., to
whom our vessel belonged, and who have a permanent agent
on the coast.
This kind of business was new to us, and we liked it very
well for a few days, though we were hard at work every
minute from daylight to dark ; and sometimes even later.
By being thus continually engaged in transporting passen-
gers with their goods, to and fro, we gained considerable
knowledge of the character, dress, and language of the peo-
ple. The dress of the men was as I have before described it.
The women wore gowns of various texture — silks, crape, cali-
coes, etc., — made after the European style, except that the
sleeves were short, leaving the arm bare, and that they
were loose about the waist, having no corsets. They wore
shoes of kid, or satin; sashes or belts of bright colors; and
almost always a necklace and ear-rings. Bonnets they had
none. I only saw one on the coast, and that belonged to the
wife of an American sea-captain who had settled in San
Diego, and had imported the chaotic mass of straw and rib-
bon, as a choice present to his new wife. They wear their
hair (which is almost invariably black, or a very dark
brown) long in their necks, sometimes loose, and sometimes
in long braids ; though the married women often do it up on
a high comb. Their only protection against the sun and
weather is a large mantle which they put over their heads,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 83
drawing it close round their faces, when they go out of
doors, which is generally only in pleasant weather. When
in the house, or sitting out in front of it, which they often
do in fine weather, they usually wear a small scarf or
neckerchief of a rich pattern. A band, also, about the top
of the head, with a cross, star, or other ornament in front,
is common. Their complexions are various, depending — as
well as their dress and manner — upon their rank; or, in
other words, upon the amount of Spanish blood they can
lay claim to. Those who are of pure Spanish blood, having
never intermarried with the aborigines, have clear brunette
complexions, and sometimes, even as fair as those of English
women. There are but few of these families in California;
being mostly those in official stations, or who, on the ex-
piration of their offices, have settled here upon property
which they have acquired ; and others who have been ban-
ished for state offences. These form the aristocracy; inter-
marrying, and keeping up an exclusive system in every
respect. They can be told by their complexions, dress,
manner, and also by their speech ; for, calling themselves
Castilians, they are very ambitious of speaking the pure
Castilian language, which is spoken in a somewhat corrupted
dialect by the lower classes. From this upper class, they go
down by regular shades, growing more and more dark and
muddy, until you come to the pure Indian, who runs about
with nothing upon him but a small piece of cloth, kept up
by a wide leather strap drawn round his waist. Generally
speaking, each person's caste is decided by the quality of the
blood, which shows itself, too plainly to be concealed, at
first sight. Yet the least drop of Spanish blood, if it be only
of quadroon or octoroon, is sufficient to raise them from the
rank of slaves, and entitle them to a suit of clothes — boots,
hat, cloak, spurs, long knife, and all complete, though coarse
and dirty as may be, — and to call themselves Espanolos, and
to hold property, if they can get any.
The fondness for dress among the women is excessive,
and is often the ruin of many of them. A present of a fine
mantle, or of a necklace or pair of ear-rings, gains the favor
of the greater part of them. Nothing is more common than
to see a woman living in a house of only two rooms, and
84 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the ground for a floor, dressed in spangled satin shoes, silk
gown, high comb, and gilt, if not gold, ear-rings and neck-
lace. If their husbands do not dress them well enough,
they will soon receive presents from others. They used to
spend whole days on board our vessels, examining the fine
clothes and ornaments, and frequently made purchases at a
rate which would have made a seamstress or waiting-maid
in Boston open her eyes.
Next to the love of dress, I was most struck with the fine-
ness of the voices and beauty of the intonations of both
sexes. Every common ruffian-looking fellow, with a
slouched hat, blanket cloak, dirty under-dress, and soiled
leather leggins, appeared to me to be speaking elegant
Spanish. It was a pleasure, simply to listen to the sound of
the language, before I could attach any meaning to it.
They have a good deal of the Creole drawl, but it is varied
with an occasional extreme rapidity of utterance, in which
they seem to skip from consonant to consonant, until, light-
ing upon a broad, open vowel, they rest upon that to restore
the balance of sound. The women carry this peculiarity of
speaking to a much greater extreme than the men, who
have more evenness and stateliness of utterance. A com-
mon bullock-driver, on horseback, delivering a message,
seemed to speak like an ambassador at an audience. In fact,
they sometimes appeared to me to be a people on whom a
curse had fallen, and stripped them of everything but their
pride, their manners, and their voices.
Another thing that surprised me was the quantity of
silver that was in circulation. I certainly never saw so
much silver at one time in my life, as during the week that
we were at Monterey. The truth is, they have no credit
system, no banks, and no way of investing money but in
cattle. They have no circulating medium but silver and
hides — which the sailors call " California bank notes."
Everything that they buy they must pay for in one or the
other of these things. The hides they bring down dried
and doubled, in clumsy ox-carts, or upon mules' backs, and
the money they carry tied up in a handkerchief; — fifty,
eighty, or an hundred dollars and half dollars.
I had never studied Spanish while at college, and could
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 85
not speak a word, when at Juan Fernandez; but during the
latter part of the passage out, I borrowed a grammar and
dictionary from the cabin, and by a continual use of these,
and a careful attention to every word that I heard spoken,
I soon got a vocabulary together, and began talking for
myself. As I soon knew more Spanish than any of the
crew, (who indeed knew none at all,) and had been at col-
lege and knew Latin, I got the name of a great linguist,
and was always sent for by the captain and officers to get
provisions, or to carry letters and messages to different
parts of the town. I was often sent to get something which
I could not tell the name of to save my life; but I liked the
business, and accordingly never pleaded ignorance. Some-
times I managed to jump below and take a look at my dic-
tionary before going ashore; or else I overhauled some
English resident on my way, and got the word from him;
and then, by signs, and the help of my Latin and French,
contrived to get along. This was a good exercise for me,
and no doubt taught me more than I should have learned
by months of study and reading; it also gave me oppor-
tunities of seeing the customs, characters, and domestic
arrangements of the people ; beside being a great relief
from the monotony of a day spent on board ship.
Monterey, as far as my observation goes, is decidedly
the pleasantest and most civilized-looking place in Califor-
nia. In the centre of it is an open square, surrounded by
four lines of one-story plastered buildings, with half a dozen
cannon in the centre ; some mounted, and others not. This
is the " Presidio," or fort. Every town has a presidio in its
centre; or rather, every presidio has a town built around it;
for the forts were first built by the Mexican government,
and then the people built near them for protection. The
presidio here was entirely open and unfortified. There
were several officers with long titles, and about eighty sol-
diers, but they were poorly paid, fed, clothed, and dis-
ciplined. The governor-general, or, as he is commonly
called, the "general," lives here; which makes it the seat of
government. He is appointed by the central government
at Mexico, and is the chief civil and military officer. In
addition to him, each town has a commandant, who is the
86 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
chief military officer, and has charge of the fort, and of all
transactions with foreigners and foreign vessels ; and two
or three alcaldes and corregidores, elected by the inhabitants,
who are the civil officers. Courts and jurisprudence they
have no knowledge of. Small municipal matters are regu-
lated by the alcaldes and corregidores ; and everything relat-
ing to the general government, to the military, and to
foreigners, by the commandants, acting under the governor-
general. Capital cases are decided by him, upon personal
inspection, if he is near ; or upon minutes sent by the proper
officers, if the offender is at a distant place. No Protestant
has any civil rights, nor can he hold any property, or, indeed,
remain more than a few weeks on shore, unless he belong
to some vessel. Consequently, the Americans and English
who intend to remain here become Catholics, to a man ; the
current phrase among them being, — " A man must leave
his conscience at Cape Horn."
But to return to Monterey. The houses here, as every-
where else in California, are of one story, built of clay
made into large bricks, about a foot and a half square and
three or four inches thick, and hardened in the sun. These
are cemented together by mortar of the same material, and
the whole are of a common dirt-color. The floors are gen-
erally of earth, the windows grated and without glass; and
the doors, which are seldom shut, open directly into the
common room ; there being no entries. Some of the more
wealthy inhabitants have glass to their windows and board
floors; and in Monterey nearly all the houses are plastered
on the outside. The better houses, too, have red tiles upon
the roofs. The common ones have two or three rooms which
open into each other, and are furnished with a bed or two,
a few chairs and tables, a looking-glass, a crucifix of some
material or other, and small daubs of paintings enclosed in
glass, and representing some miracle or martyrdom. They
have no chimneys or fire-places in the houses, the climate
being such as to make a fire unnecessary; and all their
cooking is done in a small cook-house, separated from the
house. The Indians, as I have said before, do all the hard
work, two or three being attached to each house; and the
poorest persons are able to keep one, at least, for they have
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 87
only to feed them and give them a small piece of coarse
cloth and a belt, for the males ; and a coarse gown, without
shoes or stockings, for the females.
In Monterey there are a number of English and Ameri-
cans (English or "Ingles" all are called who speak the
English language) who have married Californians, become
united to the Catholic church, and acquired considerable
property. Having more industry, frugality, and enterprise
than the natives, they soon get nearly all the trade into their
hands. They usually keep shops, in which they retail the
goods purchased in larger quantities from our vessels, and
also send a good deal into the interior, taking hides in pay,
which they again barter with our vessels. In every town
on the coast there are foreigners engaged in this kind of
trade, while I recollect but two shops kept by natives. The
people are generally suspicious of foreigners, and they
would not be allowed to remain, were it not that they become
good Catholics, and by marrying natives, and bringing up
their children as Catholics and Mexicans, and not teaching
them the English language, they quiet suspicion, and even
become popular and leading men. The chief alcaldes in
Monterey and Santa Barbara were both Yankees by birth.
The men in Monterey appeared to me to be always on
horseback. Horses are as abundant here as dogs and chick-
ens were in Juan Fernandez. There are no stables to keep
them in, but they are allowed to run wild and graze wher-
ever they please, being branded, and having long leather
ropes, called " lassos," attached to their necks and dragging
along behind them, by which they can be easily taken. The
men usually catch one in the morning, throw a saddle and
bridle upon him, and use him for the day, and let him go
at night, catching another the next day. When they go
on long journeys, they ride one horse down, and catch
another, throw the saddle and bridle upon him, and after
riding him down, take a third, and so on to the end of the
journey. There are probably no better riders in the world.
They get upon a horse when only four or five years old,
their little legs not long enough to come half way over his
sides; and may almost be said to keep on him until they
have grown to him. The stirrups are covered or boxed up
88 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
in front, to prevent their catching when riding through the
woods; and the saddles are large and heavy, strapped very
tight upon the horse, and have large pommels, or logger-
heads, in front, round which the " lasso " is coiled when
not in use. They can hardly go from one house to another
without getting on a horse, there being generally several
standing tied to the door-posts of the little cottages. When
they wish to show their activity, they make no use of their
stirrups in mounting, but striking the horse, spring into the
saddle as he starts, and sticking their long spurs into him,
go off on the full run. Their spurs are cruel things, having
four or five rowels, each an inch in length, dull and rusty.
The flanks of the horses are often sore from them, and I
have seen men come in from chasing bullocks with their
horses' hind legs and quarters covered with blood. They
frequently give exhibitions of their horsemanship, in races,
bull-baitings, etc. ; but as we were not ashore during any
holyday, we saw nothing of it. Monterey is also a great
place for cock-fighting, gambling of all sorts, fandangos,
and every kind of amusement and knavery. Trappers and
hunters, who occasionally arrive here from over the Rocky
mountains, with their valuable skins and furs, are often
entertained with every sort of amusement and dissipation,
until they have wasted their time and their money, and go
back, stripped of everything.
Nothing but the character of the people prevents Mon-
terey from becoming a great town. The soil is as rich as
man could wish ; climate as good as any in the world ; water
abundant, and situation extremely beautiful. The harbor,
too, is a good one, being subject only to one bad wind, the
north; and though the holding-ground is not the best, yet I
heard of but one vessel's being driven ashore here. That
was a Mexican brig, which went ashore a few months be-
fore our arrival, and was a total wreck, all the crew but
one being drowned. Yet this was from the carelessness or
ignorance of the captain, who paid out all his small cable
before he let go his other anchor. The ship Lagoda, of
Boston, was there at the time, and rode out the gale in
safety, without dragging at all, or finding it necessary to
strike her top-gallant masts.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 89
The only vessel in port with us was the little Loriotte.
I frequently went on board her, and became very well ac-
quainted with her Sandwich Island crew. One of them
could speak a little English, and from him I learned a good
deal about them. They were well formed and active, with
black eyes, intelligent countenances, dark-olive, or, I should
rather say, copper complexions and coarse black hair, but
not woolly like the negroes. They appeared to be talking
continually. In the forecastle there was a complete Babel.
Their language is extremely guttural, and not pleasant at
first, but improves as you hear it more, and is said to have
great capacity. They use a good deal of gesticulation, and
are exceedingly animated, saying with their might what
their tongues find to say. They are complete water-dogs,
therefore very good in boating. It is for this reason that
there are so many of them on the coast of California ; they
being very good hands in the surf. They are also quick and
active in the rigging, and good hands in warm weather;
but those who have been with them round Cape Horn, and
in high latitudes, say that they are useless in cold weather.
In their dress they are precisely like our sailors. In addi-
tion to these Islanders, the vessel had two English sailors,
who acted as boatswains over the Islanders, and took care of
the rigging. One of them I shall always remember as the
best specimen of the thoroughbred English sailor that I ever
saw. He had been to sea from a boy, having served a
regular apprenticeship of seven years, as all English sailors
are obliged to do, and was then about four or five and
twenty. He was tall; but you only perceived it when he
was standing by the side of others, for the great breadth of
his shoulders and chest made him appear but little above
the middle height. His chest was as deep as it was wide;
his arm like that of Hercules; and his hand "the fist of
a tar — every hair a rope-yarn." With all this he had one
of the pleasantest smiles I ever saw. His cheeks were
of a handsome brown; his teeth brilliantly white; and his
hair, of a raven black, waved in loose curls all over his
head, and fine, open forehead; and his eyes he might have
sold to a duchess at the price of diamonds, for their bril-
liancy. As for their color, they were like the Irishman's
90 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
pig, which would not stay to be counted; every change of
position and light seemed to give them a new hue; but their
prevailing color was black, or nearly so. Take him with his
well-varnished black tarpaulin stuck upon the back of his
head; his long locks coming down almost into his eyes;
his white duck trowsers and shirt; blue jacket; and black
kerchief, tied loosely round his neck; and he was a fine
specimen of manly beauty. On his broad chest he had
stamped with India ink " Parting moments ; " — a ship ready
to sail; a boat on the beach; and a girl and her sailor lover
taking their farewell. Underneath were printed the initials
of his own name, and two other letters, standing for some
name which he knew better than I did. This was very well
done, having been executed by a man who made it his busi-
ness to print with India ink, for sailors, at Havre. On one
of his broad arms, he had the crucifixion, and on the other
the sign of the " foul anchor."
He was very fond of reading, and we lent him most of
the books which we had in the forecastle, which he read
and returned to us the next time we fell in with him. He
had a good deal of information, and his captain said he
was a perfect seaman, and worth his weight in gold on
board a vessel, in fair weather and in foul. His strength
must have been great, and he had the sight of a vul-
ture. It is strange that one should be so minute in the
description of an unknown, outcast sailor, whom one may
never see again, and whom no one may care to hear about;
but so it is. Some people we see under no remarkable cir-
cumstances, but whom, for some reason or other, we never
forget. He called himself Bill Jackson; and I know no
one of all my accidental acquaintances to whom I would
more gladly give a shake of the hand than to him. Who-
ever falls in with him will find a handsome, hearty fellow,
and a good shipmate.
Sunday came again while we were at Monterey, but as
before, it brought us no holyday. The people on shore
dressed themselves and came off in greater numbers than
ever, and we were employed all day in boating and break-
ing out cargo, so that we had hardly time to eat. Our
cidevant second mate, who was determined to get liberty
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 91
if it was to be had, dressed himself in a long coat and black
hat, and polished his shoes, and went aft and asked to go
ashore. He could not have done a more imprudent thing;
for he knew that no liberty would be given; and besides,
sailors, however sure they may be of having liberty granted
them always go aft in their working clothes, to appear as
though they had no reason to expect anything, and then
wash, dress, and shave, after they get their liberty.
But this poor fellow was always getting into hot water,
and if there was a wrong way of doing a thing, was sure
to hit upon it. We looked to see him go aft, knowing
pretty well what his reception would be. The captain was
walking the quarter-deck, smoking his morning cigar, and
F went as far as the break of the deck, and there waited
for him to notice him. The captain took two or three
turns, and then walking directly up to him, surveyed him
from head to foot, and lifting up his forefinger, said a
word or two, in a tone too low for us to hear, but which
had a magical effect upon poor F . He walked forward,
sprang into the forecastle, and in a moment more made his
appearance in his common clothes, and went quietly to work
again. What the captain said to him, we never could get
him to tell, but it certainly changed him outwardly and
inwardly in a most surprising manner.
CHAPTER XIV
Santa Barbara — Hide-Droghing — Harbor Duties —
Discontent — San Pedro
A FTER a few days, finding the trade beginning to slacken,
l\ we hove our anchor up, set our topsails, ran the stars
-^ — J^ and stripes up to the peak, fired a gun, which was re-
turned from the Presidio, and left the little town astern, run-
ning out of the bay, and bearing down the coast again, for
Santa Barbara. As we were now going to leeward, we
had a fair wind and a plenty of it. After doubling Point
Pinos, we bore up, set studding-sails alow and aloft, and
were walking off at the rate of eight or nine knots, promis-
ing to traverse in twenty- four hours the distance which we
were nearly three weeks in traversing on the passage up.
We passed Point Conception at a flying rate, the wind
blowing so that it would have seemed half a gale to us, if
we had been going the other way and close hauled. As
we drew near the islands off Santa Barbara, it died away
a little but we cam6-to at our old anchoring-ground in less
than thirty hours from the time of leaving Monterey.
Here everything was pretty much as we left it — the
large bay without a vessel in it; the surf roaring and roll-
ing in upon the beach ; the white mission ; the dark town
and the high, treeless mountains. Here, too, we had our
south-easter tacks aboard again, — slip-ropes, buoy-ropes,
sails furled with reefs in them, and rope-yarns for gas-
kets. We lay here about a fortnight, employed in landing
goods and taking off hides, occasionally, when the surf
was not high; but there did not appear to be one-half the
business doing here that there was in Monterey. In fact,
so far as we were concerned, the town might almost as
well have been in the middle of the Cordilleras. We lay at
a distance of three miles from the beach, and the town
92
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 93
was nearly a mile farther; so that we saw little or nothing
of it. Occasionally we landed a few goods, which were
taken away by Indians in large, clumsy ox-carts, with the
yoke on the ox's neck instead of under it, and with small
solid wheels. A few hides were brought down, which we
carried off in the California style. This we had now got
pretty well accustomed to ; and hardened to also ; for it
does require a little hardening even to the toughest.
The hides are always brought down dry, or they would
not be received. When they are taken from the animal,
they have holes cut in the ends, and are staked out, and
thus dried in the sun without shrinking. They are then
doubled once, lengthwise, with the hair side usually in, and
sent down, upon mules or in carts, and piled above high-
water mark ; and then we take them upon our heads, one
at a time, or two, if they are small, and wade out with them
and throw them into the boat, which as there are no
wharves, we are usually kept anchored by a small kedge,
or keelek, just outside of the surf. We all provided
ourselves with thick Scotch caps, which would be soft
to the head, and at the same time protect it; for we soon
found that however it might look or feel at first the
" head-work " was the only system for California. For
besides that the seas, breaking high, often obliged us to
carry the hides so, in order to keep them dry, we found
that, as they were very large and heavy, and nearly as
stiff as boards, it was the only way that we could carry
them with any convenience to ourselves. Some of the
crew tried other expedients, saying that they looked too
much like West India negroes; but they all came to it
at last. The great art is in getting them on the head.
We had to take them from the ground, and as they were
often very heavy, and as wide as the arms could stretch
and easily taken by the wind, we used to have some
trouble with them. I have often been laughed at my-
self, and joined in laughing at others, pitching themselves
down in the sand, trying to swing a large hide upon their
heads, or nearly blown over with one in a little gust of
wind. The captain made it harder for us, by telling us
that it was " California fashion " to carry two on the head at
94 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
a time; and as he insisted upon it, and we did not wish to be
outdone by other vessels, we carried two for the first few
months ; but after falling in with a few other " hide-droghers,"
and finding that they carried only one at a time we " knocked
off " the extra one, and thus made our duty somewhat easier.
After we had got our heads used to the weight, and had
learned the true California style of tossing a hide, we
could carry off two or three hundred in a short time, with-
out much trouble; but it was always wet work, and, if the
beach was stony, bad for our feet; for we, of course, always
went barefooted on this duty, as no shoes could stand such
constant wetting with salt water. Then, too, we had a
long pull of three miles, with a loaded boat, which often
took a couple of hours.
We had now got well settled down into our harbor duties,
which, as they are a good deal different from those at
sea, it may be well enough to describe. In the first place,
all hands are called at daylight, or rather — especially if the
days are short — before daylight, as soon as the first grey
of the morning. The cook makes his fire in the galley;
the steward goes about his work in the cabin ; and the crew
rig the head pump, and wash down the decks. The chief
mate is always on deck, but takes no active part, all the
duty coming upon the second mate, who has to roll up his
trowsers and paddle about decks barefooted, like the rest
of the crew. The washing, swabbing, squilgeeing, etc.,
lasts, or is made to last, until eight o'clock, when break-
fast is ordered, fore and aft. After breakfast, for which
half an hour is allowed, the boats are lowered down, and
made fast astern, or out to the swinging booms, by ges-
warps, and the crew are turned-to upon their day's work.
This is various, and its character depends upon circum-
stances. There is always more or less of boating, in small
boats; and if heavy goods are to be taken ashore, or hides
are brought down to the beach for us, then all hands are
sent ashore with an officer in the long boat. Then there is
always a good deal to be done in the hold: goods to be
broken out; and cargo to be shifted, to make room for
hides, or to keep the trim of the vessel. In addition to this,
the usual work upon the rigging must be done. There is
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 95
a good deal of the latter kind of work which can only be
done when the vessel is in port; — and then everything must
be kept taught and in good order; spun-yarn made; chaf-
ing gear repaired; and all the other ordinary work. The
great difference between sea and harbor duty is in the divi-
sion of time. Instead of having a watch on deck and a
watch below, as at sea, all hands are at work together, ex-
cept at meal times, from daylight till dark; and at night
an " anchor-watch " is kept, which consists of only two at
a time; the whole crew taking turns. An hour is allowed
for dinner, and at dark, the decks are cleared up; the
boats hoisted; supper ordered; and at eight, the lights put
out, except in the binnacle, where the glass stands ; and
the anchor-watch is set. Thus, when at anchor, the crew
have more time at night, (standing watch only about two
hours,) but have no time to themselves in the day; so that
reading, mending clothes, etc., has to be put off until Sun-
day, which is usually given. Some religious captains give
their crews Saturday afternoons to do their washing and
mending in, so that they may have their Sundays free.
This is a good arrangement, and does much toward creating
the preference sailors usually show for religious vessels.
We were well satisfied if we got Sunday to ourselves, for, if
any hides came down on that day, as was often the case
when they were brought from a distance, we were obliged
to bring them off, which usually took half a day; and as
we now lived on fresh beef, and ate one bullock a week, the
animal was almost always brought down on Sunday, and
we had to go ashore, kill it, dress it, and bring it aboard,
which was another interruption. Then, too, our common
day's work was protracted and made more fatiguing by
hides coming down late in the afternoon, which sometimes
kept us at work in the surf by star-light, with the prospect
of pulling on board, and stowing them all away, before
supper.
But all these little vexations and labors would have been
nothing, — they would have been passed by as the common
evils of a sea-life, which every sailor, who is a man, will go
through without complaint, — were it not for the uncer-
tainty, or worse than uncertainty, which hung over the
96 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
nature and length of our voyage. Here we were, in a
little vessel, with a small crew, on a half-civilized coast,
at the ends of the earth, and with a prospect of remain-
ing an indefinite period, two or three years at the least.
When we left Boston we supposed that it was to be a
voyage of eighteen months, or two years, at most; but
upon arriving on the coast, we learned something more
of the trade, and found that in the scarcity of hides, which
was yearly greater and greater, it would take us a year,
at least, to collect our own cargo, beside the passage out
and home; and that we were also to collect a cargo for
a large ship belonging to the same firm, which was soon
to come on the coast, and to which we were to act as tender.
We had heard rumors of such a ship to follow us, which had
leaked out from the captain and mate, but we passed them
by as mere " yarns," till our arrival, when they were con-
firmed by the letters which we brought from the owners
to their agent. The ship California, belonging to the same
firm, had been nearly two years on the coast ; had collected
a full cargo, and was now at San Diego, from which port
she was expected to sail in a few weeks for Boston ; and we
were to collect all the hides we could, and deposit them
at San Diego, when the new ship, which would carry forty
thousand, was to be filled and sent home; and then we were
to begin anew, and collect our own cargo. Here was a
gloomy prospect before us, indeed. The California had
been twenty months on the coast, and the Lagoda, a smaller
ship, carrying only thirty-one or thirty-two thousand, had
been two years getting her cargo ; and we were to collect
a cargo of forty thousand beside our own, which would
be twelve or fifteen thousand; and hides were said to be
growing scarcer. Then, too, this ship, which had been to
us a worse phantom than any flying Dutchman, was no
phantom, or ideal thing, but had been reduced to a certainty ;
so much so that a name was given her, and it was said
that she was to be the Alert, a well-known India-man, which
was expected in Boston in a few months, when we sailed.
There could be no doubt, and all looked black enough. Hints
were thrown out about three years and four years; — the
older sailors said they never should see Boston again, but
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 97
should lay their bones in California ; and a cloud seemed
to hang over the whole voyage. Besides, we were not pro-
vided for so long a voyage, and clothes, and all sailors' neces-
saries, were excessively dear — three or four hundred per
cent, advance upon the Boston prices. This was bad enough
for them ; but still worse was it for me, who did not mean
to be a sailor for life; having intended only to be gone
eighteen months or two years. Three or four years would
make me a sailor in every respect, mind and habits, as well
as body — nolens volens; and would put all my companions
so far ahead of me that college and a profession would be
in vain to think of; and I made up my mind that, feel as I
might, a sailor I must be, and to be master of a vessel, must
be the height of my ambition.
Beside the length of the voyage, and the hard and ex-
posed life, we were at the ends of the earth; on a coast
almost solitary; in a country where there is neither law
nor gospel, and where sailors are at their captain's mercy,
there being no American consul, or any one to whom a com-
plaint could be made. We lost all interest in the voyage;
cared nothing about the cargo, which we were only collect-
ing for others ; began to patch our clothes ; and felt as
though we were fixed beyond all hope of change.
In addition to, and perhaps partly as a consequence of,
this state of things, there was trouble brewing on board
the vessel. Our mate (as the first mate is always called,
par excellence) was a worthy man ; — a more honest, upright,
and kind-hearted man I never saw; but he was too good
for the mate of a merchantman. He was not the man to
call a sailor a " son of a b — h," and knock him down with
a handspike. He wanted the energy and spirit for such a
voyage as ours, and for such a captain. Captain T was
a vigorous, energetic fellow. As sailors say, " he hadn't a
lazy bone in him." He was made of steel and whalebone.
He was a man to " toe the mark," and to make every one
else step up to it. During all the time that I was with him,
I never saw him sit down on deck. He was always active
and driving; severe in his discipline, and expected the
same of his officers. The mate not being enough of a driver
for him, and being perhaps too easy with the crew, he was
D— VOL. XXIII HC
08 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
dissatisfied with him, became suspicious that discipline was
getting relaxed, and began to interfere in everything. He
drew the reins taughter; and as, in all quarrels between
officers, the sailors side with the one who treats them best,
he became suspicious of the crew. He saw that everything
went wrong — that nothing was done " with a will ; " and in
his attempt to remedy the difficulty by severity, he made
everything worse. We were in every respect unfortunately
situated. Captain, officers, and crew, entirely unfitted for
one another; and every circumstance and event was like a
two-edged sword, and cut both ways. The length of the
voyage, which made us dissatisfied, made the captain, at the
same time, feel the necessity of order and strict discipline;
and the nature of the country, which caused us to feel that
we had nowhere to go for redress, but were entirely at the
mercy of a hard master, made the captain feel, on the
other hand, that he must depend entirely upon his own
resources. Severity created discontent, and signs of dis-
content provoked severity. Then, too, ill-treatment and
dissatisfaction are no " linimenta laborum ; " and many a
time have I heard the sailors say that they should not mind
the length of the voyage, and the hardships, if they were
only kindly treated, and if they could feel that something
was done to make things lighter and easier. We felt as
though our situation was a call upon our superiors to give
us occasional relaxations, and to make our yoke easier. But
the contrary policy was pursued. We were kept at work
all day when in port ; which, together with a watch at night,
made us glad to turn-in as soon as we got below. Thus
we got no time for reading, or — which was of more impor-
tance to us — for washing and mending our clothes. And
then, when we were at sea, sailing from port to port, instead
of giving us " watch and watch," as was the custom on board
every other vessel on the coast, we were all kept on deck
and at work, rain or shine, making spun-yarn and rope,
and at other work in good weather, and picking oakum,
when it was too wet for anything else. All hands were
called to " come up and see it rain," and kept on deck hour
after hour in a drenching rain, standing round the deck
so far apart as to prevent our talking with one another, with
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 99
our tarpaulins and oil-cloth jackets on, picking old rope to
pieces, or laying up gaskets and robands. This was often
done, too, when we were lying in port with two anchors
down, and no necessity for more than one man on deck as
a look-out. This is what is called " hazing " a crew, and
" working their old iron up."
While lying at Santa Barbara, we encountered another
south-easter; and, like the first, it came on in the night; the
great black clouds coming round from the southward, cov-
ering the mountain, and hanging down over the town, ap-
pearing almost to rest upon the roofs of the houses. We
made sail, slipped our cable, cleared the point, and beat
about, for four days, in the offing, under close sail, with con-
tinual rain and high seas and winds. No wonder, thought
we, they have no rain in the other seasons, for enough
seemed to have fallen in those four days to last through a
common summer. On the fifth day it cleared up, after a few
hours, as is usual, of rain coming down like a four hours'
shower-bath, and we found ourselves drifted nearly ten
leagues from the anchorage ; and having light head winds,
we did not return until the sixth day. Having recovered our
anchor, we made preparations for getting under weigh to go
down to leeward. We had hoped to go directly to San
Diego, and thus fall in with the California before she sailed
for Boston; but our orders were to stop at an intermediate
port called San Pedro, and as we were to lie there a week
or two, and the California was to sail in a few days, we lost
the opportunity. Just before sailing, the captain took on
board a short, red-haired, round-shouldered, vulgar-looking
fellow, who had lost one eye, and squinted with the other,
and introducing him as Mr. Russell, told us that he was an
officer on board. This was too bad. We had lost overboard,
on the passage, one of the best of our number, another had
been taken from us and appointed clerk, and thus weakened
and reduced, instead of shipping some hands to make our
work easier, he had put another officer over us, to watch and
drive us. We had now four officers, and only six in the
forecastle. This was bringing her too much down by the
stern for our comfort.
Leaving Santa Barbara, we coasted along down, the coun-
100 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
try appearing level or moderately uneven, and, for the most
part, sandy and treeless ; until, doubling a high, sandy point,
we let go our anchor at a distance of three or three and a
half miles from shore. It was like a vessel, bound to Hali-
fax, coming to anchor on the Grand Banks; for the shore
being low, appeared to be at a greater distance than it
actually was, and we thought we might as well have staid at
Santa Barbara, and sent our boat down for the hides. The
land was of a clayey consistency, and, as far as the eye could
reach, entirely bare of trees and even shrubs ; and there was
no sign of a town, — not even a house to be seen. What
brought us into such a place, we could not conceive. No
sooner had we come to anchor, than the slip-rope, and the
other preparations for south-easters, were got ready ; and
there was reason enough for it, for we lay exposed to every
wind that could blow, except the north-west, and that came
over a flat country with a range of more than a league of
water. As soon as everything was snug on board, the boat
was lowered, and we pulled ashore, our new officer, who had
been several times in the port before, taking the place of
steersman. As we drew in, we found the tide low, and the
rocks and stones, covered with kelp and sea-weed, lying bare
for the distance of nearly an eighth of a mile. Picking our
way barefooted over these, we came to what is called the
landing-place, at high-water mark. The soil was as it ap-
peared at first, loose and clayey, and except the stalks of the
mustard plant, there was no vegetation. Just in front of the
landing, and immediately over it, was a small hill, which,
from' its being not more than thirty or forty feet high, we
had not perceived from our anchorage. Over this hill we
saw three men coming down, dressed partly like sailors and
partly like Californians; one of them having on a pair of
untanned leather trowsers and a red baize shirt. When they
came down to us, we found that they were Englishmen, and
they told us that they had belonged to a small Mexican brig
which had been driven ashore here in a south-easter, and
now lived in a small house just over the hill. Going up this
hill with them, we saw, just behind it, a small, low building,
with one room, containing a fire-place, cooking apparatus,
etc., and the rest of it unfinished, and used as a place to
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 101
Store hides and goods. This, they told us, was built by some
traders in the Pueblo, (a town about thirty miles in the in-
terior, to which this was the port,) and used by them as a
storehouse, and also as a lodging place when they came
down to trade with the vessels. These three men were em-
ployed by them to keep the house in order, and to look out
for the things stored in it. They said that they had been
there nearly a year; had nothing to do most of the time,
living upon beef, hard bread, and frijoles (a peculiar kind
of bean very abundant in California). The nearest house,
they told us, was a Rancho, or cattle-farm, about three miles
off; and one of them went up, at the request of our officer,
to order a horse to be sent down, with which the agent, who
was on board, might go up to the Pueblo. From one of
them, who was an intelligent English sailor, I learned a good
deal, in a few minutes' conversation, about the place, its
trade, and the news from the southern ports. San Diego, he
said, was about eighty miles to the leeward of San Pedro ;
that they had heard from there, by a Mexican who came up
on horseback, that the California had sailed for Boston, and
that the Lagoda, which had been in San Pedro only a few
weeks before, was taking in her cargo for Boston. The
Ayacucho was also there, loading for Callao, and the little
Loriotte, which had run directly down from Monterey,
where we left her. San Diego, he told me, was a small,
snug place, having very little trade, but decidedly the best
harbor on the coast, being completely land-locked, and the
water as smooth as a duck-pond. This was the depot for all
the vessels engaged in the trade; each one having a large
house there, built of rough boards, in which they stowed
their hides, as fast as they collected them in their trips up
and down the coast, and when they had procured a full
cargo, spent a few weeks there, taking it in, smoking ship,
supplying wood and water, and making other preparations
for the voyage home. The Lagoda was now about this busi-
ness. When we should be about it, was more than I could
tell ; two years, at least, I thought to myself.
I also learned, to my surprise, that the desolate-looking
place we were in was the best place on the whole coast for
hides. It was the only port for a distance of eighty miles.
102 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
and about thirty miies in the interior was a fine plane coun-
try, filled with herds of cattle, in the centre of which was
the Pueblo de les Angelos — the largest town in California —
and several of the wealthiest missions; to all of which San
Pedro was the sea-port.
Having made our arrangements for a horse to take the
agent to the Pueblo the next day, we picked our way again
over the green, slipper}' rocks, and pulled aboard. By the
time we reached the vessel, which was so far off that we
could hardly see her, in the increasing darkness, the boats
were hoisted up, and the crew at supper. Going down into
the forecastle, eating our supper, and lighting our cigars and
pipes, we had, as usual, to tell all we had seen or heard
ashore. We all agreed that it was the worst place we had
seen yet, especially for getting ofT hides, and our lying off
at so great a distance looked as though it was bad for south-
easters. After a few disputes as to whether we should have
to carry our goods up the hill, or not, we talked of San
Diego, the probability' of seeing the Lagoda before she
sailed, etc., etc.
The next day we pulled the agent ashore, and he went up
to visit the Pueblo and the neighboring missions ; and in a
few days, as the result of his labors, large ox-carts, and
droves of mules, loaded with hides, were seen coming over
the flat country. We loaded our long-boat with goods of
all kinds, light and hea^'>•, and pulled ashore. After land-
ing and rolling them over the stones upon the beach, we
stopped, waiting for the carts to come down the hill and
take them ; but the captain soon settled the matter by order-
ing us to carry them all up to the top, saying that, that
was "California fashion." So what the oxen would not do,
we were obliged to do. The hill was low, but steep, and
the earth, being clayey and wet with the recent rains, was
but bad holding-ground for our feet. The heavy barrels
and casks we rolled up with some difficulty, getting behind
and putting our shoulders to them ; now and then our feet
slipping, added to the danger of the casks rowing back upon
us. But the greatest trouble was with the large boxes of
sugar. These, we had to place upon oars, and lifting them
up, rest the oars upon our shoulders, and creep slowly up
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 103
the hill with the gait of a funeral procession. After an hour
or two of hard work, we got them all up, and found the
carts standing full of hides, which we had to unload, and
also to load again with our own goods; the lazy Indians,
who came down with them, squatting down on their hams,
looking on, doing nothing, and when we asked them to help
us, only shaking their heads, or drawling out " no quiero."
Having loaded the carts, we started up the Indians, who
went off, one on each side of the oxen, with long sticks,
sharpened at the end, to punch them with. This is one of
the means of saving labor in California; — two Indians to
two oxen. Now, the hides were to be got down; and for
this purpose, we brought the boat round to a place where
the hill was steeper, and threw them down, letting them
slide over the slope. Many of them lodged, and we had to
let ourselves down and set them agoing again ; and in this
way got covered with dust, and our clothes torn. After
we had got them all down, we were obliged to take them
on our heads, and walk over the stones, and through the
water, to the boat. The water and the stones together
would wear out a pair of shoes a day, and as shoes were
very scarce and very dear, we were compelled to go bare-
footed. At night, we went on board, having had the hard-
est and most disagreeable day's work that we had yet ex-
perienced. For several days, we were employed in this
manner, until we had landed forty or fifty tons of goods,
and brought on board about two thousand hides ; when the
trade began to slacken, and we were kept at work, on board,
during the latter part of the week, either in the hold or
upon the rigging. On Thursday night, there was a violent
blow from the northward, but as this was off-shore, we had
only to let go our other anchor and hold on. We were called
up at night to send down the royal-yards. It was as dark
as a pocket, and the vessel pitching at her anchors. I went
up to the fore, and my friend S , to the main, and we
soon had them down " ship-shape and Bristol fashion ;"
for, as we had now got used to our duty aloft, everything
above the cross-trees was left to us, who were the youngest
of the crew, except one boy.
CHAPTER XV
A Flogging — A Night on Shore — The State of Things
ON Board — San Diego
FOR several days the captain seemed very much out of
humor. Nothing went right, or fast enough for him.
He quarrelled with the cook, and threatened to flog
him for throwing wood on deck ; and had a dispute with the
mate about reeving a Spanish burton ; the mate saying that
he was right, and had been taught how to do it by a man
zvho was a sailor! This, the captain took in dudgeon, and
they were at sword's points at once. But his displeasure was
chiefly turned against a large, heavy-moulded fellow from
the Middle States, who was called Sam. This man hesi-
tated in his speech, and was rather slow in his motions,
but was a pretty good sailor, and always seemed to do his
best; but the captain took a dislike to him, thought he was
surly, and lazy ; and " if you once give a dog a bad name "
— as the sailor-phrase is — " he may as well jump over-
board." The captain found fault with everything this man
did, and hazed him for dropping a marline-spike from the
main-yard, where he was at work. This, of course, was
an accident, but it was set down against him. The cap-
tain was on board all day Friday, and everything went on
hard and disagreeably. " The more you drive a man, the
less he will do," was as true with us as with any other
people. We worked late Friday night, and were turned-to
early Saturday morning. About ten o'clock the captain
ordered our new officer, Russell, who by this time had
become thoroughly disliked by all the crew, to get the gig
ready to take him ashore. John, the Swede, was sitting
in the boat alongside, and Russell and myself were stand-
ing by the main hatchway, waiting for the captain, who
was down in the hold, where the crew were at work, when
104
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 105
we heard his voice raised in violent dispute v^^ith somebody,
whether it was with the mate, or one of the crew, I could
not tell; and then came blows and scuffling. I ran to the
side and beckoned to John, who came up, and we leaned
down the hatchway; and though we could see no one, yet
we knew that the captain had the advantage, for his voice
was loud and clear —
" You see your condition ! You see your condition ! Will
you ever give me any more of your jaw?" No answer;
and then came wrestling and heaving, as though the man
was trying to turn him. " You may as well keep still, for
I have got you," said the captain. Then came the question,
"Will you ever give me any more of your jaw?"
" I never gave you any, sir," said Sam ; for it was his
voice that we heard, though low and half choked.
" That's not what I ask you. Will you ever be impudent
to me again ? "
" I never have been, sir," said Sam.
" Answer my question, or I'll make a spread eagle of you!
I'll flog you, by G— d."
" I'm no negro slave," said Sam.
" Then I'll make you one," said the captain ; and he
came to the hatchway, and sprang on deck, threw off
his coat, and rolling up his sleeves, called out to the
mate — " Seize that man up, Mr. A ! Seize him up !
Make a spread eagle of him ! I'll teach you all who is
master aboard ! "
The crew and offlcers followed the captain up the hatch-
way, and after repeated orders the mate laid hold of Sam,
who made no resistance, and carried him to the gangway.
" What are you going to flog that man for, sir ? " said
John, the Swede, to the captain.
Upon hearing this, the captain turned upon him, but know-
ing him to be quick and resolute, he ordered the steward
to bring the irons, and calling upon Russell to help him,
went up to John.
" Let me alone," said John. " I'm willing to be put in
irons. You need not use any force ; " and putting out
his hands, the captain slipped the irons on, and sent him
aft to the quarter-deck. Sam by this time was seised up.
106 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR«
as it is called, that is, placed against the shrouds, with his
wrists made fast to the shrouds, his jacket off, and his
back exposed. The captain stood on the break of the deck,
a few feet from him, and a little raised, so as to have a
good swing at him, and held in his hand the bight of a
thick, strong rope. The officers stood round, and the crew
grouped together in the waist. All these preparations made
me feel sick and almost faint, angry and excited as I was.
A man — a human being, made in God's likeness — fastened
up and flogged like a beast ! A man, too, whom I had lived
with and eaten with for months, and knew almost as well
as a brother. The first and almost uncontrollable impulse
was resistance. But what was to be done? The time for
it had gone by. The two best men were fast, and there
were only two beside myself, and a small boy of ten or
twelve years of age. And then there were (beside the cap-
tain) three officers, steward, agent and clerk. But beside
the numbers, what is there for sailors to do? If they resist,
it is mutiny; and if they succeed, and take the vessel, it
is piracy. If they ever yield again, their punishment must
come; and if they do not yield, they are pirates for life.
If a sailor resist his commander, he resists the law, and
piracy or submission are his only alternatives. Bad as it
was, it must be borne. It is what a sailor ships for. Swing-
ing the rope over his head, and bending his body so as to
give it full force, the captain brought it down upon the poor
fellow's back. Once, twice, — six times. " Will you ever
give me any more of your jaw?" The man writhed with
pain, but said not a word. Three times more. This was
too much, and he muttered something which I could not
hear; this brought as many more as the man could stand;
when the captain ordered him to be cut down, and to go
forward.
" Now for you," said the captain, making up to John
and taking his irons off. As soon as he was loose, he ran
forward to the forecastle. " Bring that man aft," shouted
the captain. The second mate, who had been a shipmate
of John's, stood still in the waist, and the mate walked
slowly forward; but our third officer, anxious to show his
zeal, sprang forward over the windlass, and laid hold of
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 107
John; but he soon threw him from him. At this moment
I Avould have given worlds for the power to help the poor
fellow; but it was all in vain. The captain stood on the
quarter-deck, bare-headed, his eyes flashing with rage, and
his face as red as blood, swinging the rope, and calling out
to his officers, " Drag him aft ! — Lay hold of him ! I'll
sweeten him ! " etc., etc. The mate now went forward and
told John quietly to go aft; and he, seeing resistance in
vain, threw the blackguard third mate from him; said he
would go aft of himself; that they should not drag him;
and went up to the gangway and held out his hands; but
as soon as the captain began to make him fast, the indig-
nity was too much, and he began to resist; but the mate
and Russell holding him, he was soon seized up. When he
was made fast, he turned to the captain, who stood turn-
ing up his sleeves and getting ready for the blow, and asked
him what he was to be flogged for. " Have I ever refused
my duty, sir? Have you ever known me to hang back, or
to be insolent, or not to know my work ? "
" No," said the captain, " it is not that that I flog you for ;
I flog you for your interference — for asking questions."
" Can't a man ask a question here without being flogged ? "
" No," shouted the captain ; " nobody shall open his mouth
aboard this vessel, but myself ; " and began laying the blows
upon his back, swinging half round between each blow, to
give it full effect. As he went on, his passion increased,
and he danced about the deck, calling out as he swung the
rope, — " If you want to know what I flog you for, I'll tell
you. It's because I like to do it ! — because I like to do it ! —
It suits me ! That's what I do it for ! "
The man writhed under the pain, until he could endure
it no longer, when he called out, with an exclamation more
common among foreigners than with us — " Oh, Jesus Christ !
Oh, Jesus Christ ! "
" Don't call on Jesus Christ," shouted the captain ; " he
can't help you. Call on Captain T , he's the man ! He
can help you ! Jesus Christ can't help you now ! "
At these words, which I never shall forget, my blood ran
cold. I could look on no longer. Disgusted, sick, and hor-
ror-struck, I turned away and leaned over the rail, and
108 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
looked down into the water. A few rapid thoughts of my
own situation, and of the prospect of future revenge,
crossed my mind; but the falHng of the blows and the
cries of the man called me back at once. At length they
ceased, and turning round, I found that the mcite, at a
signal from the captain had cut him down. Almost doubled
up with pain, the man walked slowly forward, and went
down into the forecastle. Every one else stood still at his
post, while the captain, swelling with rage and with the
importance of his achievement, walked the quarter-deck,
and at each turn, as he came forward, calling out to us, —
" You see your condition ! You see where I've got you
all, and you know what to expect ! " — " You've been mistaken
in me — you didn't know what I was ! Now you know what
I am ! " — " I'll make you toe the mark, every soul of you,
or I'll flog you all, fore and aft, from the boy, up ! " — "You've
got a driver over you! Yes, a slave-driver — a negro-driver!
I'll see who'll tell me he isn't a negro slave ! " With this
and the like matter, equally calculated to quiet us, and to allay
any apprehensions of future trouble, he entertained us for
about ten minutes, when he went below. Soon after, John
came aft, with his bare back covered with stripes and wales
in every direction, and dreadfully swollen, and asked the
steward to ask the captain to let him have some salve, or
balsam, to put upon it. " No," said the captain, who heard
him from below ; " tell him to put his shirt on ; that's the
best thing for him ; and pull me ashore in the boat. Nobody
is going to lay-up on board this vessel." He then called
to Mr. Russell to take those two men and two others in
the boat, and pull him ashore. I went for one. The
two men could hardly bend their backs, and the captain
called to them to " give way," " give way ! " but finding
they did their best, he let them alone. The agent was in
the stern sheets, but during the whole pull — a league or
more — not a word was spoken. We landed; the captain,
agent, and officer went up to the house, and left us with the
boat. I, and the man with me, staid near the boat, while
John and vSam walked slowly away, and sat down on the
rocks. They talked some time together, but at length
separated, each sitting alone. I had some fears of John.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 109
He was a foreigner, and violently tempered, and under
suffering; and he had his knife with him, and the captain
was to come down alone to the boat. But nothing hap-
pened; and we went quietly on board. The captain was
probably armed, and if either of them had lifted a hand
against him, they would have had nothing before them but
flight, and starvation in the woods of California, or cap-
ture by the soldiers and Indian blood-hounds, whom the
offer of twenty dollars would have set upon them.
After the day's work was done, we went down into the
forecastle, and ate our plain supper; but not a word was
spoken. It was Saturday night; but there was no song —
no " sweethearts and wives." A gloom was over every-
thing. The two men lay in their berths, groaning with
pain, and we all turned in, but for myself, not to sleep.
A sound coming now and then from the berths of the two
men showed that they were awake, as awake they must
have been, for they could hardly lie in one posture a
moment; the dim, swinging lamp of the forecastle shed
its light over the dark hole in which we lived ; and many
and various reflections and purposes coursed through my
mind. I thought of our situation, living under a tyranny;
of the character of the country we were in ; of the length
of the voyage, and of the uncertainty attending our re-
turn to America; and then, if we should return, of the
prospect of obtaining justice and satisfaction for these poor
men; and vowed that if God should ever give me the
means, I would do something to redress the grievances and
relieve the sufferings of that poor class of beings, of whom
I then was one.
The next day was Sunday. We worked as usual, wash-
ing decks, etc., until breakfast-time. After breakfast, we
pulled the captain ashore, and finding some hides there
which had been brought down the night before, he ordered
me to stay ashore and watch them, saying that the boat
would come again before night. They left me, and I spent
a quiet day on the hill, eating dinner with the three men
at the little house. Unfortunately, they had no books, and
after talking with them and walking about, I began to
grow tired of doing nothing. The little brig, the home of
110 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
so much hardship and suffering, lay in the offing, almost
as far as one could see; and the only other thing which
broke the surface of the great bay was a small, desolate-
looking island, steep and conical, of a clayey soil, and with-
out the sign of vegetable life upon it; yet which had a
peculiar and melancholy interest to me, for on the top of it
were buried the remains of an Englishman, the commander
of a small merchant brig, who died while lying in this port.
It was always a solemn and interesting spot to me. There
it stood, desolate, and in the midst of desolation; and there
were the remains of one who died and was buried alone
and friendless. Had it been a common burying-place, it
would have been nothing. The single body corresponded
well with the solitary character of everything around. It
was the only thing in California from which I could ever
extract anything like poetry. Then, too, the man died far
from home; without a friend near him; by poison, it was
suspected, and no one to inquire into it; and without proper
funeral rites; the mate, (as I was told,) glad to have him
out of the way, hurrying him up the hill and into the ground,
without a word or a prayer.
I looked anxiously for a boat, during the latter part of
the afternoon, but none cam.e ; until toward sundown, when
I saw a speck on the water, and as it drew near, I found it
was the gig, with the captain. The hides, then, were not
to go off. The captain came up the hill, with a man,
bringing my monkey jacket and a blanket. He looked
pretty black, but inquired whether I had enough to eat;
told me to make a house out of the hides, and keep myself
warm, as I should have to sleep there among them, and
to keep good watch over them. I got a moment to speak to
the man who brought my jacket.
" How do things go aboard ? " said I.
" Bad enough," said he ; " hard work and not a kind word
spoken."
" What," said I, " have you been at work all day ? "
" Yes ! no more Sunday for us. Everything has been
moved in the hold, from stem to stern, and from the water-
ways to the keelson."
I went up to the house to supper. We had frijoles.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST HI
(the perpetual food of the Californians, but which, when
well cooked, are the best bean in the world,) coffee made
of burnt wheat, and hard bread. After our meal, the three
men sat down by the light of a tallow candle, with a
pack of greasy Spanish cards, to the favorite game of
" treinta uno," a sort of Spanish " everlasting." I left
them and went out to take up my bivouack among the
hides. It was now dark; the vessel was hidden from sight,
and except the three men in the house, there was not a
living soul within a league. The coati (a wild animal of
a nature and appearance between that of the fox and the
wolf) set up their sharp, quick bark, and two owls, at the
end of two distant points running out into the bay, on
different sides of the hills where I lay, kept up their alter-
nate, dismal notes. I had heard the sound before at night,
but did not know what it was, until one of the men, who
came down to look at my quarters, told me it was the owl.
Mellowed by the distance, and heard alone, at night, I
thought it was the most melancholy, boding sound I had
ever heard. Through nearly all the night they kept it up,
answering one another slowly, at regular intervals. This
was relieved by the noisy coati, some of which came quite
near to my quarters, and were not very pleasant neigh-
bors. The next morning, before sunrise, the long-boat
came ashore, and the hides were taken off.
We lay at San Pedro about a week, engaged in taking
off hides and in other labors, which had now become our
regular duties. I spent one more day on the hill, watch-
ing a quantity of hides and goods, and this time succeeded
in finding a part of a volume of Scott's Pirate, in a cor-
ner of the house; but it failed me at a most interesting
moment, and I betook myself to my acquaintances on shore,
and from them learned a good deal about the customs of the
country, the harbors, etc. This, they told me, was a worse
harbor than Santa Barbara, for south-easters ; the bearing
of the headland being a point and a half more to windward,
and it being so shallow that the sea broke often as far out
as where we lay at anchor. The gale from which we slipped
at Santa Barbara, had been so bad a one here, that the
whole bay, for a league out, was filled with the foam of the
112 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
breakers, and seas actually broke over the Dead Man's
island. The Lagoda was lying there, and slipped at the first
alarm, and in such haste that she was obliged to leave her
launch behind her at anchor. The little boat rode it out for
several hours, pitching at her anchor, and standing with her
stern up almost perpendicularly. The men told me that they
watched her till towards night, when she snapped her cable
and drove up over the breakers, high and dry upon the
beach.
On board the Pilgrim, everything went on regularly, each
one trying to get along as smoothly as possible ; but the
comfort of the voyage was evidently at an end. " That is a
long lane which has no turning " — " Every dog must have
his day, and mine will come by-and-by " — and the like
proverbs, were occasionally quoted ; but no one spoke of
any probable end to the voyage, or of Boston, or anything
of the kind; or if he did, it was only to draw out the per-
petual, surly reply from his shipmate — " Boston, is it ? You
may thank your stars if you ever see that place. You
had better have your back sheathed, and your head coppered,
and your feet shod, and make out your log for California
for life ! " or else something of this kind — " Before you get
to Boston the hides will wear the hair off your head, and
you'll take up all your wages in clothes, and won't have
enough left to buy a wig with ! "
The flogging was seldom if ever alluded to by us, in the
forecastle. If any one was inclined to talk about it, the
others, with a delicacy which I hardly expected to find
among them, always stopped him, or turned the subject.
But the behavior of the two men who were flogged toward
one another showed a delicacy and a sense of honor, which
would have been worthy of admiration in the highest walks
of life. Sam knew that the other had suffered solely on his
account, and in all his complaints, he said that if he alone
had been flogged, it would have been nothing; but that he
never could see that man without thinking what had been
the means of bringing that disgrace upon him; and John
never, by word or deed, let anything escape him to remind
the other that it was by interfering to save his shipmate,
that he had suffered.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 113
Having got all our spare room filled with hides, we hove
up our anchor and made sail for San Diego. In no opera-
tion can the disposition of a crew be discovered better than
in getting under weigh. Where things are " done with a
will," every one is like a cat aloft : sails are loosed in an
instant; each one lays out his strength on his handspike,
and the windlass goes briskly round with the loud cry of
" Yo heave ho ! Heave and pawl ! Heave hearty ho ! " But
with us, at this time, it was all dragging work. No one went
aloft beyond his ordinary gait, and the chain came slowly
in over the windlass. The mate, between the knight-heads,
exhawsted all his official rhetoric, in calls of " Heave with a
will ! " — " Heave hearty, men ! — heave hearty ! " — ■' Heave
and raise the dead ! " — Heave, and away ! " etc., etc. ; but
it would not do. Nobody broke his back or his handspike by
his efiforts. And when the cat-tackle-fall was strung along,
and all hands — cook, steward, and all — laid hold, to cat the
anchor, instead of the lively song of " Cheerily, men ! " in
which all hands join in the chorus, we pulled a long, heavy,
silent pull, and — as sailors say a song is as good as ten men
— the anchor came to the cat-head pretty slowly. " Give us
* Cheerily ! ' " said the mate; but there was no " cheerily " for
us, and we did without it. The captain walked the quarter-
deck, and said not a word. He must have seen the change,
but there was nothing which he could notice officially.
We sailed leisurely down the coast before a light fair
wind, keeping the land well aboard, and saw two other
missions, looking like blocks of white plaster, shining in the
distance ; one of which, situated on the top of a high hill, was
San Juan Campestrano, under which vessels sometimes come
to anchor, in the summer season, and take off hides. The
most distant one was St. Louis Rey, which the third mate
said was only fifteen miles from San Diego. At sunset on
the second day, we had a large and well wooded headland
directly before us, behind which lay the little harbor of San
Diego. We were becalmed off this point all night, but the
next morning, which was Saturday, the 14th of March,
having a good breeze, we stood round the point, and hauling
our wind, brought the little harbor, which is rather the out-
let of a small river, right before us. Every one was anxious
114 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
to get a view of the new place. A chain of high hills, begin-
ning at the point, (which was on our larboard hand, coming
in,) protected the harbor on the north and west, and ran off
into the interior as far as the eye could reach. On the other
sides, the land was low, and green, but without trees. The
entrance is so narrow as to admit but one vessel at a time,
the current swift, and the channel runs so near to a low
stony point that the ship's sides appeared almost to touch it.
There was no town in sight, but on the smooth sand beach,
abreast, and within a cable's length of which three vessels
lay moored, were four large houses, built of rough boards,
and looking like the great barns in which ice is stored on
the borders of the large ponds near Boston ; with piles of
hides standing round them, and men in red shirts and large
straw hats, walking in and out of the doors. These were
the hide-houses. Of the vessels : one, a short, clumsy, little
hermaphrodite brig, we recognized as our old acquaintance,
the Loriotte ; another, with sharp bows and raking masts,
newly painted and tarred, and glittering in the morning sun,
with the blood-red banner and cross of St. George at her
peak, was the handsome Ayacucho. The third was a large
ship, with top-gallant-masts housed, and sails unbent, and
looking as rusty and worn as two years' " hide-droghing "
could make her. This was the Lagoda. As we drew near,
carried rapidly along by the current, we overhauled our
chain, and clewed up the topsails. " Let go the anchor ! "
said the captain but either there was not chain enough for-
ward of the windlass, or the anchor went down foul, or we
had too much headway on, for it did not bring us up. " Pay
out chain ! " shouted the captain ; and we gave it to her ;
but it would not do. Before the other anchor could be let
go, we drifted down, broadside on, and went smash into the
Lagoda. Her crew were at breakfast in the forecastle, and
the cook, seeing us coming, rushed out of his galley, and
called up the officers and men.
Fortunately no great harm was done. Her jib-boom ran
between our fore and main masts, carrying away some of
our rigging, and breaking down the rail. She lost her
martingale. This brought us up, and as they paid out chain,
we swung clear of them, and let go the other anchor; but
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST US
this had as bad luck as the first, for, before any one per-
ceived it, we were drifting on to the Loriotte. The captain
now gave out his orders rapidly and fiercely, sheeting home
the topsails, and backing and filling the sails, in hope of
starting or clearing the anchors; but it was all in vain, and
he sat down on the rail, taking it very leisurely, and calling
out to Captain Nye, that he was coming to pay him a visit.
We drifted fairly into the Loriotte, her larboard bow into
our starboard quarter, carrying away a part of our star-
board quarter railing, and breaking off her larboard bump-
kin, and one or two stanchions above the deck. We saw
our handsome sailor, Jackson, on the forecastle, with the
Sandwich Islanders, working away to get us clear. After
paying out chain, we swung clear, but our anchors were no
doubt afoul of hers. We manned the windlass, and hove,
and hove away, but to no purpose. Sometimes we got a little
upon the cable, but a good surge would take it all back
again. We now began to drift down toward the Ayacucho,
when her boat put off and brought her commander, Captain
Wilson, on board. He was a short, active, well-built man,
between fifty and sixty years of age; and being nearly
twenty years older than our captain, and a thorough seaman,
he did not hesitate to give his advice, and from giving
advice, he gradually came to taking the command; order-
ing us when to heave and when to pawl, and backing and
filling the topsails, setting and taking in jib and trysail,
whenever he thought best. Our captain gave a few orders,
but as Wilson generally countermanded them, saying, in an
easy, fatherly kind of way, " Oh no ! Captain T , you
don't want the jib on her," or " it isn't time yet to heave ! "
he soon gave it up. We had no objections to this state of
things, for Wilson was a kind old man, and had an encour-
aging and pleasant way of speaking to us, which made
everything go easily. After two or three hours of constant
labor at the windlass, heaving and " Yo ho ! "-ing with all
our might, we brought up an anchor, with the Loriotte's
small bower fast to it. Having cleared this and let it go,
and cleared our hawse, we soon got our other anchor, which
had dragged half over the harbor. " Now," said Wilson,
" I'll find you a good berth ;" and setting both the topsails.
116 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
he carried us down, and brought us to anchor, in handsome
style, directly abreast of the hide-house which we were to
use. Having done this, he took his leave, while we furled
the sails, and got our breakfast, which was welcome to us,
for we had worked hard, and it was nearly twelve o'clock.
After breakfast, and until night, we were employed in get-
ting out the boats and mooring ship.
After supper, two of us took the captain on board the
Lagoda. As he came alongside, he gave his name, and
the mate, in the gangway, called out to the captain down the
companion-way — " Captain T has come aboard, sir ! "
" Has he brought his brig with him ? " said the rough old
fellow, in a tone which made itself heard fore and aft. This
mortified our captain a little, and it became a standing joke
among us for the rest of the voyage. The captain went
down into the cabin, and we walked forward and put our
heads down the forecastle, where we found the men at
supper. " Come down, shipmates ! Come down ! " said they,
as soon as they saw us ; and we went down, and found a
large, high forecastle, well lighted; and a crew of twelve
or fourteen men, eating out of their kids and pans, and
drinking their tea, and talking and laughing, all as inde-
pendent and easy as so many " wood-sawyer's clerks." This
looked like comfort and enjoyment, compared with the dark
little forecastle, and scanty, discontented crew of the brig.
It was Saturday night ; they had got through with their
work for the week ; and being snugly moored, had nothing
to do until Monday, again. After two years' hard service,
they had seen the worst, and all, of California ; — had got
their cargo nearly stowed, and expected to sail in a week
or two, for Boston. We spent an hour or more with them,
talking over California matters, until the word was passed —
" Pilgrims, away ! " and we went back with our captain.
They were a hardy, but intelligent crew; a little roughened,
and their clothes patched and old, from California wear;
all able seamen, and between the ages of twenty and thirty-
five. They inquired about our vessel, the usage, etc., and
were not a little surprised at the story of the flogging. They
said there were often difficulties in vessels on the coast,
and sometimes knock-downs and fightings, but they had
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 117
never heard before of a regular seizing-up and flogging.
" Spread-eagles " were a new kind of bird in California.
Sunday, they said, was always given in San Diego, both
at the hide-houses and on board the vessels, a large number
usually going up to the town, on liberty. We learned a
good deal from them about curing and stowing of hides,
etc., and they were anxious to have the latest news (seven
months old) from Boston. One of their first inquiries was
for Father Taylor, the seamen's preacher in Boston. Then
followed the usual strain of conversation, inquiries, stories,
and jokes, which, one must always hear in a ship's fore-
castle, but which are perhaps, after all, no worse, nor,
indeed, more gross, than that of many well-dressed gentle-
men at their clubs.
CHAPTER XVI
Liberty-day on Shore
THE next day being Sunday, after washing and clear-
ing decks, and getting breakfast, the mate came for-
ward with leave for one watch to go ashore, on
liberty. We drew lots, and it fell to the larboard, which I
was in. Instantly all was preparation. Buckets of fresh
water, (which we were allowed in port,) and soap, were
put in use; go-ashore jackets and trowsers got out and
brushed ; pumps, neckerchiefs, and hats overhauled ; one
lending to another ; so that among the whole each one got a
good fit-out. A boat was called to pull the " liberty men "
ashore, and we sat down in the stern sheets, " as big as pay
passengers," and jumping ashore, set out on our walk for
the town, which was nearly three miles off.
It is a pity that some other arrangement is not made in
merchant vessels, with regard to the liberty-day. When in
port, the crews are kept at work all the week, and the only
day they are allowed for rest or pleasure is the Sabbath;
and unless they go ashore on that day, they cannot go at
all. I have heard of a religious captain who gave his crew
liberty on Saturdays, after twelve o'clock. This would be
a good plan, if shipmasters would bring themselves to give
their crews so much time. For young sailors especially,
many of whom have been brought up with a regard for the
sacredness of the day, this strong temptation to break it, is
exceedingly injurious. As it is, it can hardly be expected
that a crew, on a long and hard voyage, will refuse a few
hours of freedom from toil and the restraints of a vessel,
and an opportunity to tread the ground and see the sights
of society and humanity, because it is on a Sunday. It is
too much like escaping from prison, or being drawn out of
a pit, on the Sabbath day.
118
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 119
I shall never forget the delightful sensation of being in
the open air, with the birds singing around me, and escaped
from the confinement, labor, and strict rule of a vessel — of
being once more in my life, though only for a day, my own
master. A sailor's liberty is but for a day; yet while it lasts
it is perfect. He is under no one's eye, and can do what-
ever, and go wherever, he pleases. This day, for the first
time, I may truly say, in my whole life, I felt the meaning
of a term which I had often heard — the sweets of liberty.
My friend S was with me, and turning our backs upon
the vessels, we walked slowly along, talking of the pleasure
of being our own masters, of the times past, and when we
were free in the midst of friends, in America, and of the
prospect of our return; and planning where we would go,
and what we would do, when we reached home. It was
wonderful how the prospect brightened, and how short and
tolerable the voyage appeared, when viewed in this new
light. Things looked differently from what they did when
we talked them over in the little dark forecastle, the night
after the flogging at San Pedro. It is not the least of the
advantages of allowing sailors occasionally a day of liberty,
that it gives them a spring, and makes them feel cheerful
and independent, and leads them insensibly to look on the
bright side of everything for some time after.
S and myself determined to keep as much together as
possible, though we knew that it would not do to cut our
shipmates ; for, knowing our birth and education, they were
a little suspicious that we would try to put on the gentleman
when we got ashore, and would be ashamed of their com-
pany; and this won't do with Jack. When the voyage is at
an end, you may do as you please, but so long as you belong
to the same vessel, you must be a shipmate to him on shore,
or he will not be a shipmate to you on board. Being fore-
warned of this before I went to sea, I took no " long togs "
with me, and being dressed like the rest, in white duck trow-
sers, blue jacket and straw hat, which would prevent my going
in better company, and showing no disposition to avoid them,
I set all suspicion at rest. Our crew fell in with some who
belonged to the other vessels, and, sailor-like, steered for
the first grog-shop. This was a small mud building, of only
120 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
one room, in which were liquors, dry and West India goods,
shoes, bread, fruits, and everything which is vendible in
California. It was kept by a Yankee, a one-eyed man, who
belonged formerly to Fall River, came out to the Pacific in
a whale-ship, left her at the Sandwich Islands, and came to
California and set up a " Pulperia." S and I followed
in our shipmates' wake, knowing that to refuse to drink
with them would be the highest affront, but determining to
slip away at the first opportunity. It is the universal custom
with sailors for each one, in his turn, to treat the whole,
calling for a glass all round, and obliging every one who is
present, even the keeper of the shop, to take a glass with
him. When we first came in, there was some dispute be-
tween our crew and the others, whether the new comers or
the old California rangers should treat first; but it being
settled in favor of the latter, each of the crews of the other
vessels treated all round in their turn, and as there were a
good many present, (including some " loafers " who had
dropped in, knowing what was going on, to take advantage
of Jack's hospitality,) and the liquor was a real (125^
cents) a glass, it made somewhat of a hole in their lockers.
It was now our ship's turn, and S and I, anxious to get
away, stepped up to call for glasses ; but we soon found
that we must go in order — the oldest first, for the old sailors
did not choose to be preceded by a couple of youngsters;
and bon gre mal grc, we had to wait our turn, with the two-
fold apprehension of being too late for our horses, and of
getting corned; for drink you must, every time; and if you
drink with one and not with another, it is always taken as
an insult.
Having at length gone through our turns and acquitted
ourselves of all obligations, we slipped out, and went about
among the houses, endeavoring to get horses for the day,
so that we might ride round and see the country. At first
we had but little success, all that we could get out of the
lazy fellows, in reply to our questions, being the eternal
drawling "Quien sahc?" ("who knows?") which is an
answer to all questions. After several efforts, we at length
fell in with a Uttle Sandwich Island boy, who belonged to
Captain Wilson of the Ayacucho, and was well acquainted in
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 121
the place; and he, knowing where to go, soon procured us
two horses, ready saddled and bridled, each with a lasso
coiled over the pommel. These we were to have all day,
with the privilege of riding them down to the beach at night,
for a dollar, which we had to pay in advance. Horses are
the cheapest thing in California; the very best not being
worth more than ten dollars apiece, and very good ones
being often sold for three, and four. In taking a day's ride,
you pay for the use of the saddle, and for the labor and
trouble of catching the horses. If you bring the saddle back
safe, they care but little what becomes of the horse.
Mounted on our horses, which were spirited beasts, and
which, by the way, in this country, are always steered by
pressing the contrary rein against the neck, and not by pull-
ing on the bit, — we started off on a fine run over the country.
The first place we went to was the old ruinous presidio,
which stands on a rising ground near the village, which it
overlooks. It is built in the form of an open square, like
all the other presidios, and was in a most ruinous state, with
the exception of one side, in which the commandant lived,
with his family. There were only two guns, one of which
was spiked, and the other had no carriage. Twelve, half
clothed, and half starved looking fellows, composed the gar-
rison ; and they, it was said, had not a musket apiece. The
small settlement lay directly below the fort, composed of
about forty dark brown looking huts, or houses, and two
larger ones, plastered, which belonged to two of the " gente
de razon." This town is not more than half as large as
Monterey, or Santa Barbara, and has little or no business.
From the presidio, we rode off in the direction of the mis-
sion, which we were told was three miles distant. The
country was rather sandy, and there was nothing for miles
which could be called a tree, but the grass grew green and
rank, and there were many bushes and thickets, and the soil
is said to be good. After a pleasant ride of a couple of
miles, we saw the white walls of the mission, and fording a
small river, we came directly before it. The mission is built
of mud, or rather of the unburnt bricks of the country, and
plastered. There was something decidedly striking in its
appearance: a number of irregular buildings, connected
122 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
with one another, and disposed in the form of a hollow
square, with a church at one end, rising above the rest,
with a tower containing five belfries, in each of which
hung a large bell, and with immense rusty iron crosses
at the tops. Just outside of the buildings, and under the
walls, stood twenty or thirty small huts, built of straw and
of the branches of trees, grouped together, in which a few
Indians lived, under the protection and in the service of
the mission.
Entering a gate-way, we drove into the open square, in
which the stillness of death reigned. On one side was the
church ; on another, a range of high buildings with grated
windows ; a third was a range of smaller buildings, or
offices ; and the fourth seemed to be little more than a high
connecting wall. Not a living creature could we see. We
rode twice round the square, in the hope of waking up some
one ; and in one circuit, saw a tall monk, with shaven head,
sandals, and the dress of the Grey Friars, pass rapidly
through a gallery, but he disappeared without noticing us.
After two circuits, we stopped our horses, and saw, at
last, a man show himself in front of one of the small build-
ings. We rode up to him, and found him dressed in the
common dress of the country, with a silver chain round his
neck, supporting a large bunch of keys. From this, we took
him to be the steward of the mission, and addressing him
as " Mayordomo," received a low bow and an invitation to
walk into his room. Making our horses fast, we went in.
It was a plain room, containing a table, three or four chairs,
a small picture or two of some saint, or miracle, or martyr-
dom, and a few dishes and glasses. "Hay algunas cosa de
comer?" said I. "Si Senor ! " said he. "Que gusta
usted ? " Mentioning f rijoles, which I knew they must have
if they had nothing else, and beef and bread, and a hint for
wine, if they had any, he went off to another building,
across the court, and returned in a few moments, with a
couple of Indian boys, bearing dishes and a decanter of
wine. The dishes contained baked meats, frijoles stewed
with peppers and onions, boiled eggs, and California flour
baked into a kind of macaroni. These, together with the
wine, made the most sumptuous meal we had eaten since
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 123
we left Boston; and, compared with the fare we had lived
upon for seven months, it was a regal banquet. After
despatching our meal, we took out some money and asked
him how much we were to pay. He shook his head, and
crossed himself, saying that it was charity: — that the Lord
gave it to us. Knowing the amount of this to be that he
did not sell it, but was willing to receive a present, we gave
him ten or twelve reals, which he pocketed with admirable
nonchalance, saying, " Dios se lo pague." Taking leave of
him, we rode out to the Indians' huts. The little children
were running about among the huts, stark naked, and the
men were not much better; but the women had generally
coarse gowns, of a sort of tow cloth. The men are em-
ployed, most of the time, in tending the cattle of the mission,
and in working in the garden, which is a very large one,
including several acres, and filled, it is said, with the best
fruits of the climate. The language of these people, which
is spoken by all the Indians of California, is the most brutish
and inhuman language, without any exception, that I ever
heard, or that could well be conceived of. It is a complete
slabber. The words fall off of the ends of their tongues,
and a continual slabbering sound is made in the cheeks,
outside of the teeth. It cannot have been the language of
Montezuma and the independent Mexicans.
Here, among the huts, we saw the oldest man that I had
even seen ; and, indeed, I never supposed that a person
could retain life and exhibit such marks of age. He was
sitting out in the sun, leaning against the side of a hut ;
and his legs and arms, which were bare, were of a dark red
color, the skin withered and shrunk up like burnt leather,
and the limbs not larger round than those of a boy of five
years. He had a few grey hairs, which were tied together
at the back of his head; and he was so feeble that, when
we came up to him, he raised his hands slowly to his face,
and taking hold of his lids with his fingers, lifted them up
to look at us; and being satisfied, let them drop again. All
command over the lid seemed to have gone. I asked his
age, but could get no answer but " Quien sabe ? " and they
probably did not know the age.
Leaving the mission, we returned to the village, going
124 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
nearly all the way on a full run. The California horses
have no medium gait, which is pleasant, between walking
and running; for as there are no streets and parades, they
have no need of the genteel trot, and their riders usually
keep them at the top of their speed until they are tired, and
then let them rest themselves by walking. The fine air of the
afternoon ; the rapid rate of the animals, who seemed almost
to fly over the ground; and the excitement and novelty of
the motion to us, who had been so long confined on ship-
board, were exhilarating beyond expression, and we felt
willing to ride all day long. Coming into the village, we
found things looking very lively. The Indians, who always
have a holyday on Sunday, were engaged at playing a kind
of running game of ball, on a level piece of ground, near the
houses. The old ones sat down in a ring, looking on, while
the young ones — men, boys and girls — were chasing the
ball, and throwing it with all their might. Some of the
girls ran like greyhounds. At every accident, or remarkable
feat, the old people set up a deafening screaming and clap-
ing of hands. Several blue jackets were reeling about
among the houses, which showed that the pulperias had
been well patronized. One or two of the sailors had got
on horseback, but being rather indifferent horsemen, and
the Spaniards having given them vicious horses, they were
soon thrown, much to the amusement of the people. A
half dozen Sandwich Islanders, from the hide-houses and
the two brigs, who are bold riders, were dashing about on
the full gallop, hallooing and laughing like so many wild
men.
It was now nearly sundown, and S and myself went
into a house and sat quietly down to rest ourselves before
going down to the beach. Several people were soon col-
lected to see " los Ingles marineros," and one of them — a
young woman — took a great fancy to my pocket handker-
chief, which was a large silk one that I had before going to
sea, and a handsomer one than they had been in the habit
of seeing. Of course, I gave it to her; which brought us
into high favor; and we had a present of some pears and
other fruits, which we took down to the beach with us.
When we came to leave the house, we found that our
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 125
horses, which we left tied at the door, were both gone. We
had paid for them to ride down to the beach, but they were
not to be found. We went to the man of whom we hired
them, but he only shrugged his shoulders, and to our ques-
tion, " Where are the horses ? " only answered — " Quien
sabe ? " but as he was very easy, and made no inquiries for
the saddles, we saw that he knew very well where they
were. After a little trouble, determined not to walk down, —
a distance of three miles — we procured two, at four reals
apiece, with an Indian boy to run on behind and bring them
back. Determined to have " the go " out of the horses, for
our trouble, we went down at full speed, and were on the
beach in fifteen minutes. Wishing to make our liberty last
as long as possible, we rode up and down among the hide-
houses, amusing ourselves with seeing the men, as they came
down, (it was now dusk,) some on horseback and others on
foot. The Sandwich Islanders rode down, and were in
'' high snuff." We inquired for our shipmates, and were
told that two of them had started on horseback and had
been thrown or had fallen off, and were seen heading for
the beach, but steering pretty wild, and by the looks of
things, would not be down much before midnight.
The Indian boys having arrived, we gave them our horses,
and having seen them safely off, hailed for a boat and went
aboard. Thus ended our first liberty-day on shore. We
were well tired, but had had a good time, and were more
willing to go back to our old duties. About midnight, we
were waked up by our two watch-mates, who had come
aboard in high dispute. It seems they had started to come
down on the same horse, double-backed; and each was
accusing the other of being the cause of his fall. They soon,
however, turned-in and fell asleep, and probably forgot all
about it, for the next morning the dispute was not renewed.
CHAPTER XVII
San Diego — A Desertion — San Pedro Again — Beating
UP Coast
THE next sound we heard was "All hands ahoy ! " and
looking up the scuttle, saw that it was just daylight.
Our liberty had now truly taken flight, and with it
we laid away our pumps, stockings, blue jackets, necker-
chiefs, and other go-ashore paraphernalia, and putting on
old duck trowsers, red shirts, and Scotch caps, began taking
out and landing our hides. For three days we were hard at
work, from the grey of the morning until starlight, with the
exception of a short time allowed for meals, in this duty.
For landing and taking on board hides, San Diego is decid-
edly the best place in California. The harbor is small and
land-locked; there is no surf; the vessels lie within a cable's
length of the beach; and the beach itself is smooth, hard
sand, without rocks or stones. For these reasons, it is used
by all the vessels in the trade, as a depot; and, indeed, it
would be impossible, when loading with the cured hides for
the passage home, to take them on board at any of the open
ports, without getting them wet in the surf, which would
spoil them. We took possession of one of the hide-houses,
which belonged to our firm, and had been used by the Cali-
fornia. It was built to hold forty thousand hides, and we
had the pleasing prospect of filling it before we could leave
the coast ; and toward this, our thirty-five hundred, which we
brought down with us, would do but little. There was not
a man on board who did not go a dozen times into the
house, and look round, and make some calculation of the
time it would require.
The hides, as they come rough and uncured from the ves-
sels, are piled up outside of the houses, whence they are
taken and carried through a regular process of pickling,
126
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 127
drying, cleaning, etc., and stowed away in the house, ready
to be put on board. This process is necessary in order that
they may keep, during a long voyage, and in warm lati-
tudes. For the purpose of curing and taking care of these
hides, an officer and a part of the crew of each vessel are
usually left ashore and it was for this business, we found,
that our new officer had joined us. As soon as the hides
were landed, he took charge of the house, and the captain
intended to leave two or three of us with him, hiring Sand-
wich Islanders to take our places on board; but he could
not get any Sandwich Islanders to go, though he offered
them fifteen dollars a month ; for the report of the flogging
had got among them, and he was called " aole maikai,"
(no good,) and that was an end of the business. They were,
however, willing to work on shore, and four of them were
hired and put with Mr. Russell to cure the hides.
After landing our hides, we next sent ashore all our
spare spars and rigging; all the stores which we did not
want to use in the course of one trip to windward; and, in
fact, everything which we could spare, so as to make room
for hides : among other things, the pig-sty, and with it " old
Bess." This was an old sow that we had brought from
Boston, and which lived to get around Cape Horn, where
all the other pigs died from cold and wet. Report said that
she had been a Canton voyage before. She had been the
pet of the cook during the whole passage, and he had fed
her with the best of everything, and taught her to know his
voice, and to do a number of strange tricks for his amuse-
ment. Tom Cringle says that no one can fathom a negro's
affection for a pig; and I believe he is right, for it almost
broke our poor darky's heart when he heard that Bess was
to be taken ashore, and that he was to have the care of her
no more during the whole voyage. He had depended upon
her as a solace, during the long trips up and down the coast.
" Obey orders, if you break owners ! " said he. " Break
hearts" he meant to have said; and lent a hand to get her
over the side, trying to make it as easy for her as possible.
We got a whip up on the main-yard, and hooking it to a
strap around her body, swayed away; and giving a wink to
one another, ran her chock up to the yard. " 'Vast there 1
128 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
'vast ! " said the mate ; " none of your skylarking ! Lower
away ! " But he evidently enjoyed the joke. The pig
squealed like the " crack of doom," and tears stood in the
poor darky's eyes ; and he muttered something about having
no pity on a dumb beast. "Dumb beast!" said Jack; "if
she's v^^hat you call a dumb beast, then my eyes a'n't mates."
This produced a laugh from all but the cook. He was too
intent upon seeing her safe in the boat. He watched her
all the way ashore, where, upon her landing, she was received
by a whole troop of her kind, who had been sent ashore
from the other vessels, and had multiplied and formed a
large commonwealth. From the door of his galley, the cook
used to watch them in their manoeuvres, setting up a shout
and clapping his hands whenever Bess came off victorious
in the struggles for pieces of raw hide and half-picked
bones which were lying about the beach. During the day,
he saved all the nice things, and made a bucket of swill,
and asked us to take it ashore in the gig, and looked quite
disconcerted when the mate told him that he would pitch
the swill overboard, and him after it, if he saw any of it go
into the boats. We told him that he thought more about the
pig than he did about his wife, who lived down in Robinson's
Alley ; and, indeed, he could hardly have been more atten-
tive, for he actually, on several nights, after dark, when
he thought he would not be seen, sculled himself ashore in
a boat with a bucket of nice swill, and returned like Lean-
der from crossing the Hellespont.
The next Sunday the other half of our crew went ashore
on liberty, and left us on board, to enjoy the first quiet
Sunday which we had had upon the coast. Here were no
hides to come off, and no south-easters to fear. We washed
and mended our clothes in the morning, and spent the rest
of the day in reading and writing. Several of us wrote
letters to send home by the Lagoda. At twelve o'clock the
Ayacucho dropped her fore topsail, which was a signal for
her sailing. She unmoored and warped down into the
bight, from which she got under way. During this opera-
tion, her crew were a long time heaving at the windlass, and
I listened for nearly an hour to the musical notes of a
Sandwich Islander, called Mahannah, who " sang out " for
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 129
them. Sailors, when heaving at a windlass, in order that
they may heave together, always have one to sing out;
which is done in a peculiar, high and long-drawn note, vary-
ing with the motion of the windlass. This requires a high
voice, strong lungs, and much practice, to be done well.
This fellow had a very peculiar, wild sort of note, breaking
occasionally into a falsetto. The sailors thought it was too
high, and not enough of the boatswain hoarseness about it;
but to me it had a great charm. The harbor was perfectly
still, and his voice rang among the hills, as though it could
have been heard for miles. Toward sundown, a good breeze
having sprung up, she got under weigh, and with her long,
sharp head cutting elegantly through the water, on a taught
bowline, she stood directly out of the harbor, and bore
away to the southward. She was bound to Callao, and
thence to the Sandwich Islands, and expected to be on the
coast again in eight or ten months.
At the close of the week we were ready to sail, but were
delayed a day or two by the running away of F , the
man who had been our second mate, and was turned for-
ward. From the time that he was " broken," he had had a
dog's berth on board the vessel, and determined to run away
at the first opportunty. Having shipped for an officer when
he was not half a seaman, he found little pity with the
crew, and was not man enough to hold his ground among
them. The captain called him a " soger," ^ and promised to
" ride him down as he would the main tack ;" and when
officers are once determined to " ride a man down," it is a
gone case with him. He had had several difficulties with
the captain, and asked leave to go home in the Lagoda ; but
this was refused him. One night he was insolent to an
officer on the beach, and refused to come aboard in the boat.
He was reported to the captain ; and as he came aboard,
— it being past the proper hour, — he was called aft, and
1 Soger (soldier) is the worst term of reproach that can be applied to a
sailor. It signifies a skulk, a sherk, — one who is always trying to get clear
of work, and is out of the way, or hanging back, when duty is to be done.
" Marine " is the term applied more particularly to a man who is ignorant
and clumsy about seaman's work — a green-horn — a land-lubber. To make
a sailor shoulder a handspike, and walk fore and aft the deck, like a
sentry, is the most ignominious punishment that could be put upon him.
Such a punishment inflicted upon an able seaman in a vessel of war, would
break his spirit down more than a flogging.
E — VOL. XXIII HC
130 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
told that he was to have a flogging. Immediately, he fell
down on the deck, calling out — " Don't flog me, Captain
T ; don't flog me!" and the captain, angry with him,
and disgusted with his cowardice, gave him a few blows
over the back with a rope's end and sent him forward. He
was not much hurt, but a good deal frightened, and made
up his mind to run away that very night. This was managed
better than anything he ever did in his life, and seemed
really to show some spirit and forethought. He gave his
bedding and mattress to one of the Lagoda's crew, who took
it aboard his vessel as something which he had bought, and
promised to keep it for him. He then unpacked his chest,
putting all his valuable clothes into a large canvas bag, and
told one of us, who had the watch, to call him at midnight.
Coming on deck, at midnight, and finding no officer on deck,
and all still aft, he lowered his bag into a boat, got softly
down into it, cast off the painter, and let it drop silently
with the tide until he was out of hearing, when he sculled
ashore.
The next morning, when all hands were mustered, there
was a great stir to find F . Of course, we would tell
nothing, and all they could discover was, that he had left
an empty chest behind him, and that he went off in a boat;
for they saw it lying up high and dry on the beach. After
breakfast, the captain went up to the town, and offered a
reward of twenty dollars for him ; and for a couple of
days, the soldiers, Indians, and all others who had nothing
to do, were scouring the country for him, on horseback, but
without effect; for he was safely concealed, all the time,
within fifty rods of the hide-houses. As soon as he had
landed, he went directly to the Lagoda's hide-house, and a
part of her crew, who were living there on shore, promised
to conceal him and his traps until the Pilgrim should sail,
and then to intercede with Captain Bradshaw to take him
on board the ship. Just behind the hide-houses, among the
thickets and underwood, was a small cave, the entrance to
which was known only to two men on the beach, and which
was so well concealed that, though, when I afterwards came
to live on shore, it was shown to me two or three times, I
was never able to find it alone. To this cave he was carried
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 131
before daybreak in the morning, and supplied with bread
and water, and there remained until he saw us under weigh
and well round the point.
Friday, March 2yth. The captain, having given up all
hope of finding F , and being unwilling to delay any
longer, gave orders for unmooring the ship, and we made
sail, dropping slowly down with the tide and light wind. We
left letters with Captain Bradshaw to take to Boston, and
had the satisfaction of hearing him say that he should be
back again before we left the coast. The wind, which was
very light, died away soon after we doubled the point, and
we lay becalmed for two days, not moving three miles the
whole time, and a part of the second day were almost
within sight of the vessels. On the third day, about noon, a
cool sea-breeze came rippling and darkening the surface of
the water, and by sundown we were off San Juan's, which
is about forty miles from San Diego, and is called half way
to San Pedro, where we were now bound. Our crew was
now considerably weakened. One man we had lost over-
board ; another had been taken aft as clerk ; and a third had
run away; so that, beside S and myself, there were
only three able seamen and one boy of twelve years of age.
With this diminished and discontented crew, and in a small
vessel, we were now to battle the watch through a couple of
years of hard service ; yet there was not one who was not
glad that F had escaped; for, shiftless and good for
nothing as he was, no one could wish to see him dragging
on a miserable life, cowed down and disheartened ; and we
were all rejoiced to hear, upon our return to San Diego,
about two months afterwards, that he had been immediately
taken aboard the Lagoda, and went home in her, on regular
seaman's wages.
After a slow passage of five days, we arrived, on Wednes-
day, the first of April, at our old anchoring ground at San
Pedro. The bay was as deserted, and looked as dreary, as
before, and formed no pleasing contrast with the security
and snugness of San Diego, and the activity and interest
which the loading and unloading of four vessels gave to that
scene. In a few days the hides began to come slowly down,
and we got into the old business of rolling goods up the
132 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
hill, pitching hides down, and pulling our long league off
and on. Nothing of note occurred while we were lying
here, except that an attempt was made to repair the small
Mexican brig which had been cast away in a south-easter,
and which now lay up, high and dry, over one reef of rocks
and two sand-banks. Our carpenter surveyed her, and pro-
nounced her capable of refitting, and in a few days the
owners came down from the Pueblo, and, waiting for the
high spring tides, with the help of our cables, kedges, and
crew, got her off and afloat, after several trials. The three
men at the house on shore, who had formerly been a part of
her crew, now joined her, and seemed glad enough at the
prospect of getting off the coast.
On board our own vessel, things went on in the common
monotonous way. The excitement which immediately fol-
lowed the flogging scene had passed off, but the effect of it
upon the crew, and especially upon the two men themselves,
remained. The different manner in which these men were
affected, corresponding to their different characters, was
not a little remarkable. John was a foreigner and high-
tempered, and, though mortified, as any one would be at
having had the worst of an encounter, yet his chief feeling
seemed to be anger ; and he talked much of satisfaction and
revenge, if he ever got back to Boston. But with the other,
it was very different. He was an American, and had had
some education; and this thing coming upon him, seemed
completely to break him down. He had a feeling of the
degradation that had been inflicted upon him, which the
other man was incapable of. Before that, he had a good
deal of fun, and amused us often with queer negro stories, —
(he was from a slave state) ; but afterwards he seldom
smiled; seemed to lose all life and elasticity; and appeared
to have but one wish, and that was for the voyage to be at
an end. I have often known him to draw a long sigh when
he was alone, and he took but little part or interest in John's
plans of satisfaction and retaliation.
After a stay of about a fortnight, during which we
slipped for one south-easter, and were at sea two days, we
got under weigh for Santa Barbara. It was now the middle
of April, and the south-easter season was nearly over; and
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 133
the light, regular trade-winds, which blow down the coast,
began to set steadily in, during the latter part of each day.
Against these, we beat slowly up to Santa Barbara — a dis-
tance of about ninety miles — in three days. There we
found, lying at anchor, the large Genoese ship which we saw
in the same place, on the first day of our coming upon the
coast. She had been up to San Francisco, or, as it is called,
" chock up to windward," had stopped at Monterey on her
way down, and was shortly to proceed to San Pedro and
San Diego, and thence, taking in her cargo, to sail for
Valparaiso and Cadiz. She was a large, clumsy ship, and
with her topmasts stayed forward, and high poop-deck,
looked like an old woman with a crippled back. It was
now the close of Lent, and on Good Friday she had all her
yards a'cock-bill, which is customary among Catholic ves-
sels. Some also have an efifigy of Judas, which the crew
amuse themselves with keel-hauling and hanging by the
neck from the yard-arms.
CHAPTER XVIII
Easter Sunday — "Sail Ho!" — Whales — San Juan —
Romance of Hide-Droghing — San Diego Again
THE next Sunday was Easter Sunday, and as there
had been no Hberty at San Pedro, it was our turn to
go ashore and misspend another Sabbath. Soon
after breakfast, a large boat, filled with men in blue jackets,
scarlet caps, and various colored under-clothes, 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 " O Pescator delF onda." It brought back to my
mind pianofortes, drawing-rooms, young ladies singing, and
a thousand other things which as little befitted me, in my
situation, 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, and, with orders to be on the
beach at sundown, we took our way for the town. There,
everything wore the appearance of a holyday. The people
were all dressed in their best ; the men riding about on
horseback among the houses, and the women sitting on
carpets before the doors. Under the piazza of a "pul-
peria," two men were seated, decked out with knots 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 that 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 instrument.
As it was now too near the middle of the day to see any
134
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 135
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. In-
quiring 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 whole had an empty, deserted appearance. 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 holydays ! "
" No ! " said he, with a singular expression to his face ;
" I had a little daughter die the other day, and that's the
custom of the country."
Here I felt a little strangely, not knowing what to say,
or whether to offer consolation or no, 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 through all 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 his child.
The coffin was lined on the outside with white cloth, and
on the inside with white satin, and was strewed 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, an uncertainty
of purpose and a little awkwardness, I asked the man when
the funeral would take place, and being told that it would
move toward the mission in about an hour, took my leave.
To pass away the time, we took horses and rode down,
to the beach, and there found three or four Italian sailors,
mounted, and riding up and down, on the hard sand, at a
136 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
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 in-
vigorated 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 peculiar a 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 for-
ward from the procession and taking their places. Behind
it came a straggling company of girls, dressed as before, in
white and flowers, and including, I should suppose by their
numbers, nearly all the girls between five and fifteen in the
place. They played along on the way, frequently stopping
and running all together to talk to some one, 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 or rode 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 padre standing on the steps, with a
crucifix in hand. The mission is a large and deserted-
looking place, the out-buildings going to ruin, and every-
thing 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 for-
bore. Just at this moment, the bells set up their harsh,
discordant clang; and the procession moved into the court.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 137
T was anxious to follow, and see the ceremony, but the
horse of one of my companions had become frightened,
and was tearing off toward the town ; and having thrown
his rider, and got one of his feet caught in the saddle,
which had slipped, was fast dragging and ripping it to
pieces. Knowing that my shipmate could not speak a
word of Spanish, and fearing that he would get into dif-
ficulty, 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 sur-
prisingly liberal. All parts of the saddle were brought
back, and, being capable of repair, he was satisfied with
six reals. We thought it would have been a few dollars.
We pointed to the horse, which was now half way up one
of the mountains ; but he shook his head, saying, " No
importe ! " and giving us to understand that he had plenty
more.
Having returned to the town, we saw a great crowd col-
lected in the square before the principal pulperia, and
riding 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 an-
other, and the people were as eager, laughing and shout-
ing, as though the combatants had been men. There had
been a disappointment about the bull; he had broken his
bail, and taken himself ofif, and it was too late to get an-
other; so the people were obliged to put up with a cock-
fight. One of the bantams having been knocked in the
head, and had an eye put out, he gave in, and two mon-
strous prize-cocks were brought on. These were the object
of the whole affair ; the two 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, and running about on all
fours, encouraging and setting them on. Bets ran high,
and, like most other contests, it remained for some time
undecided. They both showed great pluck, and fought
probably better and longer than their masters would have done.
138 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
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 veni-vidi-vici 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
all streaming 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 sta-
tioned; and the horses led up to one end. Two fine-look-
ing 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 twist-
ing round and turning, until, at length, there was a shout
along the lines, and on they came — heads 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 return-
ing on a slow walk, having run far beyond the mark, and
heard that the long, bony one had come in head and shoul-
ders before the other. The riders were light-built men ; 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 pulperia, we found 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 India shuffle, much to the amusement of the by-
standers, who cried out, " Bravo ! " " Otra vez ! " and
" Vivan los marineros ! " but the dancing did not become
general, as the women and the " gente de razon " had not
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 139
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 'fore-
mast Jacks ; and having been ordered to be on the beach by
sundown, did not venture to be more than an hour behind
the time; so we took our way down. We found the boat
just pulling ashore through the breakers, which were run-
ning 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 our-
selves upon getting off dry, when a great comber broke
fore and aft the boat, and wet us through and through,
filling the boat half full of water. Having lost her buoy-
ancy 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 afloat,
and we were up to our knees. By the help of a small
bucket and our hats, we bailed her out, got on board,
hoisted the boats, eat our supper, changed our clothes, gave
(as is usual) the whole history of our day's adventures to
those who had staid on board, and having taken a night-
smoke, turned-in. Thus ended our second day's liberty on
shore.
On Monday morning, as an offset to our day's sport, we
were all set to work " tarring down " the rigging. Some
got girt-lines up for riding down the stays and back-stays,
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 trowsers 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 ship's boat go ashore,
filled with men, gaily dressed, as on the day before, and
singing their barcarollas. The Easter holydays are kept up
on shore during three days; and being a Catholic vessel,
the crew had the advantage of them. For two successive
days, while perched up in the rigging, covered with tar and
engaged in our disagreeable work, we saw these fellows
140 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
going ashore in the morning, and coming off again at night,
in high spirits. So much for being Protestants. There's no
danger of Catholicism's spreading in New England; Yan-
kees can't afford the time to be Catholics. American ship-
masters get nearly three weeks more labor out of their
crews, in the course of a year, than the masters of vessels
from Catholic countries. Yankees don't keep Christmas,
and ship-masters at sea never know when Thanksgiving
comes, so Jack has no festival at all.
About noon, a man aloft called out " Sail ho ! " and
looking round, we saw the head sails 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 up our stars and stripes, and, knowing that
there was no American brig on the coast but ourselves, ex-
pected to have news from home. She rounded-to and let
go her anchor, but the dark faces on her yards, when they
furled the sails, and the Babel 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 Oahu, and was en-
gaged in the same trade with the Ayacucho, Loriotte, etc.,
between the coast, the Sandwich Islands, and the leeward
coast of Peru and Chili. Her captain and officers were
Americans, and also a part of her crew; the rest were
Islanders. She was called the Catalina, and, like all the
other vessels in that trade, except the Ayacucho, 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 ex-
pecting 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 at anchor, with a mixed crew of Ameri-
cans, English, Sandwich Islanders, Spaniards, and Span-
ish 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 poorly manned as American and English ; and none do
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 141
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 thirty 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
under weigh and come-to in half the time, and get two
anchors, while they were all talking at once — jabbering
like a parcel of " Yahoos," and running about decks to
find their cat-block.
There was only one point in which they had the ad-
vantage over us, and that was in lightening 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 may be " turned to account." We pulled the
long distances to and from the shore, with our loaded boats,
without a word spoken, and with discontented 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 clime."
We lay about a week in San Pedro, and got under weigh
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 sound-
ings. For the first few days that we were here and at Santa
Barbara, we watched them with great interest — calling out
" there she 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 anchor-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 sheered off, and spouted at a good distance.
342 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
We once came very near running one down in the gig, and
should probably have been knocked to pieces and blown
sky-high. We had been on board the little Spanish brig,
and were returning, stretching out well at our oars, the
little boat going like a swallow; our backs were forward,
(as is always the case in pulHng,) and the captain, who
was steering, was not looking ahead, when, all at once, we
heard the spout of a whale directly ahead. " Back water !
back water, for your lives ! " shouted the captain ; and 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, hump-backed whale, slowly crossing our fore foot,
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
amidships. 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-grey color. This kind differs much
from the sperm, in color and skin, and is said to be fiercer.
We saw a few sperm whales ; but most of the whales that
come upon the coast are fin-backs, hump-backs, and right-
whales, which are more difficult to take, and are said not
to give oil enough to pay for the trouble. For this reason
whale-ships do not come upon the coast after them. Our
captain, together with Captain Nye of the Loriotte, who had
been in a whale-ship, thought of making an attempt upon
one of them with two boats' crews, but as we had only two
harpoons and no proper lines, they gave it up.
During the months of March, April, and May, these
whales 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 midsummer, and
make their appearance on the " off-shore ground." We
saw some fine " schools " of sperm whales, which are easily
distinguished by their spout, blowing away, a few miles to
windward, on our passage to San Juan.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 143
Coasting along on the quiet shore of the Pacific, we
came to anchor, in twenty 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-
mast-head. We had heard much of this place, from the
Lagoda's crew, who said it was the worst place in Cali-
fornia. The shore is rocky, and directly exposed to the
south-east, so that vessels are obliged to slip and run for
their lives on the first sign of a gale; and late as it was in
the season, we got up our slip-rope and gear, though we
meant to stay only twenty-four 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 in California. The
country here for several miles is high table-land, running
boldly to the shore, and breaking off in a steep hill, 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 " bight," which gave us, at high tide, a few
square feet of sand-beach between the sea and the bottom
of the hill. This was the only landing-place. Directly be-
fore us, rose the perpendicular height of four or five hun-
dred feet. How we were to get hides down, or goods up,
upon the table-land on which the mission was situated, was
more than wc could tell. The agent had taken a long
circuit, and yet had frequently to jump over breaks, and
climb up steep places, in the ascent. No animal but a
man or 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 spout-
ing, among the crevices of the great rocks. What a sight,
thought I, must this be in a south-easter ! The rocks were
as large as those of Nahant or Newport, but, to my eye,
144 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
more grand and broken. Beside, there was a grandeur in
everything around, which gave almost a solemnity to the
scene : a silence and solitariness which affected everything !
Not a human being but ourselves for miles ; and no sound
heard but the pulsations of the great Pacific ! and the great
steep hill rising like a wall, and cutting us off from all
the world, but the " world of waters ! " I separated my-
self 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 weary
land. It was almost the first time that I had been posi-
tively 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. Every-
thing was in accordance with my state of feeling, and I ex-
perienced a glow of pleasure at finding that what of poetry
and romance I ever had in me, had not been entirely dead-
ened by the laborious and frittering life I had led. Nearly
an hour did I sit, almost lost in the luxury of this entire
new scene of the play in which I had been so long acting,
when I was aroused by the distant shouts of my compan-
ions, and saw that they were collecting together, as the
agent had made his appearance, on his 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 the long-boat in tow.
As we drew in, we found an ox-cart and a couple of men
standing directly on the brow of the hill ; and having
landed, the captain took his way round the hill, ordering
me and one other to follow him. We followed, picking
our way out, and jumping and scrambling up, walking
over briers 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 level, table surface ; and the only habi-
tation in sight was the small white mission of San Juan
Capistrano, with a few Indian huts about it, standing
in a small hollow, about a mile from where we were.
Reaching the brow of the hill where the cart stood, we
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 145
found several piles of hides, and 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 : thrown down, one at a time, a distance
of four hundred 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 walk 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 eddied 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-droghing !
Some of the hides lodged in cavities which were under
the bank and out of our sight, being directly under us;
but by sending others down 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 some one to have gone
down for them. It was said that one of the crew of an
English brig went down in the same way, a few years be-
fore. We looked over, and thought it would not be a wel-
come task, especially for a few paltry hides; but no one
knows what he can do until he is called upon; for, six
months afterwards, I went down the same place by a pair
of top-gallant studding-sail halyards, to save a half a dozen
hides which had lodged there.
Having thrown them all down, we took our way back
146 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
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 sundown, were
on our way to San Diego.
Friday, May 8th, 1835. Arrived at San Diego. Here
we found the little harbor deserted. The Lagoda, Aya-
cucho, Loriotte, and all, had left the coast, and we were
nearly alone. All the hide-houses on the beach, but ours,
were shut up, and the Sandwich Islanders, a dozen or
twenty in number, who had worked for the other vessels
and been paid off when they sailed, were living on the
beach, keeping up a grand carnival. A Russian discovery-
ship which had been in this port a few years before, had
built a large oven for baking bread, and went away, leav-
ing it standing. This, the Sandwich Islanders took pos-
session of, and had kept, ever since, undisturbed. It was
big enough to hold six or eight men — that is, it was as
large as a ship's forecastle; had a door at the side, and a
vent-hole at top. They covered it with Oahu mats, for a
carpet ; stopped up the vent-hole in bad weather, and made
it their head-quarters. It was now inhabited by as many
as a dozen or twenty men, who lived there in complete idle-
ness — 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 Lagoda, before she sailed. There they lived, having
a grand time, and caring for nobody. Captain T was
anxious 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 finely built, active,
strong and intelligent fellow, — who was a sort of king
among them, acted as spokesman. He was called Mannini,
— or rather, out of compliment to his known importance
and influence, Mr. Mannini — and was known all over Cali-
fornia. Through him, the captain offered them fifteen dol-
lars a month, and one month's pay in advance; but it was
like throwing pearls before swine, or rather, carrying coals
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 147
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. Mannini?"^ said the captain.
" Oh, we play cards, get drunk, smoke — do anything
we're a mind to."
" Don't you want to come aboard and work ? "
" Aole! aole make make makou i ka hana. Now, got
plenty money; no good, work. Mamule, money pan — all
gone. Ah! very good, work! — maikai, hana hana nui!"
" But you'll spend all your money in this way," said the
captain.
" Aye ! me know that. By-'em-by money pan — all gone ;
then Kanaka work plenty."
This was a hopeless case, and the captain left them, to
wait patiently until their money was gone.
We discharged our hides and tallow, and in about a week
were ready to set sail again for the windward. We un-
moored, and got everything ready, when the captain made
another attempt upon the oven. This time he had more
regard to the " mollia tempora fandi," and succeeded very
well. He got Mr. Mannini in his interest, and as the
shot was getting low in the locker, 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 variety I liked; so we got ready, and were
pulled ashore. I stood on the beach while the brig got
under weigh, and watched her until she rounded the point,
and then went up to the hide-house to take up my quarters
for a few months.
1 The letter t in the Sandwich Island language is sounded like e in
the English.
CHAPTER XIX
The Sandwich Islanders — Hide-curing — Wood-cutting
— Rattlesnakes — New-comers
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 " beach-comber "
and a hide-curer; yet the novelty and the comparative inde-
pendence 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 con-
tained 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 head 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 was to act as
cook; while myself, a giant of a Frenchman named Nich-
olas, and four Sandwich Islanders, were to cure the hides.
Sam, the Frenchman, and myself, lived together in the
room, and the four Sandwich Islanders worked and ate
with us, but generally slept at the oven. My new mess-
mate, Nicholas, was the most immense man that I had ever
seen in my life. 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 a curiosity. But the most remarkable thing
about him was his feet. They were so large that he could
148
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 149
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, himself, 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, without clothing to
his back or 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. His strength was in
proportion to his size, and his ignorance to his strength —
" strong as an ox, and ignorant as strong." He neither
knew how to read nor write. He had been to sea from
a boy, and had seen all kinds of service, and been in every
kind of vessel : 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 we had become better acquainted, he had even been
in worse business than slave-trading. He was once tried
for his life in Charleston, South Carolina, and though ac-
quitted, yet he was so frightened that he never would show
himself in the United States again ; and I could not per-
suade him that he could never be tried a second time for
the same offence. He said he had got safe off from 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 stronger and larger
than I, he showed a respect for my education, and for
what he had heard of my situation before coming to sea.
" I'll be good friends with you," he used to say, " for
by-and-by you'll come out here captain, and then you'll
haze me well ! " By holding well together, we kept the
officer in good order, for he was evidently afraid of Nicho-
las, and never ordered us, except when employed upon the
hides. My other companions, the Sandwich Islanders, de-
serve particular notice.
A considerable trade has been carried on for several
years between California and the Sandwich Islands, and
150 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
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 of the Ameri-
can vessels while on the coast. In this way, quite a col-
ony of them had become settled at San Diego, as their
headquarters. Some of these had recently gone off in
the Ayacucho and Loriotte, and the Pilgrim had taken
Mr. Mannini 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 charac-
ters. 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 lan-
guage which they apply to themselves, and to all South
Sea Islanders, in distinction from whites, whom they call
" Haole." This name, " Kanaka," they answer to, both
collectively and individually. Their proper names, in their
own language, being difficult to pronounce and remember,
they are called by any names which the captains or crews
may choose to give them. Some are called after the vessel
they are in; others by common names, as Jack, Tom, Bill;
and some have fancy names, as Ban-yan, Fore-top, Rope-
yarn, Pelican, etc., etc. Of the four who worked at our
house one was named " Mr, Bingham," after the missionary
at Oahu ; another, Hope, after a vessel that 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 was Lagoda-Jack, California-Bill, etc., etc. But
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 151
by whatever names they might be called, they were the
most interesting, intelligent, and kind-hearted people that I
ever fell in with. I felt a positive attachment for almost all
of them ; and many of them I have, to this time, a feeling
for, which would lead me to go a great way for the mere
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 com-
mon arithmetic; 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, and his
manners and principles a good deal better, and he was so
quick of apprehension that he might have been taught navi-
gation, and the elements of many of the sciences, with the
most perfect ease. Old " Mr. Bingham " spoke very little
English — almost none, and neither knew how to read nor
write; but he was the best-hearted old fellow in the world.
He must have been over fifty years of age, and 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 in that way.
That was the only thing that ever made him angry. He
would always be quite excited at that; and say — " Aole!"
(no.) "Me no eat Captain Cook! Me pikinini — small — so
high — no more ! My father see Captain Cook ! Me — no ! "
None of them liked to have anything said about Captain
Cook, for the sailors all believe that he was eaten, and that,
they cannot endure to be taunted with. — " New Zealand
Kanaka eat white man; — Sandwich Island Kanaka, — no.
Sandwich Island Kanaka ua like pu na haole — all 'e same
a' you ! "
Mr. Bingham was a sort of patriarch among them, and
was always treated with great respect, though he had not
the education and energy which gave Mr. Mannini 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 Riho Riho, who
died in England, and was brought to Oahu in the frigate
1S2 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
Blonde, Captain Lord Byron, and whose funeral he re-
membered perfectly; and also about the customs of his
country in 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 al-
ways seemed like an insult to tell so affectionate, intelli-
gent, and civilized a class of men, that such barbarities
had been practised in their own country within the re-
collection of many of them. Certainly, the history of no
people on the globe can show anything like so rapid an
advance. I would have trusted my life and my fortune
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 ail, in turn, before I should have applied to one
of my own countrymen on the coast, and should have ex-
pected to have seen it done, before my own countrymen had
got half through counting the cost. Their costumes, and
manner of treating one another, show a simple, primitive
generosity, which is truly delightful; and which is often a
reproach 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 indig-
nation, to a Yankee trader who was trying to persuade him
to keep his money to himself — " No ! We no all 'e same a'
you ! — Suppose one got money, all got money. You ; — sup-
pose one got money — lock him up in chest. — No good ! " —
" Kanaka all 'e same a' 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 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 officers of vessels. He
was always civil, and always ready, and never forgot a
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 153
benefit. I once took care of him when he was ill, getting
medicines from the ship's chests, when no captain or officer
would do anything for him, and he never forgot it. Every
Kanaka has one particular friend, whom he considers him-
self bound to do everything for, and with whom he ha^ a
sort of contract, — an alliance offensive and defensive, — ■
and for whom he will often make the greatest sacrifices.
This friend they call aikane; 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 always 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 about
Boston (as they call the United States) ; asking many ques-
tions about the houses, the people, etc., and always wished to
have the pictures in 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 road, 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 ignorance as 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 the
steamboats and all I could do was to give them some account
of the results, in the shape of speed; for, failing 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 Nan-
tucket, and seen a little steamboat which ran over to
New Bedford.
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 the dis-
154 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
tances. I remember being much amused with a question
which Hope asked me. Pointing to the large irregular place
which is always left blank round 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 Cape Horn, for they suffer much in cold weather,
and had heard dreadful accounts of the Cape, from those of
their number who had been round it.
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 draught, getting their mouths as full as
they can hold, 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 draughts, like Europeans, but one of these
" Oahu puffs," as the sailors call them, serves for an hour
or two, until some one else lights his pipe, and it is passed
round in the same manner. Each Kanaka on the beach had
a pipe, flint, steel, tinder, a hand of tobacco, and a jack-
knife, which he always carried about with him.
That which strikes a stranger most peculiarly is their
style of singing. They run on, in a low, guttural, monot-
onous sort of chant, their lips and tongues seeming hardly
to move, and the sounds modulated solely in the throat.
There is very little tune to it, and the words, so far as I
could learn, are extempore. 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. Mannini, who was the most noted improvisaiore among
them, sing for an hour together, when at work in the midst
of Americans and Englishmen ; and, by the occasional shouts
and laughter of the Kanakas, who were at a distance, it was
evident that he was singing about the different men that
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST ISS
he was at work with. They have great powers of ridicule,
and are excellent mimics; many o£ them discovering and
imitating the peculiarities of our own people, before we had
seen them ourselves.
These were the people with whom I was to spend a few
months ; and who, with the exception of the officer, Nicho-
las the Frenchman, and the boy, made the whole population
of the beach. I ought, perhaps, to except 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 there 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 any one to get within half a mile of 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 marked,
and usually fed at the houses to which they belonged.
I had been but a few hours on the beach, and the Pil-
grim was hardly out of sight, when the cry of " Sail 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 Fazio, 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 try-works
on shore, put up a small tent, in which they all lived, and
commenced operations. They made an addition to our
society, and we spent many evenings in their tent, where,
amid the Babel of English, Spanish, French, Indian, and
Kanaka, we found some words that we could understand in
common.
The morning after my landing, I began the duties of
hide-curing. In order to understand these, it will be neces-
156 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
sary 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 round it, near the edge, by which it
is staked out to dry. In this manner it dries without shrink-
ing. After they are thus dried in the sun, they are re-
ceived by the vessels, 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-curer's duty. The first thing is to
put them in soak. This is done by carrying them down at
low tide, and making them fast, in 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 an
hundred and fifty. There they He forty-eight hours, when
they are taken out, and rolled up, in wheel-barrows, and
thrown into the vats. These vats contain brine, made very
strong; being sea-water, with great quantities of salt thrown
in. This pickles the hides, and in this they lie forty-eight
hours; the use of the sea-water, into which they are first
put, being merely to soften and clean them. From these
vats, they are taken, and lie on a platform twenty-four
hours, and then a''e spread upon the ground, and carefully
stretched and staked out, so that they may dry smooth. After
they were staked, and while yet wet and soft, we used to go
upon them with our knives, and carefully cut off all the bad
parts : — the pieces of meat and fat, which would corrupt
and infect the whole if stowed away in a vessel 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
everything necessary off and not to cut or injure the hide.
It was also a long process, as six of us had to clean an
hundred and fifty, most of which required a great deal to be
done to them, as the Spaniards are very careless in skin-
ning 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 back-ache. The first day,
I was so slow and awkward that I cleaned only eight; at
the end of a few days I doubled my number; and in a fort-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 157
night or three weeks, could keep up with the others, and
clean my proportion — twenty-five.
This cleaning must be got through with before noon;
for by that time they get too dry. After the sun has been
upon them 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 upon
the other side, 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 beat with flails. This takes all the
dust from them. Then, being salted, scraped, cleaned, dried,
and beaten, they are stowed away in the house. Here ends
their history, except that 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, 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 an 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: an hundred and fifty to put in soak; an
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 ;
and the same number to beat and stow away in the house.
I ought to except 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 progress, are
carefully covered up, and not uncovered until Monday
morning. On Sundays we had absolutely no work to do,
unless it was to kill a bullock, which was sent down for our
use about once a week, and sometimes came on Sunday.
Another good arrangement was, that we had just so much
work to do, and when that was through, the time was our
158 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
own. Knowing this, we worked hard, and needed no driv-
ing. We " turned out " every morning at the first signs
of daylight, and allowing a short time, 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 sup-
per, and our work was done for the day. There was no watch
to stand, and no topsails to reef. The evenings we generally
spent at one another's houses, and I often went up and spent
an hour or so at the oven ; which was called the " Kanaka
Hotel," and the " Oahu 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 or
mended clothes; for necessity, the mother of invention, had
taught me these two latter arts. The Kanakas went up to
the oven, and spent the time in sleeping, talking, and smok-
ing; and my messmate, Nicholas, who neither knew how
to read or 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 through the
day. We were pretty independent, too, for the master of
the house — " capitan de la casa " — had nothing to say to
us, except when we were at work on the hides, and although
we could not go up to the town without his permission,
this was seldom or never refused.
The great weight of the wet hides, which we were obliged
to roll about in wheelbarrows ; the continual stooping upon
those which were pegged out to be cleaned; and the smell
of the vats, into which we were often obliged to get, knee-
deep, to press down the hides; all made the work disagree-
able and fatiguing ; — but we soon got hardened to it, and the
comparative independence of our life reconciled us to it;
ior there was nobody to hase us and find fault; and when
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 15&
we got through, we had only to wash and change our clothes,
and our time was our own. There was, however, one ex-
ception to the time's being our own ; which was, that on
two afternoons of every week we were obHged to go off
and get 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.
Fortunately, the climate is so fine that they had no need of
a fire in their houses, and only use it for cooking. 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 hand-cart up the hills
and over the uneven places. Two afternoons in the week,
generally Monday and Thursday, as soon as we had got
through dinner, we started off for the bush, each of us fur-
nished with a hatchet and a long piece of rope, and dragging
the hand-cart behind us, and followed by the whole colony
of dogs, who were always ready for the bush, and were half
mad whenever they saw our preparations. We went with
the hand-cart as far as we could conveniently drag it, and
leaving it in an open, conspicuous place, separated our-
selves; each taking his own course, and looking about for
some good place to begin upon. Frequently, we had to
go nearly a mile from the hand-cart, before we could find
any fit place. Having lighted upon a good thicket, the
next thing was to clear away the under-brush, and have fair
play at the trees. These trees are seldom more than five or
six feet high, and the highest that I ever saw in these expe-
ditions 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,
up hill and down dale, to the hand cart. Two good back-
loads apiece filled the hand-cart ; and that was each one's
proportion. When each had brought down his second load.
160 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
we filled the hand-cart, and took our way again slowly
back, and unloading, covering the hides for the night, and
getting our supper, finished the day's work.
These wooding excursions had always a mixture of some-
thing rather pleasant in them. Roaming about in the wcods
with hatchet in hand, like a backwoodsman, followed by a
troop of dogs; starting up of birds, snakes, hares and foxes,
and examining the various kinds of trees, flowers, and birds'
nests, was at least, a change from the monotonous drag and
pull on shipboard. Frequently, too, we had some amusement
and adventure. The coati, 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, abound here, as in all other parts of California.
These, the dogs were very watchful for, and whenever they
saw them, started ofif in full run after them. We had
many fine chases ; yet, although our dogs ran finely, the ras-
cals 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 coati, single, and got a good deal 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 grey-
hound. He had the high head, long legs, narrow body,
and springing gait of the latter, and the heavy jaw, thick
jowls, and strong fore-quarters of the mastiff. When he
was brought to San Diego, an English sailor said that he
looked, about the face precisely like the Duke of Welling-
ton, whom he had once seen at the Tower ; and, indeed,
there was something about him which resembled the por-
traits 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 coati at different times in single combats.
We often had fine sport with these fellows. A quick,
sharp bark from a coati, and in an instant every dog was
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 161
at the height of his speed. A few moments made up for
an unfair start, and gave each dog his relative place.
Welly, at the head, seemed almost to skim over the bushes;
and after him came Fanny, Feliciana, Childers, and the other
fleet ones, — the spaniels and terriers ; and then behind, fol-
lowed the heavy corps — bulldogs, etc., for we had every
breed. Pursuit by us was in vain, and in about half an
hour a few of them would come panting and straggling
back.
Beside the coati, the dogs sometimes made prizes of
rabbits and hares, which are very plentiful here, and great
numbers of which we often shot for our dinners. There
was another animal that I was not so much disposed to
find amusement from, and that was the rattlesnake. These
are very abundant here, especially during the spring of
the year. The latter 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 num-
ber starting some of them. The first that I ever saw, I
remember perfectly well. I had left my companions, and
was beginning to clear away a fine clump of trees, when
just in the midst of the thicket, not more than eight 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 a steam-
boat, 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 kept at my work, and the
noise which I made with cutting and breaking the trees
kept him in 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 imeasiness, and retreat-
ing a few steps, I threw something into the bush, at which
he would set his rattle agoing; and finding that he had
not moved from his first place, I was easy again. In this
F — VOL. XXIII HC
162 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
way I continued at 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
began 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-
ing at a safe distance; but the Kanakas 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,
started 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 began another attack. This
time we drove him into the clear ground, and saw him glid-
ing off, with head and tail erect, when a stone, well aimed,
knocked him over the bank, down a declivity 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 Kanakas 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 crea-
tures they have killed. We always preserved them as trophies,
and at the end of the summer had quite a number. 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 Kanakas
professed to have an 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, were very numerous,
and frequently alighted in great numbers upon our hides,
picking at the pieces of dried meat and fat. Bears and
wolves are numerous in the upper parts, and in. the in-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 163
terior, (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 different people on the beach, and were allowed
to run loose among the hills, with a long lasso attached to
them, and 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 fast to one of the houses every day,
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 uj> to the Presidio and over the country.
CHAPTER XX
Leisure — News from Home — " Burning the Water "
AFTER we had been a few weeks on shore, and had
l\ begun to feel broken into the regularity of our life,
-A — *. its monotony was interrupted by the arrival of two
vessels from the windward. We were sitting at dinner in
our little room, when we heard the cry of " Sail 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 a squaw, or an ox-cart, or anything unusual,
hove in 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 north-west 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 ex-
pecting; but we soon saw that the brig was not the Pilgrim,
and the ship with her stump top-gallant masts and rusty
sides, could not be a dandy Boston Indiaman. As they
drew nearer, we soon discovered the high poop and top-
gallant forecastle, 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 commenced discharging hides
and tallow. The Rosa had purchased the house occupied
by the Lagoda, and the Catalina took the other spare one
between ours and the Ayacucho's, so that, now, each one
was occupied, and the beach, for several days, was all alive.
The Catalina had several Kanakas on board, who were
immediately besieged by the others, and carried up to the
164
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 165
oven, where they had a long pow-wow, 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 other
vessel now on the coast. Several of the Italians slept on
shore at their hide-house; and there, and at the tent in
which the Fazio's crew lived, we had some very good sing-
ing almost every evening. The Italians sang a variety
of songs — barcarollas, provincial airs, etc. ; in several of
which I recognized parts of our favorite operas and senti-
mental songs. They often joined in a song, taking all the
different parts ; which produced a fine effect, as many of
them had good voices, and all seemed to sing with spirit
and feeling. One young man, in particular, had a falsetto
as clear as a clarionet.
The greater part of the crews of the vessels came ashore
every evening, and we passed the time in going about from
one house to another, and listening to all manner of lan-
guages. The Spanish was the common ground upon which
we all met; for every one knew more or less of that. We
had now, out of forty or fifty, representatives from almost
every nation under the sun : two Englishmen, three Yankees,
two Scotchmen, two Welshmen, one Irishman, three French-
men (two of whom were Normans, and the third from Gas-
cony,) one Dutchman, one Austrian, two or three Spaniards,
(from old Spain,) half a dozen Spanish- Americans and half-
breeds, two native Indians from Chili and the Island of
Chiloe, one Negro, one Mulatto, about twenty Italians, from
all parts of Italy, as rriany more Sandwich Islanders, one
Otaheitan, and one Kanaka from the Marquesas Islands.
The night before the vessels were ready to sail, all the
Europeans united and had an entertainment at the Rosa's
hide-house, and we had songs of every nation and tongue.
A German gave us " Och ! mein Heber Augustin ! " the
three Frenchmen roared through the Marseilles Hymn ;
the English and Scotchmen gave us " Rule Britannia," and
" Wha'll be King but Charlie?" the Italians and Spaniards
screamed through some national affairs, for which I was
none the wiser ; and we three Yankees made an attempt at
the " Star-spangled Banner." After these national tributes
166 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
had been paid, the Austrian gave us a very pretty little
love-song, and the Frenchmen sang a spirited thing called
" Sentinelle ! O prenez garde a vous ! " and then followed
the melange which might have been expected. When I left
them, the aguardiente and annisou was pretty well in their
heads, and 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 under weigh for the
windward, and left us in quiet possession of the beach.
Our numbers were somewhat enlarged by the opening of
the new houses, and the society of the beach a little
changed. In charge of the Catalina's house, was an old
Scotchman, who, like most of his countrymen, had a pretty
good education, and, like many of them, was rather prag-
matical, and had a ludicrously solemn conceit. He em-
ployed his time in taking care of his pigs, chickens,
turkeys, dogs, etc., and in smoking his long pipe. Every-
thing 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 a cent all the time he was on the beach,
and the others said he was no shipmate. He had been a
petty officer on board the British frigate Dublin, Capt.
Lord James Townshend, and had great ideas of his own
importance. The man in charge of the Rosa's house was
an Austrian by birth, but spoke, read, and wrote four lan-
guages with ease and correctness. German was his native
tongue, but being born near the borders of Italy, and hav-
ing 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 with ease, and also to read and write it. He
had been several years in Spanish vessels, and had acquired
that language so well, that he could read any 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 Kanakas, but seldom
went up to the town, without coming down " three sheets
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 167
in the wind." One holyday, he and old Robert (the Scotch-
man from the Catalina) went up to the town, and got so
cozy, talking over old stories and giving one another 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 Rosa's house, I saw old Schmidt,
(that was the Austrian's name) standing up by a hogshead,
holding on by both hands, and calling out to himself — " Hold
on, Schmidt ! hold on, my good fellow, or you'll be on your
back ! " Still, he was an intelligent, good-natured old fel-
low, and had a chest-full of books, which he willingly lent
me to read. In the same house with him was a Frenchman
and an Englishman ; the latter a regular-built " man-of-war
Jack ; " a thorough seaman ; a hearty, generous fellow ; and,
at the same time, a drunken, dissolute dog. He made it a
point to get drunk once a fortnight, (when he always man-
aged to sleep on the road, and have his money stolen from
him,) and to battle the Frenchman once a week. These,
with a Chilian, and a half a dozen Kanakas, formed the
addition to our company.
In about six weeks from the time when the Pilgrim
sailed, we had got 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 noth-
ing 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 only mark of time, as there was not a watch
on the beach — and then came back to dinner, and after
dinner, started off again with our hand-cart and ropes, and
carted and " backed " it down, until sunset. This, we kept
up for a week, until we had collected several cords, —
enough to last us for six or eight weeks — when we " knocked
off" altogether, much to my joy; for, though I liked straj^-
168 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
ing 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 had 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 vales,
sometimes through thickets, — the rough points sticking into
the skin, and tearing the clothes, so that, at the end of the
week, I had hardly a whole shirt to my back.
We were now through all our work, and had nothing
more to do until the Pilgrim should come down again.
We had nearly got through our provisions too, as well as
our work ; for our officer had been very 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. Finding wheat-coffee and dry bread
rather poor living, we clubbed together, and I went up to
the town on horseback with a great salt-bag behind the
saddle, and a few reals in my pocket, and brought back
the bag full of onions, pears, beans, water-melons, and
other fruits; for the young woman who tended the garden,
finding that I belonged to the American ship, and that we
were short of provisions, put in a double portion. With
these we lived like fighting-cocks for a week or two, and
had, besides, what the sailors call " a blow-out on sleep ; "
not turning out in the morning until breakfast was ready.
I employed several days in overhauling my chest, and mend-
ing up all my old clothes, until I had got everything in
order — patch upon patch, like a sand-barge's mainsail.
Then I took hold of Bowditch's Navigator, which I had
always with me. I had been through the greater part of it,
and now went carefully through it, from beginning to end
working out most of the examples. That done, and there
being no signs of the Pilgrim, I made a descent upon old
Schmidt, and borrowed and read all the books there were
upon the beach. Such a dearth was there of these latter
articles, that anything, even a little child's story-book, or
the half of a shipping calendar, appeared like a treasure.
I actually read a jest-book through, from beginning to end.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 169
in one day, as I should a novel, and enjoyed it very much.
At last, when I thought that there were no more to be got,
I found, at the bottom of old Schmidt's chest, " Mandeville,
a Romance, by Godwin, in five volumes." This I had never
read, but Godwin's name was enough, and after the wretched
trash I had devoured, anything bearing the name of a dis-
tinguished intellectual man, was a prize indeed. I bore it
off, and for two days I was up early and late, reading with
all my might, and actually drinking in delight. It is no
extravagance to say that it was like a spring in a desert land.
From the sublime to the ridiculous — so with me, from
Mandeville to hide-curing, was but a step; for
Wednesday, July i8th, brought us the brig Pilgrim from
the windward. As she came in, we found that she was a
good deal altered in her appearance. Her short top-gallant
masts were up; her bowlines all unrove (except to the
courses); the quarter boom-irons off her lower yards; her
jack-cross-trees sent down; several blocks got rid of;
running-rigging rove in new places; and numberless other
changes of the same character. Then, too, there was a
new voice giving orders, and a new face on the quarter-
deck, — a short, dark-complexioned man, in a green jacket
and a high leather cap. These changes, of course, set the
whole beach on the qui-vive, and we were all waiting for
the boat to come ashore, that we might have things ex-
plained. At length, after the sails were furled and the
anchor carried out, the boat pulled ashore, and the news
soon flew that the expected ship had arrived at Santa
Barbara, and that Captain T had taken command of
her, and her captain, Faucon, had taken the Pilgrim, and
was the green- jacketed man on the quarter-deck. The boat
put directly off again, without giving us time to ask any
more questions, and we were obliged to wait till night,
when we took a little skiff, that lay on the beach, and
paddled off. When I stepped aboard, the second mate
called me aft, and gave me a large bundle, directed to me,
and marked " Ship Alert." This was what I had longed
for, yet I refrained from opening it until I went ashore.
Diving down into the forecastle, I found the same old
crew, and was really glad to see them again. Numerous
170 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
inquiries passed as to the new ship, the latest news from
Boston, etc., etc. S 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 off all
the hides in California " — " Rail as high as a man's head "
— " A crack ship " — " A regular dandy," etc., etc. Captain
T took command of her, and she went directly up to
Monterey; from 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 ship-
mates aboard of her, and spent an hour or two in her fore-
castle, the evening before she sailed. They said her decks
were as white as snow — holystoned every morning, like a
man-of-war's ; everything on board " shipshape and Bristol
fashion ; " a fine crew, three mates, a sailmaker and car-
penter, and all complete. " They've got a man for mate
of 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 either by captain or crew."
After collecting all the information we could get on this
point, we asked something about their new captain. He
had hardly been on board long enough for them to know
much about him, but he had taken hold strong, as soon
as he took command; — sending down the top-gallant masts,
and unreeving half the 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,
proceeded directly to opening my bundle, and found a rea-
sonable supply of duck, flannel shirts, shoes, etc., and, what
was still more valuable, a packet of eleven letters. These
I sat up nearly all the night to read, and put them care-
fully away, to be read and re-read again and again at my
leisure. Then came a half a dozen newspapers, the last of
which gave notice of Thanksgiving, and of the clearance
of " ship Alert, Edward H. Faucon, master, for Callao and
CaHfornia, by Bryant, Sturgis & Co." No one has ever
been on distant voyages, and after a long absence received
a newspaper from home, who cannot understand the de-
light that they give one. I read every part of them — the
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 171
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, etc. Captain Faucon
came quietly up to me, as I was at work, with my knife,
cutting the meat from a dirty hide, asked me how I liked
California, and repeated — " Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub
tegmine fagi." Very apropos, thought I, and, at the same
time, serves to show that you understand Latin. However,
a kind word from a captain is a thing not to be slighted;
so I answered him civilly, and made the most of it.
Saturday, July nth. The Pilgrim set sail for the wind-
ward, and left us to go on in our old way. Having laid in
such a supply of wood, and the days being now long, and
invariably pleasant, we had a good deal of time to our-
selves. All the duck I received from home, I soon made
up into trowsers and frocks, and displayed, every Sunday,
a complete suit of my own make, from head to foot, hav-
ing" formed the remnants of the duck into a cap. Reading,
mending, sleeping, with occasional excursions into the bush,
with the dogs, in search of coati, hares, and rabbits, or to
encounter a rattlesnake, and now and then a visit to the
Presidio, filled up our spare time after hide-curing was
over for the day. Another amusement, which we some-
times indulged in, was " burning the water " for craw-fish.
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 torch-bearer in the
bow, a steersman in the stern, and one man on each side
with the grains, went off, on dark nights, to burn the
water. This is fine sport. Keeping within a few rods of
the shore, where the water is not more than three or four
feet deep, with a clear sandy bottom, the torches light
everything up so that one could almost have seen a pin
among the grains of sand. The craw-fish are an easy prey.
172 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
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 down 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, and in a few moments heard a great shouting
between two Kanakas who were fishing on the rock oppo-
site to us: " E hana hana make i ka ia nui!" " E pii mai
Aikane ! " etc., etc. ; and saw them pulling away on a stout
line, and " Johnny Shark " floundering at the other end.
The line soon broke; but the Kanakas would not let him
off so easily, and sprang directly into the water after him.
Now came the tug of war. Before we 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, turn-
ing his head under his body, and, showing his teeth in
the vicinity of the Kanaka's hand, made him let go and
spring out of the way. The shark now turned tail and
made the best of his way, by flapping and floundering,
toward deep water; but here again, before he was fairly off,
the other Kanaka seized him by the tail, and made a spring
towards the beach, his companion at the same time paying
away upon him with stones and a large stick. As soon,
however, as the shark could turn, he was obliged to let go
his hold; but the instant he made toward deep water, they
were both behind him, watching their chance to seize him.
In this way the battle went on for some time, the shark, in
a rage, splashing and twisting about, and the Kanakas, in
high excitement, yelling at the top of their voices; but the
shark at last got off, carrying away a hook and line, and
not a few severe bruises.
CHAPTER XXI
California and Its Inhabitants
WE KEPT up a constant connection with the Presidio,
and by the close of the summer I had added much
to my vocabulary, beside having made the acquaint-
ance of nearly everybody in the place, and acquired some
knowledge of the character and habits of the people, as well
as of the institutions under which they live.
California was first discovered in 1536, by Cortes and
was subsequently visited by numerous 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,
was added rumors of gold mines, pearl fishery, etc. No
sooner was the importance of the country known, than the
Jesuits obtained leave to establish themselves in it, to Chris-
tianize and enlighten the Indians. They established missions
in various parts of the country toward the close of the seven-
teenth century, and collected the natives about them, baptiz-
ing 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 beween them. Presidios have since been established
at Santa Barbara and San Francisco; thus dividing the
country into four large districts, each with its presidio, and
governed by the 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 received hides in return; and thus
173
174 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
began 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 slaves, in tending
their vast herds. In the year 1793, when Vancouver visited
San Diego, the mission 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 posses-
sions. On the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish
dominions, the missions passed into the hands of the Fran-
ciscans, though without any essential change in their man-
agement. Ever since the independence of Mexico, the mis-
sions have been going down ; until, at last, a law was passed,
stripping them of all their possessions, and confining the
priests to their spiritual duties ; and at the same time de-
claring 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 slaves, as much as
they ever were. But in the missions, the change was com-
plete. The priests have now no power, except in their re-
ligious 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 who usually end, in a few years,
by making themselves fortunes, and leaving their steward-
ships worse than they found them. The dynasty of the
priests was much more acceptable to the people of the
country, and indeed, to every one concerned with the coun-
try, by trade or otherwise, than that of the administradores.
The priests were attached perpetually to one mission, and
felt the necessity of keeping up its credit. Accordingly,
their debts 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 re-
trieve 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
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 175
diminished, credit impaired, and the venerable missions going
rapidly to decay. The external arrangements remain the
same. There are four presidios, having under their pro-
tection the various missions, and 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 mis-
sion of the same, St. Louis Obispo, and St. Buenaventura,
which is the finest mission in the whole country, having very
fertile soil and rich vineyards. The last, and most southerly,
is San Diego, including the mission of the same, San Juan
Campestrano, the Pueblo de los Angelos, the largest town in
California, with the neighboring mission of San Gabriel.
The priests in spiritual matters are subject to the Archbishop
of Mexico, and in temporal 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 no judiciary. Their only laws
are made and unmade at the caprice of the legislature, and
are as variable as the legislature itself. They pass through
the form of sending representatives to the congress at
Mexico, but as it takes several months to go and return, and
there is very little communication between the capital and
this distant province, a member usually stays there, as
permanent member, knowing very well that there will be
revolutions at home before he can write and receive an
answer; if another member should be sent, he has only
to challenge him, and decide the contested election in that
way.
Revolutions are matters of constant occurrence in Cali-
fornia. They are got up by men who are at the foot of
the ladder and in desperate circumstances, just as a new
political party is started by such men in our own country.
The only object, of course, is the loaves and fishes; and
instead of caucusing, paragraphing, libelling, feasting, prom-
ising, and lying, as with us, 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 no law but will and fear. A Yankee, who had been
naturalized, and become a Catholic, and had married in
178 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the country, was sitting in his house at the Pueblo de los
Angelos, with his wife and children, when a Spaniard, 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 confine-
ment until a statement of the whole affair could be sent to
the governor-general. He refused to do anything about it,
and the countrymen of the murdered man, seeing no prospect
of justice being administered, made known that if nothing
was done, they should try the man themselves. It chanced
that, at this time, there was a company of forty trappers and
hunters from Kentucky, with their rifles, who had made their
head-quarters 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, with his eyes
blindfolded. The names of all the men were then put into a
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 decently buried, and the place was restored quietly
to the proper authorities. A general, with titles enough for
an hidalgo, was at San Gabriel, and issued a proclamation
as long as the fore-top-bowline, threatening destruction to
the rebels, but never stirred from his fort; for forty Ken-
tucky hunters, with their rifles, were a match for a whole
regiment of hungry, drawling, lazy half-breeds. This affair
happened while we were at San Pedro, (the port of the
Pueblo,) and we had all the particulars directly from those
who were on the spot. A few months afterwards, another
man, whom we had often seen in San Diego, murdered a man
and his wife on the high road between the Pueblo and San
Louis Rey, and the foreigners not feeling themselves called
upon to act in this case, the parties being all natives, nothing
was done about it ; and I frequently afterwards saw the
murderer in San Diego, where he was living with his wife
and family.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 177
When a crime has been committed by Indians, justice, or
rather vengeance, is not so tardy. One Sunday afternoon,
while I was at 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 the knife, and plunged it into the other Indian's
breast, over his shoulder, and laid him dead. The poor 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 a great
favorite, 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 no better than
in their public. The men are thriftless, proud, and extrava-
gant, 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 sup-
pose. In fact, one vice is set over against another; and thus,
something like a balance is obtained. The women have but
little virtue, but then the jealousy of their husbands is ex-
treme, and their revenge deadly and almost certain. A few
inches of cold steel has been the punishment of many an
unwary man, who has been guilty, perhaps, of nothing more
than indiscretion of manner. The difficulties of the attempt
are numerous, and the consequences of discovery fatal. With
the unmarried women, too, great watchfulness is used. The
main object of the parents is to marry their daughters well,
and to this, the slightest slip would be fatal. The sharp eyes
of a dueiia, and the cold steel 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
178 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
own family, would risk the same lives to complete the dis-
honor 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 alcaldes to punish
their misconduct ; but it all amounts to but 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 alcalde 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 reals would generally buy them off. In-
temperance, too, is a common vice among the Indians. The
Spaniards, on the contrary, are very abstemious, and I do
not remember ever having seen a Spaniard intoxicated.
Such are the people who inhabit a country embracing four
or five hundred miles of sea-coast, with several good harbors;
with fine forests in 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 diseases, whether
epidemic or endemic ; and with a 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 Spaniards ; yet their chil-
dren are brought up Spaniards, in every respect, and if the
"California fever" (laziness) spares the first generation, it
always attacks the second.
CHAPTER XXII
Life on Shore — The Alert
SATURDAY, July i8th. This day, sailed the Mexican
hermaphrodite brig, Fazio, for San Bias and Mazatlan.
This was the brig which was driven ashore at San
Pedro in a south-easter, and had been lying at San Diego
to repair and take in her cargo. The owner of her had
had a good deal of difficulty with the government about
the duties, etc., and her sailing had been delayed for several
weeks; but everything having been arranged, she got under
weigh with a light breeze, and was floating out of the har-
bor, when two horsemen came dashing down to the beach,
at full speed, and tried to find a boat to put off after her;
but there being none on the beach, they offered a handful
of silver to any Kanaka who would swim off and take a
letter on board. One of the Kanakas, a fine, active, well-
made young fellow, instantly threw off everything but his
duck trowsers, and putting the letter into his hat, swam
off, after the vessel. Fortunately, the wind was very light
and the vessel was going slowly, so that, although she
was nearly a mile off when he started, he gained on her
rapidly. He went through the water leaving a wake like
a small steamboat. I certainly never saw such swimming
before. They saw him coming from the deck, but did not
heave-to, suspecting the nature of his errand; yet, the wind
continuing light, he swam alongside and got on board, and
delivered his letter. The captain read the letter, told the
Kanaka there was no answer, and giving him a glass of
brandy, left him to jump overboard and find the best of
his way to the shore. The Kanaka swam in for the nearest
point of land, and, in about an hour, made his appearance
at the hide-house. He did not seem at all fatigued, had
made three or four dollars, got a glass of brandy, and was
179
180 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
in fine spirits. The brig kept on her course, and the gov-
ernment officers, who had come do\^'Tl to forbid her sail-
ing, went back, each with something like a flea in his ear,
having depended upon extorting a little more money from
the owner.
It was now nearly three months since the Alert arrived
at Santa Barbara, and we began to expect her daily. About
a half a mile behind the hide-house, was a high hill; and
every afternoon, as soon as we had done our work, some
one of us walked up to see if there were any sail in sight,
coming down before the regular trades, which blow every
afternoon. Each day, after the latter part of July, we went
up the hill, and came back disappointed. I was anxious
for her arrival, for I had been told by letter that the
owners in Boston, at the request of my friends, had written
to Captain T to take me on board the Alert, in case
she returned to the United States before the Pilgrim; and
I, of course, wished to know whether the order had been
received, and what was the destination of the ship. One
year more or less might be of small consequence to others,
but it was everything to me. It was now just a year since
we sailed from Boston, and at the shortest, no vessel could
expect to get away under eight or nine months, which would
make our absence two years in all. This would be pretty
long, but would not be fatal. It would not necessarily be
decisive of my future life. But one year more would set-
tle the matter. I should be a sailor for life; and although
I had made up my mind to it before I had my letters from
home, and was, as I thought, quite satisfied ; yet, as soon as
an opportunity was held out to me of returning, and the
prospect of another kind of life was opened to me, my
anxiety to return, and, at least, to have the chance of de-
ciding upon my course for myself, was beyond measure.
Beside that, I wished to be " equal to either fortune," and
to qualify myself for an officer's berth, and a hide-house
was no place to learn seamanship in. I had become expe-
rienced in hide-curing, and everything went on smoothly, and
I had many opportunities of becoming acquainted with the
people, and much leisure for reading and studying naviga-
tion; yet practical seamanship could only be got on board
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 181
ship; therefore, I determined to ask to be taken on board
the ship when she arrived. By the first of August, we
finished curing all our hides, stored them away, cleaned
out our vats, (in which latter work we spent two days, up
to our knees in mud and the sediments of six months' hide-
curing, in a stench which would drive a donkey from his
breakfast,) and got in readiness for the arrival of the ship,
and had another leisure interval of three or four weeks;
which I spent, as usual, in reading, writing, studying, mak-
ing and mending my clothes, and getting my wardrobe in
complete readiness, in case I should go on board the ship;
and in fishing, ranging the woods with the dogs, and in
occasional visits to the presidio and mission. A good deal
of my time was spent in taking care of a little puppy, which
I had selected from thirty-six, that were born within three
days of one another, at our house. He was a fine, prom-
ising pup, with four white paws, and all the rest of his
body of a dark brown. I built a little kennel for him, and
kept him fastened there, away from the other dogs, feeding
and disciplining him myself. In a few weeks, I got him in
complete subjection, and he grew finely, was very much
attached to me, and bid fair to be one of the leading dogs
on the beach. I called him Bravo, and the only thing I
regretted at the thought of leaving the beach, was parting
with him.
Day after day, we went up the hill, but no ship was to
be seen, and we began to form all sorts of conjectures as
to her whereabouts ; and the theme of every evening's con-
versation at the different houses, and in our afternoon's
pasco upon the beach, was the ship — where she could be
— had she been to San Francisco? — how many hides she
would bring, etc., etc.
Tuesday, August 25th. This morning, the officer in
charge of our house went off beyond the point a fishing,
in a small canoe, with two Kanakas; and we were sitting
quietly in our room at the hide-house, when, just before
noon, we heard a complete yell of " Sail ho ! " breaking out
from all parts of the beach, at once, — from the Kanakas'
oven to the Rosa's house. In an instant, every one was
out of his house; and there was a fine, tall ship, with royals
182 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
and skysails set, bending over before the strong afternoon
breeze, and coming rapidly round the point. Her yards
were braced sharp up ; every sail was set, and drew well ;
the Yankee ensign was flying from her mizen-peak; and
having the tide in her favor, she came up like a race-horse.
It was nearly six months since a new vessel had entered
San Diego, and of course, every one was on the qui-vive.
She certainly made a fine appearance. Her light sails
were taken in, as she passed the low, sandy tongue of land,
and clewing up her head sails, she rounded handsomely to,
under her mizen topsail, and let go the anchor at about a
cable's length from the shore. In a few minutes, the top-
sail yards were manned, and all three of the topsails furled
at once. From the fore top-gallant yard, the men slid
down the stay to furl the jib, and from the mizen top-gal-
lant yard, by the stay, into the maintop, and thence to the
yard; and the men on the topsail yards came down the
lifts to the yard-arms of the courses. The sails were
furled with great care, the bunts triced up by jiggers, and
the jibs stowed in cloth. The royal yards were then struck,
tackles got upon the yard-arms and the stay, the long-boat
hoisted out, a large anchor carried astern, and the ship
moored. Then the captain's gig was lowered away from
the quarter, and a boat's crew of fine lads, between the
ages of fourteen and eighteen, pulled the captain ashore.
The gig was a light whale-boat, handsomely painted, and
fitted up with cushions, etc., in the stern sheets. We im-
mediately attacked the boat's crew, and got very thick with
them in a few minutes. We had much to ask about Bos-
ton, their passage out, etc., and they were very curious to
know about the life we were leading upon the beach. One
of them offered to exchange with me; which was just what
I wanted; and we had only to get the permission of the
captain.
After dinner, the crew began discharging their hides,
and, as we had nothing to do at the hide-houses, we were
ordered aboard to help them. I had now my first op-
portunity of seeing the ship which I hoped was to be my
home for the next year. She looked as well on board as
she did from without. Her decks were wide and roomy,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 183
(there being no poop, or house on deck, which disfigures
the after part of most of our vessels,) flush, fore and aft,
and as white as snow, which the crew told us was from
constant use of holystones. There was no foolish gilding
and gingerbread work, to take the eye of landsmen and
passengers, but everything was " ship-shape and Bristol
fashion." There was no rust, no dirt, no rigging hang-
ing slack, no fag ends of ropes and "Irish pendants"
aloft, and the yards were squared "to a t " by lifts and
braces.
The mate was a fine, hearty, noisy fellow, with a voice like
a lion, and always wide awake. He was " a man, every
inch of him," as the sailors said ; and though " a bit of a
horse," and " a hard customer," yet he was generally liked
by the crew. There was also a second and third mate, a
carpenter, sailmaker, steward, cook, etc., and twelve, in-
cluding boys, before the mast. She had, on board, seven
thousand hides, which she had collected at the windward,
and also horns and tallow. All these we began discharg-
ing, from both gangways at once, into the two boats, the
second mate having charge of the launch, and the third
mate of the pinnace. For several days, we were employed
in this way, until all the hides were taken out, when the
crew began taking in ballast, and we returned to our old
work, hide-curing.
Saturday, Aug. 2pth. Arrived, brig Catalina, from the
windward.
Sunday, ^oth. This was the first Sunday that the crew
had been in San Diego, and of course they were all for
going up to see the town. The Indians came down early,
with horses to let for the day, and all the crew, who could
obtain liberty, went off to the Presidio and mission, and did
not return until night. I had seen enough of San Diego,
and went on board and spent the day with some of the
crew, whom I found quietly at work in the forecastle,
mending and washing their clothes, and reading and writ-
ing. They told me that the ship stopped at Callao in the
passage out, and there lay three weeks. She had a passage
of little over eighty days from Boston to Callao, which is
one of the shortest on record. There, they left the Brandy-
184 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
wine frigate, and other smaller American ships of war,
and the EngHsh frigate Blonde, and a French seventy-four.
From Callao they came directly to California, and had
visited every port on the coast, including San Francisco.
The forecastle in which they lived was large, tolerably
well lighted by bulls-eyes, and, being kept perfectly clean,
had quite a comfortable appearance ; at least, it was far
better than the little, black, dirty hole in which I had lived
so many months on board the Pilgrim. By the regula-
tions of the ship, the forecastle was cleaned out every
morning, and the crew, being very neat, kept it clean by
some regulations of their own, such as having a large spit-
box always under the steps and between the bits, and
obliging every man to hang up his wet clothes, etc. In
addition to this, it was holystoned every Saturday morn-
ing. In the after part of the ship was a handsome cabin,
a dining-room, and a trade-room, fitted out with shelves
and furnished with all sorts of goods. Between these and
the forecastle was the " between-decks," as high as the gun
deck of a frigate; being six feet and a half, under the
beams. These between-decks were holystoned regularly, and
kept in the most perfect order; the carpenter's bench
and tools being in one part, the sailmaker's in another,
and boatswain's locker, with the spare rigging, in a third.
A part of the crew slept here, in hammocks swung fore
and aft from the beams, and triced up every morning. The
sides of the between-decks were clapboarded, the knees and
stanchions of iron, and the latter made to unship. The
crew said she was as tight as a drum, and a fine sea boat,
her only fault being, that of most fast ships, — that she was
wet, forward. When she was going, as she sometimes
would, eight or nine knots on a wind, there would not be
a dry spot forward of the gangway. The men told great
stories of her sailing, and had great confidence in her as
a " lucky ship." She was seven years old, and had always
been in the Canton trade, and never had met with an acci-
dent of any consequence, and had never made a passage
that was not shorter than the average. The third mate, a
young man of about eighteen years of age, nephew of one
of the owners, had been in the ship from a small boy, and
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 185
"believed in the ship;" and the chief mate thought more
of her than he would of a wife and family.
The ship lay about a week longer in port, when, having
discharged her cargo and taken in ballast, she prepared to
get under weigh. I now made my application to the cap-
tain to go on board. He told me that I could go home in
the ship when she sailed (which I knew before) ; and, find-
ing that I wished to be on board while she was on the coast,
said he had no objection, if I could find one of my own age
to exchange with me, for the time. This, I easily accom-
plished, for they were glad to change the scene by a few
months on shore, and, moreover, escape the winter and the
south-easters ; and I went on board the next day, with my
chest and hammock, and found myself once more afloat.
CHAPTER XXIII
New Ship and Shipmates — My Watchmate
TUESDAY, Sept. 8th. This was my first day's duty
on board the ship; and though a sailor's life is a
sailor's life wherever it may be, yet I found every-
thing very different here from the customs of the brig
Pilgrim. After all hands were called, at daybreak, three
minutes and a half were allowed for every man to dress
and come on deck, and if any were longer than that, they
were sure to be overhauled by the mate, who was always
on deck, and making himself heard all over the ship. The
head-pump was then rigged, and the decks washed down
by the second and third mates; the chief mate walking the
quarter-deck and keeping a general supervision, but not
deigning to touch a bucket or a brush. Inside and out,
fore and aft, upper deck and between decks, steerage and
forecastle, rail, bulwarks, and water-ways, were washed,
scrubbed and scraped with brooms and canvas, and the
decks were wet and sanded all over, and then holystoned.
The holystone is a large, soft stone, smooth on the bottom,
with long ropes attached to each end, by which the crew
keep it sliding fore and aft, over the wet, sanded decks.
Smaller hand-stones, which the sailors call " prayer-books,"
are used to scrub in among the crevices and narrow places,
where the large holystone will not go. An hour or two, we
were kept at this work, when the head-pump was manned,
and all the sand washed off the decks and sides. Then came
swabs and squilgees; and after the decks were dry, each
one went to his particular morning job. There were five
boats belonging to the ship, — launch, pinnace, jolly-boat, lar-
board quarter-boat, and gig, — each of which had a coxswain,
who had charge of it, and was answerable for the order
and cleanness of it. The rest of the cleaning was divided
186
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 187
among the crew; one having the brass and composition
work about the capstan ; another the bell, which was of
brass, and kept as bright as a gilt button ; a third, the
harness-cask; another, the man-rope stanchions; others, the
steps of the forecastle and hatchways, which were hauled
up and holystoned. Each of these jobs must be finished
before breakfast; and, in the meantime, the rest of the
crew filled the scuttle-butt, and the cook scraped his kids
(wooden tubs out of which the sailors eat) and polished
the hoops, and placed them before the galley, to await in-
spection. When the decks were dry, the lord paramount
made his appearance on the quarter-deck, and took a few
turns, when eight bells were struck, and all hands went to
breakfast. Half an hour was allowed for breakfast, when
all hands were called again ; the kids, pots, bread-bags, etc.,
stowed away; and, this morning, preparations were made
for getting under weigh. We paid out on the chain by
which we swung; hove in on the other; catted the anchor;
and hove short on the first. This work was done in shorter
time than was usual on board the brig; for though every-
thing was more than twice as large and heavy, the cat-
block being as much as a man could lift, and the chain as
large as three of the Pilgrim's, yet there was a plenty of
room to move about in, more discipline and system, more
men, and more good will. Every one seemed ambitious to
do his best: officers and men knew their duty, and all went
well. As soon as she was hove short, the mate, on the
forecastle, gave the order to loose the sails, and, in an in-
stant, every one sprung into the rigging, up the shrouds, and
out on the yards, scrambling by one another, — the first up
the best fellow, — cast oflf the yard-arm gaskets and bunt
gaskets, and one man remained on each yard, holding the
bunt jigger with a turn round the tye, all ready to let go,
while the rest laid down to man the sheets and halyards.
The mate then hailed the yards — " All ready forward ? "
— "All ready the cross- jack yards?" etc., etc., and "Aye,
aye, sir ! " being returned from each, the word was given
to let go; and in the twinkling of an eye, the ship, which
had shown nothing but her bare yards, was covered with
her loose canvas, from the royal-mast-heads to the decks.
188 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
Every one then laid down, except one man in each top, to
overhaul the rigging, and the topsails were hoisted and
sheeted home; all three yards going to the mast-head at
once, the larboard watch hoisting the fore, the starboard
watch the main, and five light hands, (of whom I was one,)
picked from the two watches, the mizen. The yards were
then trimmed, the anchor weighed, the cat-block hooked
on, the fall stretched out, manned by " all hands and the
cook," and the anchor brought to the head with " cheerily
men ! " in full chorus. The ship being now under weigh,
the light sails were set, one after another, and she was
under full sail, before she had passed the sandy point.
The fore royal, which fell to my lot, (being in the mate's
watch,) was more than twice as large as that of the Pil-
grim, and, though I could handle the brig's easily, I found
my hands full, with this, especially as there were no jacks
to the ship; everything being for neatness, and nothing left
for Jack to hold on by, but his eyelids.
As soon as we were beyond the point, and all sail out,
the order was given, " Go below the watch ! " and the crew
said that, ever since they had been on the coast, they had
had "watch and watch," while going from port to port;
and, in fact, everything showed that, though strict disci-
pline was kept, and the utmost was required of every man,
in the way of his duty, yet, on the whole, there was very
good usage on board. Each one knew that he must be a
man, and show himself smart when at his duty, yet every
one was satisfied with the usage; and a contented crew,
agreeing with one another, and finding no fault, was a con-
trast indeed with the small, hard-used, dissatisfied, grum-
bling, desponding crew of the Pilgrim.
It being the turn of our watch to go below, the men
went to work, mending their clothes, and doing other lit-
tle things for themselves ; and I, having got my wardrobe
in complete order at San Diego, had nothing to do but to
read, I accordingly overhauled the chests of the crew,
but found nothing that suited me exactly, until one of the
men said he had a book which " told all about a great high-
wayman," at the bottom of his chest, and producing it. I
found, to my surprise and joy, that it was nothing else
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 189
than Bulwer's Paul Clifford. This, I seized immediately,
and going to my hammock, lay there, swinging and read-
ing, until the watch was out. The between-decks were clear,
the hatchways open, and a cool breeze blowing through
them, the ship under easy way, and everything comfortable.
I had just got well into the story, when eight bells were
struck, and we were all ordered to dinner. After dinner
came our watch on deck for four hours, and, at four
o'clock, I went below again, turned into my hammock, and
read until the dog watch. As no lights were allowed after
eight o'clock, there was no reading in the night watch.
Having light winds and calms, we vi^ere three days on
the passage, and each watch below, during the daytime, I
spent in the same manner, until I had finished my book.
I shall never forget the enjoyment I derived from it. To
come across anything with the slightest claims to literary
merit, was so unusual, that this was a perfect feast to me.
The brilliancy of the book, the succession of capital hits,
lively and characteristic sketches, kept me in a constant state
of pleasing sensations. It was far too good for a sailor.
I could not expect such fine times to last long.
While on deck, the regular work of the ship went on.
The sailmaker and carpenter worked between decks, and
the crew had their work to do upon the rigging, drawing
yarns, making spun-yarn, etc., as usual in merchantmen.
The night watches were much more pleasant than on board
the Pilgrim. There, there were so few in a watch, that,
one being at the wheel, and another on the look-out, there
was no one left to talk with; but here, we had seven in a
watch, so that we had long yarns, in abundance. After
two or three night watches, I became quite well acquainted
with all the larboard watch. The sailmaker was the head
man of the watch, and was generally considered the most
experienced seaman on board. He was a thoroughbred
old man-of-war's-man, had been to sea twenty-two years,
in all kinds of vessels — men-of-war, privateers, slavers,
and merchantmen; — everything except whalers, which a
thorough sailor despises,' and will always steer clear of, if
he can. He had, of course, been in all parts of the world,
and was remarkable for drawing a long bow. His yarns
190 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
frequently stretched through a watch, and kept all hands
awake. They were always amusing from their improba-
bility, and, indeed, he never expected to be believed, but
spun them merely for amusement; and as he had some
humor and a good supply of man-of-war slang and sailor's
salt phrases, he always made fun. Next to him in age and
experience, and, of course, in standing in the watch, was
an Englishman, named Harris, of whom I shall have more
to say hereafter. Then, came two or three Americans,
who had been the common run of European and South
American voyages, and one who had been in a " spouter,"
and, of course, had all the whaling stories to himself.
Last of all, was a broad-backed, thick-headed boy from
Cape Cod, who had been in mackerel schooners, and was
making his first voyage in a square-rigged vessel. He was
born in Hingham, and of course was called " Bucket-
maker." The other watch was composed of about the
same number. A tall, fine-looking Frenchman, with coal-
black whiskers and curly hair, a first-rate seaman, and
named John, (one name is enough for a sailor,) was the
head man of the watch. Then came two Americans (one
of whom had been a dissipated young man of property and
family, and was reduced to duck trowsers and monthly
wages,) a German, an English lad, named Ben, who be-
longed on the mizen topsail yard with me, and was a good
sailor for his years, and two Boston boys just from the
public schools. The carpenter sometimes mustered in the
starboard watch, and was an old sea-dog, a Swede by birth,
and accounted the best helmsman in the ship. This was our
ship's company, beside cook and steward, who were blacks,
three mates, and the captain.
The second day out, the wind drew ahead, and we had to
beat up the coast ; so that, in tacking ship, I could see the
regulations of the vessel. Instead of going wherever was
most convenient, and running from place to place, wherever
work was to be done, each man had his station. A regular
tacking and wearing bill was made out. The chief mate
commanded on the forecastle, and had charge of the head
sails and the forward part of the ship. Two of the best
men in the ship — the sailmaker from our watch, and John,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 191
the Frenchman, from the other, worked the forecastle. The
third mate commanded in the waist, and, with the carpenter
and one man, worked the main tack and bowHnes ; the cook,
ex-officio, the fore sheet, and the steward the main. The
second mate had charge of the after yards, and let go the
lee fore and main braces. I was stationed at the weather
cross-jack braces; three other light hands at the lee; one
boy at the spanker-sheet and guy; a man and a boy at the
main topsail, top-gallant, and royal braces; and all the rest
of the crew — men and boys — tallied on to the main brace.
Every one here knew his station, must be there when all
hands were called to put the ship about, and was answerable
for every rope committed to him. Each man's rope must
be let go and hauled in at the order, properly made fast, and
neatly coiled away when the ship was about. As soon as
all hands are at their stations, the captain, who stands on
the weather side of the quarter-deck, makes a sign to the
man at the wheel to put it down, and calls out " Helm's a
lee' ! " " Helm's a lee' ! " answers the mate on the forecastle,
and the head sheets are let go. " Raise tacks and sheets ! "
says the captain ; " tacks and sheets ! " is passed forward,
and the fore tack and main sheet are let go. The next thing
is to haul taught for a swing. The weather cross-jack
braces and the lee main braces are each belayed together
upon two pins, and ready to be let go; and the opposite
braces hauled taught. " Main topsail haul ! " shouts the
captain; the braces are let go; and if he has taken his time
well, the yards swing round like a top; but if he is too late,
or too soon, it is like drawing teeth. The after yards are
then braced up and belayed, the main sheet hauled aft, the
spanker eased over to leeward, and the men from the braces
stand by the head yards. " Let go and haul ! " says the
captain ; the second mate lets go the weather fore braces,
and the men haul in to leeward. The mate, on the fore-
castle, looks out for the head yards. " Well, the fore top-
sail yard ! " " Top-gallant yard's well ! " " Royal yard too
much! Haul into windward! So! well that!" "Well
all!" Then the starboard watch board the main tack, and
the larboard watch lay forward and board the fore tack
and haul down the jib sheet, clapping a tackle upon it, if it
192 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
blows very fresh. The after yards are then trimmed, the
captain generally looking out for them himself. " Well the
cross-jack yard ! " " Small pull the main top-gallant yard ! "
"Well that!" "Well the mizen top-gallant yard!"
"Cross-jack yards all well!" "Well all aft!" "Haul
taught to windward ! " Everything being now trimmed and
in order, each man coils up the rigging at his own station,
and the order is given — " Go below the watch ! "
During the last twenty-four hours of the passage, we
beat off and on the land, making a tack about once in four
hours, so that I had a sufficient opportunity to observe the
working of the ship ; and certainly, it took no more men to
brace about this ship's lower yards, which were more than
fifty feet square, than it did those of the Pilgrim, which
were not much more than half the size; so much depends
upon the manner in which the braces run, and the state of
the blocks; and Captain Wilson, of the Ayacucho, who was
afterwards a passenger with us, upon a trip to windward,
said he had no doubt that our ship worked two men lighter
than his brig.
Friday, Sept. ii. This morning, at four o'clock, went
below, San Pedro point being about two leagues ahead, and
the ship going on under studding-sails. In about an hour we
were waked up by the hauling of the chain about decks, and
in a few minutes " All hands ahoy ! " was called ; and we
were all at work, hauling in and making up the studding-
sails, overhauling the chain forward, and getting the
anchors ready. " The Pilgrim is there at anchor," said
some one, as we were running about decks ; and taking a
moment's look over the rail, I saw my old friend, deeply
laden, lying at anchor inside of the kelp. In coming to
anchor, as well as in tacking, each one had his station and
duty. The light sails were clewed up and furled, the
courses hauled up and the jibs down; then came the top-
sails in the buntlines, and the anchor let go. As soon as
she was well at anchor, all hands lay aloft to furl the top-
sails; and this, I soon found, was a great matter on board
this ship; for every sailor knows that a vessel is judged of,
a good deal, by the furl of her sails. The third mate, a
sailmaker, and the larboard watch went upon the fore topsail
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 193
yard ; the second mate, carpenter, and the starboard watch
upon the main; and myself and the Enghsh lad, and the two
Boston boys, and the young Cape-Cod man, furled the
mizen topsail. This sail belonged to us altogether, to reef
and to furl, and not a man was allowed to come upon our
yard. The mate took us under his special care, frequently
making us furl the sail over, three or four times, until we
got the bunt up to a perfect cone, and the whole sail with-
out a wrinkle. As soon as each sail was hauled up and the
bunt made, the jigger was bent on to the slack of the bunt-
lines, and the bunt triced up, on deck. The mate then took
his place between the knight-heads to " twig " the fore, on
the windlass to twig the main, and at the foot of the main^
mast, for the mizen; and if anything was wrong, — too much
bunt on one side, clews too taught or too slack, or any sail
abaft the yard, — ^the whole must be dropped again. When
all was right, the bunts were triced well up, the yard-arm
gaskets passed, so as not to leave a wrinkle forward of the
yard — short gaskets with turns close together.
From the moment of letting go the anchor, when the
captain ceases his care of things, the chief mate is the
great man. With a voice like a young lion, he was halloo-
ing and bawling, in all directions, making everything fly,
and, at the same time, doing everything well. He was
quite a contrast to the worthy, quiet, unobtrusive mate of
the Pilgrim ; not so estimable a man, perhaps, but a far
better mate of a vessel; and the entire change in Captain
T 's conduct, since he took command of the ship, was
owing, no doubt, in a great measure, to this fact. If the
chief officer wants force, discipline slackens, everything
gets out of joint, the captain interferes continually; that
makes a difficulty between them, which encourages the
crew, and the whole ends in a three-sided quarrel. But
Mr. Brown (the mate of the Alert) wanted no help from
anybody ; took everything into his own hands ; and was
more likely to encroach upon the authority of the master,
than to need any spurring. Captain T gave his direc-
tions to the mate in private, and, except in coming to anchor,
getting under weigh, tacking, reefing topsails, and other
" all-hands-work," seldom appeared in person. This is the
G — VOL. XXIII HC
194 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
proper state of things, and while this lasts, and there is a
good understanding aft, everything will go on well.
Having furled all the sails, the royal yards were next
to be sent down. The English lad and myself sent down
the main, which was larger than the Pilgrim's main top-
gallant yard ; two more light hands, the fore ; and one boy,
the mizen. This order, we always kept while on the coast;
sending them up and down every time we came in and went
out of port. They were all tripped and lowered together,
the main on the starboard side, and the fore and mizen, to
port. No sooner was she all snug, than tackles were got
up on the yards and stays, and the long-boat and pinnace
hove out. The swinging booms were then guyed out, and
the boats made fast by geswarps, and everything in harbor
style. After breakfast, the hatches were taken off, and all
got ready to receive hides from the Pilgrim. All day, boats
were passing and repassing, until we had taken her hides
from her, and left her in ballast trim. These hides made
but little show in our hold, though they had loaded the
Pilgrim down to the water's edge. This changing of the
hides settled the question of the destination of the two ves-
sels, which had been one of some speculation to us. We were
to remain in the leeward ports, while the Pilgrim was to sail,
the next morping, for San Francisco. After we had knocked
off work, and cleared up decks for the night, my friend
S came on board, and spent an hour with me in our
berth between decks. The Pilgrim's crew envied me my
place on board the ship, and seemed to think that I had got
a little to windward of them ; especially in the matter of
going home first. S was determined to go home on the
Alert, by begging or buying; if Captain T would not
let him come on other terms, he would purchase an exchange
with some one of the crew. The prospect of another year
after the Alert should sail, was rather " too much of the
monkey." About seven o'clock, the mate came down into
the steerage, in fine trim for fun, roused the boys out of the
berth, turned up the carpenter with his fiddle, sent the stew-
ard with lights to put in the between-decks, and set all hands
to dancing The between-decks were high enough to allow
of jumping; and being clear, and white, from holystoning.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 195
made a fine dancing-hall. Some of the Pilgrim's crew were
in the forecastle, and we all turned-to and had a regular
sailor's shuffle, till eight bells. The Cape-Cod boy could
dance the true fisherman's jig, barefooted, knocking with
his- heels, and slapping the decks with his bare feet, in time
with the music. This was a favorite amusement of the
mate's, who always stood at the steerage door, looking on,
and if the boys would not dance, he hazed them round with
a rope's end, much to the amusement of the men.
The next morning, according to the orders of the agent,
the Pilgrim set sail for the windward, to be gone three or
four months. She got under weigh with very little fuss,
and came so near us as to throw a letter on board, Captain
Faucon standing at the tiller himself, and steering her as he
would a mackerel smack. When Captain T was in
command of the Pilgrim, there was as much preparation and
ceremony as there would be in getting a seventy-four under
weigh. Captain Faucon was a sailor, every inch of him ;
he knew what a ship was, and was as much at home in one,
as a cobbler in his stall. I wanted no better proof of this
than the opinion of the ship's crew, for they had been six
months under his command, and knew what he was; and if
sailors allow their captain to be a good seaman, you may
be sure he is one, for that is a thing they are not always
ready to say.
After the Pilgrim left us, we lay three weeks at San
Pedro, from the nth of September until the 2nd of October,
engaged in the usual port duties of landing cargo, taking off
hides, etc., etc. These duties were much easier, and went
on much more agreeably, than on board the Pilgrim. " The
more, the merrier," is the sailor's maxim ; and a boat's crew
of a dozen could take off all the hides brought down in a
day, without much trouble, by division of labor; and on
shore, as well as on board, a good will, and no discontent
or grumbling, make everything go well. The officer, too,
who usually went with us, the third mate, was a fine young
fellow, and made no unnecessary trouble; so that we gen-
erally had quite a sociable time, and were glad to be relieved
■from the restraint of the ship. While here, I often thought
of the miserable, gloomy weeks we had spent in this dull
196 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
place, in the brig; discontent and hard usage on board, and
four hands to do all the work on shore. Give me a big
ship. There is more room, more hands, better outfit, better
regulation, more life, and more company. Another thing
was better arranged here : we had a regular gig's crew. A
light whale-boat, handsomely painted, and fitted out with
stern seats, yoke, tiller-ropes, etc., hung on the starboard
quarter, and was used as the gig. The youngest lad in the
ship, a Boston boy about thirteen years old, was coxswain of
this boat, and had the entire charge of her, to keep her
clean, and have her in readiness to go and come at any
hour. Four light hands, of about the same size and age, of
whom I was one, formed the crew. Each had his oar and
seat numbered, and we were obliged to be in our places,
have our oars scraped white, our tholepins in, and the
fenders over the side. The bow-man had charge of the
boat-hook and painter, and the coxswain of the rudder, yoke,
and stern-sheets. Our duty was to carry the captain and
agent about, and passengers off and on ; which last was no
trifling duty, as the people on shore have no boats, and
every purchaser, from the boy who buys his pair of shoes,
to the trader who buys his casks and bales, were to be taken
off and on, in our boat. Some days, when people were
coming and going fast, we were in the boat, pulling off and
on, all day long, with hardly time for our meals; making,
as we lay nearly three miles from shore, from forty to fifty
miles' rowing in a day. Still, we thought it the best berth
in the ship; for when the gig was employed, we had nothing
to do with the cargo, except small bundles which the passen-
gers carried with them, and no hides to carry, besides the
opportunity of seeing everybody, making acquaintances,
hearing the news, etc. Unless the captain or agent were in
the boat, we had no officer with us, and often had fine times
with the passengers, who were always willing to talk and
joke with us. Frequently, too, we were obliged to wait
several hours on shore; when we would haul the boat up
on the beach, and leaving one to watch her, go up to the
nearest house, or spend the time in strolling about the beach,
picking up shells, or playing hop-scotch, and other games,
on the hard sand. The rest of the crew never left the ship,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 197
except for bringing heavy goods and taking off hides; and
though we were always in the water, the surf hardly leav-
ing us a dry thread from morning till night, yet we were
young, and the climate was good, and we thought it much
better than the quiet, hum-drum drag and pull on board
ship. We made the acquaintance of nearly half of Cali-
fornia; for, besides carrying everybody in our boat, — men,
women, and children, — all the messages, letters, and light
packages went by us, and being known by our dress, we
found a ready reception everywhere.
At San Pedro, we had none of this amusement, for, there
being but one house in the place, we, of course, had but little
company. All the variety that I had, was riding, once a
week, to the nearest rancho, to order a bullock down for the
ship.
The brig Catalina came in from San Diego, and being
bound up to windward, we both got under weigh at the
same time, for a trial of speed up to Santa Barbara, a dis-
tance of about eighty miles. We hove up and got under
sail about eleven o'clock at night, with a light land-breeze,
which died away toward morning, leaving us becalmed
only a few miles from our anchoring-place. The Catalina,
being a small vessel, of less than half our size, put out
sweeps and got a boat ahead, and pulled out to sea, during
the night, so that she had the sea-breeze earlier and stronger
than we did, and we had the mortification of seeing her
standing up the coast, with a fine breeze, the sea all ruffled
about her, while we were becalmed, in-shore. When the
sea-breeze died away, she was nearly out of sight; and,
toward the latter part of the afternoon, the regular north-
west wind set in fresh, we braced sharp upon it, took a pull
at every sheet, tack, and halyard, and stood after her, in fine
style, our ship being very good upon a taughtened bowline.
We had nearly five hours of fine sailing, beating up to wind-
ward, by long stretches in and ofi shore, and evidently gain-
ing upon the Catalina at every tack. When this breeze left
us, we were so near as to count the painted ports on her
side. Fortunately, the wind died away when we were on
our inward tack, and she on her outward, so we were in-
shore, and caught the land-breeze first, which came off upon
198 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
our quarter, about the middle of the first watch. All hands
were turned-up, and we set all sail, to the skysails and the
royal studding-sails; and with these, we glided quietly
through the water, leaving the Catalina, which could not
spread so much canvas as we, gradually astern, and, by
daylight, were off St. Buenaventura, and our antagonist
nearly out of sight. The sea-breeze, however, favored her
again, while we were becalmed under the headland, and
laboring slowly along, she was abreast of us by noon. Thus
we continued, ahead, astern, and abreast of one another,
alternately; now, far out at sea, and again, close in under
the shore. On the third morning, we came into the great
bay of Santa Barbara, two hours behind the brig, and thus
lost the bet; though, if the race had been to the point, we
should have beaten her by five or six hours. This, however,
settled the relative sailing of the vessels, for it was admitted
that although she, being small and light, could gain upon
us in very light winds, yet whenever there was breeze
enough to set us agoing, we walked away from her like
hauling in a line ; and in beating to windward, which is the
best trial of a vessel, we had much the advantage of her.
Sunday, Oct. 4th. This was the day of our arrival ; and
somehow or other, our captain always managed not only to
sail, but to come into port, on a Sunday. The main reason
for sailing on the Sabbath is not, as many people suppose,
because Sunday is thought a lucky day, but because it is a
leisure day. During- the six days, the crew are employed
upon the cargo and other ship's works, and the Sabbath,
being their only day of rest, whatever additional work can
be thrown into Sunday, is so much gain to the owners. This
is the reason of our coasters, packets, etc., sailing on the
Sabbath. They get six good days' work out of the crew,
and then throw all the labor of sailing into the Sabbath.
Thus it was with us, nearly all the time we were on the
coast, and many of our Sabbaths were lost entirely to us.
The Catholics on shore have no trading and make no jour-
neys on Sunday, but the American has no national religion,
and likes to show his independence of priestcraft by doing
as he chooses on the Lord's day.
Santa Barbara looked very much as it did when I left it
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 199
five months before: the long sand beach, with the heavy
rollers, breaking upon it in a continual roar, and the little
town, imbedded on the plain, girt by its amphitheatre of
mountains. Day after day, the sun shone clear and bright
upon the wide bay and the red roofs of the houses ; every^
thing being as still as death, the people really hardly seeming
to earn their sun-light. Daylight actually seemed thrown
away upon them. We had a few visitors, and collected
about a hundred hides, and every night, at sundown, the
gig was sent ashore, to wait for the captain, who spent his
evenings in the town. We always took our monkey-jackets
with us, and flint and steel, and made a fire on the beach
with the driftwood and the bushes we pulled from the
neighboring thickets, and lay down by it, on the sand. Some-
times we would stray up to the town, if the captain was
likely to stay late, and pass the time at some of the houses,
in which we were almost always well received by the in-
habitants. Sometimes earlier and sometimes later, the cap-
tain came down ; when, after a good drenching in the surf,
we went aboard, changed our clothes, and turned in for the
night — yet not for all the night, for there was the anchor
watch to stand.
This leads me to speak of my watchmate for nine months
— and, taking him all in all, the most remarkable man I
have ever seen — Tom Harris. An hour, every night, while
lying in port, Harris and myself had the deck to ourselves,
and walking fore and aft, night after night, for months, I
learned his whole character and history, and more about
foreign nations, the habits of different people, and espe-
cially the secrets of sailors' lives and hardships, and also
of practical seamanship, (in which he was abundantly capa-
ble of instructing me,) than I could ever have learned
elsewhere. But the most remarkable thing about him, was
the power of his mind. His memory was perfect; seeming
to form a regular chain, reaching from his earliest childhood
up to the time I knew him, without one link wanting. His
power of calculation, too, was remarkable. I called myself
pretty quick at figures, and had been through a course of
mathematical studies ; but, working by my head, I was unable
to keep within sight of this man, who had never been beyond
200 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
his arithmetic: so rapid was his calculation. He carried in
his head not only a log-book of the whole voyage, in which
everything was complete and accurate, and from which no
one ever thought of appealing, but also an accurate registry
of all the cargo ; knowing, precisely, where each thing was,
and how many hides we took in at every port.
One night, he made a rough calculation of the number
of hides that could be stowed in the lower hold, between
the fore and main masts, taking the depth of hold and
breadth of beam, (for he always knew the dimension of
every part of the ship, before he had been a month on
board,) and the average area and thickness of a hide; he
came surprisingly near the number, as it afterwards turned
out. The mate frequently came to him to know the capacity
of different parts of the vessel, so he could tell the sailmaker
very nearly the amount of canvas he would want for each
sail in the ship; for he knew the hoist of every mast, and
spread of every sail, on the head and foot, in feet and
inches. When we were at sea, he kept a running account,
in his head, of the ship's way — the number of knots and
the courses ; and if the courses did not vary much during
the twenty-four hours, by taking the whole progress, and
allowing so many eighths southing or northing, to so many
easting or westing; he would make up his reckoning just
before the captain took the sun at noon, and often came
wonderfully near the mark. Calculation of all kinds was
his delight. He had, in his chest, several volumes giving
accounts of inventions in mechanics, which he read with
great pleasure, and made himself master of. I doubt if he
ever forgot anything that he read. The only thing in the
way of poetry that he ever read was Falconer's Shipwreck,
which he was delighted with, and whole pages of which he
could repeat. He knew the name of every sailor that had
ever been his shipmate, and also, of every vessel, captain,
and officer, and the principal dates of each voyage ; and a
sailor whom he afterwards fell in with, who had been in a
ship with Harris nearly twelve years before, was very
much surprised at having Harris tell him things about him-
self which he had entirely forgotten. His facts, whether
dates or events, no one thought of disputing; and his opin-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 201
ions, few of the sailors dared to oppose ; for, right or wrong,
he always had the best of the argument with them. His
reasoning powers were remarkable. I have had harder work
maintaining an argument with him in a watch, even when
I knew myself to be right, and he was only doubting, than I
ever had before; not from his obstinacy, but from his acute-
ness. Give him only a little knowledge of his subject, and,
certainly among all the young men of my acquaintance and
standing at college, there was not one whom I had not rather
meet, than this man. I never answered a question from
him, or advanced an opinion to him, without thinking more
than once. With an iron memory, he seemed to have your
whole past conversation at command, and if you said a thing
now which ill agreed with something said months before,
he was sure to have you on the hip. In fact, I always felt,
when with him, that I was with no common man. I had a
positive respect for his powers of mind, and felt often that if
half the pains had been spent upon his education which are
thrown away, yearly, in our colleges, he would have been a
man of great weight in society. Like most self-taught men,
he over-estimated the value of an education; and this, I
often told him, though I profited by it myself; for he always
treated me with respect, and often unnecessarily gave way
to me, from an over-estimate of my knowledge. For the
intellectual capacities of all the rest of the crew, captain and
all, he had the most sovereign contempt. He was a far
better sailor, and probably a better navigator, than the
captain, and had more brains than all the after part of the
ship put together. The sailors said, " Tom's got a head
as long as the bowsprit," and if any one got into an argu-
ment with him, they would call out — " Ah, Jack ! you'd better
drop that, as you would a hot potato, for Tom will turn you
inside out before you know it."
I recollect his posing me once on the subject of the Corn
Laws. I was called to stand my watch, and, coming on deck,
found him there before me ; and we began, as usual, to walk
fore and aft, in the waist. He talked about the Corn Laws ;
asked me my opinion about them, which I gave him; and
my reasons ; my small stock of which I set forth to the best
advantage, supposing his knowledge on the subject must be
202 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
less than mine, if, indeed, he had any at all. When 1 had
got through, he took the liberty of differing from me, and,
to my surprise, brought arguments and facts connected with
the subject which were new to me, to which I was entirely
unable to reply. I confessed that I knew almost nothing
of the subject, and expressed my surprise at the extent of
his information. He said that, a number of years before,
while at a boarding-house in Liverpool, he had fallen in
with a pamphlet on the subject, and, as it contained calcula-
tions, had read it very carefully, and had ever since wished
to find some one who could add to his stock of knowledge
on the question. Although it was many years since he had
seen the book, and it was a subject with which he had no
previous acquaintance, yet he had the chain of reasoning,
founded upon principles of political economy, perfect in his
memory; and his facts, so far as I could judge, were correct;
at least, he stated them with great precision. The princi-
ples of the steam engine, too, he was very familiar with,
having been several months on board of a steamboat, and
made himself master of its secrets. He knew every lunar
star in both hemispheres, and was a perfect master of his
quadrant and sextant. Such was the man, who, at forty,
was still a dog before the mast, at twelve dollars a month.
The reason of this was to be found in his whole past life,
as I had it, at different times, from himself.
He was an Englishman, by birth, a native of Ilfracomb,
in Devonshire. His father was skipper of a small coaster,
from Bristol, and dying, left him, when quite young, to the
care of his mother, by whose exertions he received a com-
mon-school education, passing his winters at school and his
summers in the coasting trade, until his seventeenth year,
when he left home to go upon foreign voyages. Of this
mother, he often spoke with the greatest respect, and said
that she was a strong-minded woman, and had the best
system of education he had ever known ; a system which
had made respectable men of his three brothers, and failed
only in him, from his own indomitable obstinacy. One
thing he often mentioned, in which he said his mother dif-
fered from all other mothers that he had ever seen disciplin-
ing their children ; that was, that when he was out of humor
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 203
and refused to eat, instead of putting his plate away, as
most mothers would, and saying that his hunger would
bring him to it, in time, she would stand over him and oblige
him to eat it — every mouthful of it. It was no fault of hers
that he was what I saw him ; and so great was his sense of
gratitude for her efforts, though unsuccessful, that he deter-
mined, at the close of the voyage, to embark for home with
all the wages he should get, to spend with and for his
mother, if perchance he should find her alive.
After leaving home, he had spent nearly twenty years,
sailing upon all sorts of voyages, generally out of the ports
of New York and Boston. Twenty years of vice ! Every
sin that a sailor knows, he had gone to the bottom of. Sev-
eral times he had been hauled up in the hospitals, and as
often, the great strength of his constitution had brought him
out again in health. Several times, too, from his known
capacity, he had been promoted to the office of chief mate,
and as often, his conduct when in port, especially his drunk-
enness, which neither fear nor ambition could induce him
to abandon, put him back into the forecastle. One night,
when giving me an account of his life, and lamenting the
years of manhood he had thrown away, he said that there,
in the forecastle, at the foot of the steps — a chest of old
clothes — was the result of twenty-two years of hard labor
and exposure — worked like a horse, and treated like a dog.
As he grew older, he began to feel the necessity of some pro-
vision for his later years, and came gradually to the convic-
tion that rum had been his worst enemy. One night, in
Havana, a young shipmate of his was brought aboard drunk,
with a dangerous gash in his head, and his money and new
clothes stripped from him. Harris had seen and been in
hundreds of such scenes as these, but in his then state of
mind, it fixed his determ.ination, and he resolved never to
taste another drop of strong drink, of any kind. He signed
no pledge, and made no vow, but relied on his own strength
of purpose. The first thing with him was a reason, and then
a resolution, and the thing was done. The date of his reso-
lution he knew, of course, to the very hour. It was three
years before I knew him, and during all that time, nothing
stronger than cider or coffee had passed his lips. The
204 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
sailors never thought of enticing Tom to take a glass, any
more than they would of talking to the ship's compass. He
was now a temperate man for life, and capable of filling any
berth in a ship, and many a high station there is on shore
which is held by a meaner man.
He understood the management of a ship upon scientific
principles, and could give the reason for hauling every
rope; and a long experience, added to careful observation
at the time, and a perfect memory, gave him a knowledge
of the expedients and resorts in times of hazard, which
was remarkable, and for which I became much indebted to
him, as he took the greatest pleasure in opening his stores
of information to me, in return for what I was able to do
for him. Stories of tyranny and hardship which had driven
men to piracy; — of the incredible ignorance of masters and
mates, and of horrid brutality to the sick, dead, and dying;
as well as of the secret knavery and impositions practised
upon seamen by connivance of the owners, landlords, and
officers; all these he had, and I could not but believe them;
for men who had known him for fifteen years had never
taken him even in an exaggeration, and, as I have said, his
statements were never disputed. I remember, among other
things, his speaking of a captain whom I had known by
report, who never handed a thing to a sailor, but put it on
deck and kicked it to him; and of another, who was of the
best connections in Boston, who absolutely murdered a lad
from Boston that went out with him before the mast to
Sumatra, by keeping him hard at work while ill of the coast
fever, and obliging him to sleep in the close steerage. (The
same captain has since died of the same fever on the same
coast.)
In fact, taking together all that I learned from him of
seamanship, of the history of sailors' lives, of practical
wisdom, and of human nature under new circumsances, —
a great history from which many are shut out, — I would
not part with the hours I spent in the watch with that man
for any given hours of my life passed in study and social
intercourse.
CHAPTER XXIV
San Diego again — A Descent — Hurried Departure — A
New Shipmate
SUNDAY, Oct. iith. Set sail this morning for the
leeward; passed within sight of San Pedro, and,
to our great joy, did not come to anchor, hut kept
directly on to San Diego, where we arrived and moored
ship on.
Thursday, Oct. i^th. Found here the Italian ship La Rosa,
from the windward, which reported the brig Pilgrim at San
Francisco, all well. Everything was as quiet here as usual.
We discharged our hides, horns, and tallow, and were ready
to sail again on the following Sunday. I went ashore to my
old quarters, and found the gang at the hide-house going on
in the even tenor of their way, and spent an hour or two,
after dark, at the oven, taking a whiff with my old Kanaka
friends, who really seemed glad to see me again, and saluted
me as the Aikanc of the Kanakas. I was grieved to find that
my poor dog Bravo was dead. He had sickened and died
suddenly, the very day after I sailed in the Alert.
Sunday was again, as usual, our sailing day, and we got
under weigh with a stiff breeze, which reminded us that it
was the latter part of the autumn, and time to expect south-
easters once more. We beat up against a strong head wind,
under reefed top-sails, as far as San Juan, where we came
to anchor nearly three miles from the shore, with slip-ropes
on our cables, in the old south-easter style of last winter.
On the passage up, we had an old sea captain on board, who
had married and settled in California, and had not been on
salt water for more than fifteen years. He was astonished
at the changes and improvements that had been made in
ships, and still more at the manner in which we carried sail;
for he was really a little frightened; and said that while we
205
206 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
had top-gallant sails on, he should have been under reefed
topsails. The working of the ship, and her progress to wind-
ward, seemed to delight him, for he said she went to wind-
ward as though she were kedging.
Tuesday, Oct. 20th. Having got everything ready, we
set the agent ashore, who went up to the mission to hasten
down the hides for the next morning. This night we had
the strictest orders to look out for south-easters ; and the
long, low clouds seemed rather threatening. But the night
passed over without any trouble, and early the next morning,
we hove out the long-boat and pinnace, lowered away the
quarter-boats, and went ashore to bring off our hides. Here
we were again, in this romantic spot; a perpendicular hill,
twice the height of the ship's mast-head, with a single cir-
cuitous path to the top, and long sand beach at its base, with
the swell of the whole Pacific breaking high upon it, and
our hides ranged in piles on the overhanging summit. The
captain sent me, who was the only one of the crew that had
ever been there before, to the top, to count the hides and
pitch them down. There I stood again, as six months before,
throwing off the hides, and watching them, pitching and
scaling, to the bottom, while the men, dwarfed by the distance,
were walking to and fro on the beach, carrying the hides, as
they picked them up, to the distant boats, upon the tops of
their heads. Two or three boat-loads were sent off, until, at
last, all were thrown down, and the boats nearly loaded again ;
when we were delayed by a dozen or twenty hides which had
lodged in the recesses of the hill, and which we could not
reach by any missiles, as the general line of the side was
exactly perpendicular, and these places were caved in, and
could not be seen or reached from the top. As hides are
worth in Boston twelve and a half cents a pound, and the
captain's commission was two per cent., he determined not
to give them up ; and sent on board for a pair of top-gal-
lant studding-sail halyards, and requested some one of the
crew to go to the top, and come down by the halyards. The
older sailors said the boys, who were light and active,
ought to go, while the boys thought that strength and ex-
perience were necessary. Seeing the dilemma, and feeling
myself to be near the medium of these requisites, I offered
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 207
my services, and went up, with one man to tend the rope,
and prepared for the descent.
We found a stake fastened strongly into the ground, and
apparently capable of holding my weight, to which we
made one end of the halyards well fast, and taking the coil,
threw it over the brink. The end, we saw, just reached to
a landing-place, from which the descent to the beach was
easy. Having nothing on but shirt, trowsers, and hat, the
common sea-rig of warm weather, I had no stripping to do,
and began my descent, by taking hold of the rope in each
hand, and slipping down, sometimes with hands and feet
round the rope, and sometimes breasting off with one hand
and foot against the precipice, and holding on to the rope
with the other. In this way I descended until I came to a
place which shelved in, and in which the hides were lodged.
Keeping hold of the rope with one hand, I scrambled in,
and by the other hand and feet succeeded in dislodging all
the hides, and continued on my way. Just below this place,
the precipice projected again, and going over the projection,
I could see nothing below me but the sea and the rocks upon
which it broke, and a few gulls flying in mid-air. I got
down in safety, pretty well covered with dirt; and for my
pains was told, " What a d — d fool you were to risk your
life for a half a dozen hides!"
While we were carrying the hides to the boat, I per-
ceived, what I had been too busy to observe before, that
heavy black clouds were rolling up from seaward, a strong
swell heaving in, and every sign of a south-easter. The
captain hurried everything. The hides were pitched into
the boats ; and, with some difficulty, and by wading nearly
up to our armpits, we got the boats through the surf, and
began pulling aboard. Our gig's crew towed the pinnace
astern of the gig, and the launch was towed by six men in
the jolly-boat. The ship was lying three miles off, pitch-
ing at her anchor, and the farther we pulled, the heavier
grew the swell. Our boat stood nearly up and down sev-
eral times ; the pinnace parted her tow-line, and we ex-
pected every moment to see the launch swamped. We at
length got alongside, our boats half full of water; and now
came the greatest difficulty of all, — unloading the boats, in
208 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
a heavy sea, which pitched them about so that it was al-
most impossible to stand in them ; raising them sometimes
even with the rail, and again dropping them below the
bends. With great difficulty, we got all the hides aboard
and stowed under hatches, the yard and stay tackles hooked
on, and the launch and pinnace hoisted, checked, and
griped. The quarter-boats were then hoisted up, and we
began heaving in on the chain. Getting the anchor was
no easy work in such a sea, but as we were not coming back
to this port, the captain determined not to slip. The
ship's head pitched into the sea, and the water rushed
through the hawse-holes, and the chain surged so as al-
most to unship the barrel of the windlass. " Hove short,
sir !" said the mate. "Aye, aye ! Weather-bit your chain
and loose the topsails ! Make sail on her, men — with a will !"
A few moments served to loose the topsails, which were
furled with reefs, to sheet them home, and hoist them up.
"Bear a hand!" was the order of the day; and every one
saw the necessity of it, for the gale was already upon us.
The ship broke out her own anchor, which we catted and
fished, after a fashion, and stood ofif from the lee-shore
against a heavy head sea, under reefed topsails, fore-topmast
staysail and spanker. The fore course was given to her,
which helped her a little; but as she hardly held her own
against the sea which was settling her leeward — "Board the
main tack !" shouted the captain ; when the tack was carried
forward and taken to the windlass, and all hands called to
the handspikes. The great sail bellied out horizontally as
though it would lift up the main stay ; the blocks rattled
and flew about ; but the force of machinery was too much for
her. "Heave ho ! Heave and pawl ! Yo, heave, hearty,
ho !" and, in time with the song, by the force of twenty
strong arms, the windlass came slowly round, pawl after
pawl, and the weather clew of the sail was brought down
to the waterways. The starboard watch hauled aft the sheet,
and the ship tore through the water like a mad horse,
quivering and shaking at every joint, and dashing from its
head the foam, which flew off at every blow, yards and
yards to leeward. A half hour of such sailing served our
turn, when the clews of the sail were hauled up, the sail
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 209
furled, and the ship, eased of her press, went more quietly
on her way. Soon after, the foresail was reefed, and we
mizen-top men were sent up to take another reef in the
mizen topsail. This was the first time I had taken a weather
earing, and I felt not a little proud to sit, astride of the
weather yard-arm, pass the earing, and sing out "Haul out
to leeward !" From this time until we got to Boston, the
mate never suffered any one but our own gang to go upon
the mizen topsail yard, either for reefing or furling, and the
young English lad and myself generally took the earings be-
tween us.
Having cleared the point and got well out to sea, we
squared away the yards, made more sail, and stood on, nearly
before the wind, for San Pedro. It blew strong, with some
rain, nearly all night, but fell calm toward morning, and the
gale having gone over, we came-to, —
Thursday, Oct. 22d, at San Pedro, in the old south-easter
berth, a league from shore, with a slip-rope on the cable,
reefs in the topsail's, and rope-yarns for gaskets^ Here we
lay ten days, with the usual boating, hide-carrying, rolling
of cargo up the steep hill, walking barefooted over stones,
and getting drenched in salt water.
The third day after our arrival, the Rosa came in from
San Juan, where she went the day after the south-easter.
Her crew said it was as smooth as a mill-pond, after the
gale, and she took off nearly a thousand hides, which had
been brought down for us, and which we lost in consequence
of the south-easter. This mortified us; not only that an
Italian ship should have got to windward of us in the trade,
but because every thousand hides went toward completing
the forty thousand which we were to collect before we
could say good-by to California.
While lying here, we shipped one new hand, an English-
man, of about two or three and twenty, who was quite an
acquisition, as he proved to be a good sailor, could sing
tolerably, and, what was of more importance to me, had a
good education, and a somewhat remarkable history. He
called himself George P. Marsh ; professed to have been at
sea from a small boy, and to have served his time in the
smuggling trade between Germany and the coasts of France
210 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
and England. Thus he accounted for his knowledge of
the French language, which he spoke and read as well
as he did English ; but his cutter education would not account
for his English, which was far too good to have been learned
in a smuggler; for he wrote an uncommonly handsome hand,
spoke with great correctness, and frequently, when in private
talk with me, quoted from books, and showed a knowledge
of the customs of society, and particularly of the formalities
of the various English courts of law, and of Parliament,
which surprised me. Still, he would give no other account
of himself than that he was educated in a smuggler. A man
whom we afterwards fell in with, who had been a shipmate
of George's a few years before, said that he heard at the
boarding-house from which they shipped, that George had
been at college, (probably a naval one, as he knew no Latin
or Greek,) where he learned French and mathematics. He
was by no means the man by nature that Harris was. Harris
had made everything of his mind and character in spite of
obstacles ; while this man had evidently been born in a dif-
ferent rank, and educated early in life accordingly, but had
been a vagabond, and done nothing for himself since.
What had been given to him by others, was all that made him
to differ from those about him ; while Harris had made
himself what he was. Neither had George the character,
strength of mind, acuteness, or memory of Harris ; yet there
was about him the remains of a pretty good education, which
enabled him to talk perhaps beyond his brains, and a high
spirit and sense of honor, which years of a dog's life had not
broken. After he had been a little while on board, we
learned from him his remarkable history, for the last two
years, which we afterwards heard confirmed in such a man-
ner, as put the truth of it beyond a doubt.
He sailed from New York in the year 1833, if I mistake
not, before the mast, in the brig Lascar, for Canton. She
was sold in the East Indies, and he shipped at Manilla, in a
small schooner, bound on a trading voyage among the La-
drone and Pelew Islands. On one of the latter islands, their
schooner was wrecked on a reef, and they were attacked by
the natives, and, after a desperate resistance, in which all
their number except the captain, George, and a boy, were
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 211
killed or drowned, they surrendered, and were carried bound,
in a canoe, to a neighboring island. In about a month after
this, an opportunity occurred by which one of their number
might get away. I have forgotten the circumstances, but
only one could go, and they yielded to the captain, upon his
promising to send them aid if he escaped. He was successful
in his attempt ; got on board an American vessel, went back
to Manilla, and thence to America, without making any
effort for their rescue, or indeed, as George afterwards dis-
covered, without even mentioning their case to any one in
Manilla. The boy that was with George died, and he being
alone, and there being no chance for his escape, the natives
soon treated him with kindness, and even with attention.
They painted him, tattooed his body, (for he would never
consent to be marked in the face or hands,) gave him two
or three wives; and, in fact, made quite a pet of him. In
this way, he lived for thirteen months, in a fine climate, with
a plenty to eat, half naked, and nothing to do. He soon, how-
ever, became tired, and went round the island, on different
pretences, to look out for a sail. One day, he was out fishing
in a small canoe with another man, when he saw a large
sail to the windward, about a league and a half off, passing
abreast of the island and standing westward. With some
difHculty, he persuaded the islander to go off with him to
the ship, promising to return with a good supply of rum and
tobacco. These articles, which the islanders had got a taste
of from American traders, were too strong a temptation
for the fellow, and he consented. They paddled off in the
track of the ship, and lay-to until she came down to them.
George stepped on board the ship, nearly naked, painted from
head to foot, and in no way distinguishable from his com-
panion until he began to speak. Upon this, the people on
board were not a little astonished ; and, having learned his
story, the captain had him washed and clothed, and sending
away the poor astonished native with a knife or two and
some tobacco and calico, took George with him on the voy-
age. This was the ship Cabot, of New York, Captain Low,
She was bound to Manilla, from across the Pacific, and
George did seaman's duty in her until her arrival in Manilla,
when he left her, and shipped in a brig bound to the Sand-
212 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
wich Islands. From Oahu, he came, in the British brig Clem-
entine, to Monterey, as second officer, where, having some
difficulty with the captain, he left her, and coming down the
coast, joined us at San Pedro. Nearly six months after this,
among some papers we received by an arrival from Boston,
we found a letter from Captain Low, of the Cabot, published
immediately upon his arrival at New York, and giving all
the particulars just as we had them from George. The
letter was published for the information of the friends of
George, and Captain Low added, that he left him at Manilla
to go to Oahu, and he had heard nothing of him since.
George had an interesting journal of his adventures in
the Pelew Islands, which he had written out at length, in a
handsome hand, and in correct English.
CHAPTER XXV
Rumors of War — A Spouter — Slipping for a South-
easter — A Gale
SUNDAY, November ist. Sailed this day, (Sunday
again,) for Santa Barbara, where we arrived on the
5th. Coming round St. Buenaventura, and nearing
the anchorage, we saw two vessels in port, a large full-
rigged, and a small hermaphrodite brig. The former, the
crew said must be the Pilgrim; but I had been too long in
the Pilgrim to be mistaken in her, and I was right in differing
from them ; for, upon nearer approach, her long, low shear,
sharp bows, and raking masts, told quite another story.
"Man-of-war brig," said some of them; "Baltimore clipper,"
said others ; the Ayacucho, thought I ; and soon the broad
folds of the beautiful banner of St. George, — white field
with blood-red border and cross, — were displa3-ed from her
peak. A few minutes put it beyond a doubt, and we were
lying by the side of the Ayacucho, which had sailed from
San Diego about nine months before, while we were lying
there in the Pilgrim. She had since been to Valparaiso,
Callao, and the Sandwich Islands, and had just come upon
the coast. Her boat came on board, bringing Captain Wil-
son ; and in half an hour the news was all over the ship that
there was a war between the United States and France.
Exaggerated accounts reached the forecastle. Battles had
been fought, a large French fleet was in the Pacific, etc.,
etc. ; and one of the boat's crew of the Ayacucho said that
when they left Callao. a large French frigate and the
American frigate Brandywine, which were lying there, were
going outside to have a battle, and that the English frigate
Blonde was to be umpire, and see fair play. Here was im-
portant news for us. Alone, on an unprotected coast, with-
213
214 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
out an American man-of-war within some thousands of
miles, and the prospect of a voyage home through the whole
length of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans ! A French
prison seemed a much more probable place of destination
than the good port of Boston. However, we were too salt
to believe every yarn that comes into the forecastle, and
waited to hear the truth of the matter from higher authority.
By means of a supercargo's clerk, I got the account of the
matter, which was, that the governments had had difficulty
about the payment of a debt; that war had been threatened
and prepared for, but not actually declared, although it was
pretty generally anticipated. This was not quite so bad,
yet was no small cause of anxiety. But we cared very little
about the matter ourselves. "Happy go lucky" with Jack !
We did not believe that a French prison would be much
worse than "hide-droghing" on the coast of California;
and no one who has not been a long, dull voyage, shut up
in one ship, can conceive of the effect of monotony upon
one's thoughts and wishes. The prospect of a change is
like a green spot in a desert, and the remotest probability
of great events and exciting scenes gives a feeling of de-
light, and sets life in motion, so as to give a pleasure,
which any one not in the same state would be entirely
unable to account for. In fact, a more jovial night we had
not passed in the forecastle for months. Every one seemed
in unaccountably high spirits. An undefined anticipation
of radical changes, of new scenes, and great doings, seemed
to have possessed every one, and the common drudgery of
the vessel appeared contemptible. Here was a new vein
opened; a grand theme of conversation, and a topic for
all sorts of discussions. National feeling was wrought
up. Jokes were cracked upon the only Frenchman in the
ship, and comparisons made between "old horse" and "soup
meagre," etc., etc.
We remained in uncertainty as to this war for more than
two months, when an arrival from the Sandwich Islands
brought us the news of an amicable arrangement of the
difficulties.
The other vessel which we found in port was the herma-
phrodite brig Avon, from the Sandwich Islands. She was
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 215
fitted up in handsome style; fired a gun and ran her en-
sign up and down at sunrise and sunset ; had a band of
four or five pieces of music on board, and appeared rather
like a pleasure yacht than a trader; yet, in connection with
the Loriotte, Clementine, Bolivar, Convoy, and other small
vessels, belonging to sundry Americans at Oahu, she car-
ried on a great trade — legal and illegal — in otter skins,
silks, teas, specie, etc.
The second day after our arrival, a full-rigged brig came
round the point from the northward, sailed leisurely through
the bay, and stood off again for the south-east, in the di-
rection of the large island of Catalina. The next day the
Avon got under weigh, and stood in the same direction,
bound for San Pedro. This might do for marines and Cali-
fornians, but we knew the ropes too well. The brig was
never again seen on the coast, and the Avon arrived at
San Pedro in about a week, with a full cargo of Canton and
American goods.
This was one of the means of escaping the heavy duties
the Mexicans lay upon all imports. A vessel comes on the
coast, enters a moderate cargo at Monterey, which is the
only custom-house, and commences trading. In a month
or more, having sold a large part of her cargo, she stretches
over to Catalina, or other of the large uninhabited islands
which lie off the coast, in a trip from port to port, and sup-
plies herself with choice goods from a vessel from Oahu,
which has been lying off and on the islands, waiting for
her. Two days after the sailing of the Avon, the Loriotte
came in from the leeward, and without doubt had also
a snatch at the brig's cargo.
Tuesday, Nov. loth. Going ashore, as usual, in the gig,
just before sundown, to bring off the captain, we found,
upon taking in the captain and pulling off again, that our
ship, which lay the farthest out, had run up her ensign.
This meant " Sail ho ! " of course, but as we were within
the point we could see nothing. "Give way, boys ! Give
way ! Lay out on your oars, and long stroke !" said the
captain ; and stretching to the whole length of our arms,
bending back again, so that our backs touched the thwarts,
we sent her through the water like a rocket. A few min-
216 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
utes of such pulling opened the islands, one after another,
in range of the point, and gave us a view of the Canal,
where was a ship, under top-gallant sails, standing in, with
a light breeze, for the anchorage. Putting the boat's head
in the direction of the ship, the captain told us to lay out
again ; and we needed no spurring, for the prospect of
boarding a new ship, perhaps from home, hearing the news
and having something to tell of when we got back, was ex-
citement enough for us, and we gave way with a will. Cap-
tain Nye, of the Loriotte, who had been an old whale-
man, was in the stern-sheets, and fell mightily into the
spirit of it. "Bend your backs and break your oars !" said
he. " Lay me on. Captain Bunker ! " " There she flukes ! "
and other exclamations, peculiar to whalemen. In the
meantime, it fell flat calm, and being within a couple of
miles of the ship, we expected to board her in a few mo-
ments, when a sudden breeze sprung up, dead ahead for the
ship, and she braced up and stood off toward the islands,
sharp on the larboard tack, making good way through the
water. This, of course, brought us up, and we had only to
"ease larboard oars ; pull round starboard !" and go aboard
the Alert, with something very like a flea in the ear. There
was a light land-breeze all night, and the ship did not come
to anchor until the next morning. As soon as her anchor
was down, we went aboard, and found her to be the whale-
ship, Wilmington and Liverpool Packet, of New Bedford,
last from the "off-shore ground," with nineteen hundred
barrels of oil. A "spouter" we knew her to be as soon as
we saw her, by her cranes and boats, and by her stump top-
gallant masts, and a certain slovenly look to the sails, rig-
ging, spars and hull ; and when we got on board, we found
everything to correspond, — spouter fashion. She had a
false deck, which was rough and oily, and cut up in every
direction by the chimes of oil casks; her rigging was slack
and turning white; no paint on the spars or blocks; clumsy
seizings and straps without covers, and homeward-bound
splices in every direction. Her crew, too, were not in
much better order. Her captain was a slab-sided, shamble-
legged Quaker, in a suit of brown, with a broad-brimmed
hat, and sneaking about decks, like a sheep, with his head
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 217
down ; and the men looked more like fishermen and farmers
than they did like sailors.
Though it was by no means cold weather, (we having on
only our red shirts and duck trowsers,) they all had on
woollen trowsers — not blue and ship-shape — but of all
colors — brown, drab, grey, aye, and green, with suspenders
over their shoulders, and pockets to put their hands in.
This, added to guernsey frocks, striped comforters about
the neck, thick cowhide boots, woollen caps, and a strong,
oily smell, and a decidedly green look, will complete the
description. Eight or ten were on the fore-topsail yard,
and as many more in the main, furling the topsails, while
eight or ten were hanging about the forecastle, doing noth-
ing. This was a strange sight for a vessel coming to
anchor; so we went up to them, to see what was the mat-
ter. One of them, a stout, hearty-looking fellow, held out
his leg and said he had the scurvy; another had cut his
hand ; and others had got nearly well, but said that there
were plenty aloft to furl the sails, so they were sogering
on the forecastle. There was only one " splicer " on board,
a fine-looking old tar, who was in the bunt of the fore-top-
sail. He was probably the only sailor in the ship, before
the mast. The mates, of course, and the boat-steerers, and
also two or three of the crew, had been to sea before, but
only whaling voyages ; and the greater part of the crew
were raw hands, just from the bush, as green as cabbages,
and had not yet got the hay-seed out of their heads. The
mizen topsail hung in the bunt-lines until everything was
furled forward. Thus a crew of thirty men were half an
hour in doing what would have been done in the Alert with
eighteen hands to go aloft, in fifteen or twenty minutes.
We found they had been at sea six or eight months, and
had no news to tell us; so we left them, and promised to
get liberty to come on board in the evening, for some curi-
osities, etc. Accordingly, as soon as we were knocked off
in the evening and had got supper, we obtained leave, took
a boat, and went aboard and spent an hour or two. They
gave us pieces of whalebone, and the teeth and other parts
of curious sea animals, and we exchanged books with them
— a practice very common among ships in foreign ports, by
218 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
which you get rid of the books you have read and re-read,
and a supply of new ones in their stead, and Jack is not
very nice as to their comparative vakie.
Thursday, Nov. 12th. This day was quite cool in the
early part, and there were black clouds about; but as it
was often so in the morning, nothing was apprehended,
and all the captains went ashore together, to spend the
day. Towards noon, the clouds hung heavily over the
mountains, coming half way down the hills that encircle
the town of Santa Barbara, and a heavy swell rolled in from
the south-east. The mate immediately ordered the gig's
crew away, and at the same time, we saw boats pulling
ashore from the other vessels. Here was a grand chance
for a rowing match, and every one did his best. We passed
the boats of the Ayacucho and Loriotte, but could gain
nothing upon, and indeed, hardly hold our own with, the
long, six-oared boat of the whale-ship. They reached the
breakers before us; but here we had the advantage of them,
for, not being used to the surf, they were obliged to wait
to see us beach our boat, just as, in the same place, nearly
a year before, we, in the Pilgrim, were glad to be taught
by a boat's crew of Kanakas.
We had hardly got the boats beached, and their heads
out, before our old friend, Bill Jackson, the handsome
English sailor, who steered the Loriotte's boat, called out
that the brig was adrift; and, sure enough, she was drag-
ging her anchors, and drifting down into the bight of
the bay. Without waiting for the captain, (for there was
no one on board but the mate and steward,) he sprung into
the boat, called the Kanakas together, and tried to put off.
But the Kanakas, though capital water-dogs, were fright-
ened by their vessel's being adrift, and by the emergency
of the case, and seemed to lose their faculties. Twice, their
boat filled, and came broadside upon the beach. Jackson
swore at them for a parcel of savages, and promised to
flog every one of them. This made the matter no better;
when we came forward, told the Kanakas to take their
seats in the boat, and, going two on each side, walked out
with her till it was up to our shoulders, and gave them a
shove, when, giving way with their oars, they got her
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 219
safely into the long, regular swell. In the mean time, boats
had put off from our ships and the whaler, and coming all
on board the brig together, they let go the other anchor,
paid out chain, braced the yards to the wind, and l^rought
the vessel up.
In a few minutes, the captains came hurrying down, on
the run ; and there was no time to be lost, for the gale
promised to be a severe one, and the surf was breaking
upon the beach, three deep, higher and higher every in-
stant. The Ayacucho's boat, pulled by four Kanakas,
put off first, and as they had no rudder or steering oar,
would probably never have got off, had we not waded out
with them, as far as the surf would permit. The next that
made the attempt was the whale-boat, for we, being the
most experienced " beach-combers," needed no help, and
staid till the last. Whalemen make the best boats' crews
in the world for a long pull, but this landing was new to
them, and notwithstanding the examples they had had,
they slued round and were hove up — boat, oars, and men
— altogether, high and dry upon the sand. The second
time, they filled, and had to turn their boat over, and set
her off again. We could be of no help to them, for they
were so many as to be in one another's way, without the
addition of our numbers. The third time, they got off,
though not without shipping a sea which drenched them
all, and half filled their boat, keeping them baling, until
they reached their ship. We now got ready to go off. put-
ting the boat's head out ; English Ben and I, who were
the largest, standing on each side of the bows, to keep her
" head on " to the sea, two more shipping and manning the
two after oars, and the captain taking the steering oar.
Two or three Spaniards, who stood upon the beach looking
at us, wrapped their cloaks about them, shook their heads,
and muttered " Caramba ! " They had no taste for such
doings; in fact, the hydrophobia is a national malady, and
shows itself in their persons as well as their actions.
Watching for a " smooth chance," we determined to show
the other boats the way it should be done; and, as soon as
ours floated, ran out with her, keeping her head on, with
all our strength, and the help of the captain's oar, and the
220 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
two after oarsmen giving way regularly and strongly, until
our feet were off the ground, we tumbled into the bows,
keeping perfectly still, from fear of hindering the others.
For some time it was doubtful how it would go. The boat
stood nearly up and down in the water, and the sea, rolling
from under her, let her fall upon the water with a force
which seemed almost to stave her bottom in. By quietly
sliding two oars forward, along the thwarts, without im-
peding the rowers, we shipped two bow oars, and thus, by
the help of four oars and the captain's strong arm, we got
safely off, though we shipped several seas, which left us
half full of water. We pulled alongside of the Loriotte,
put her skipper on board, and found her making prepara-
tions for slipping, and then pulled aboard our own ship.
Here Mr. Brown, always " on hand," had got everything
ready, so that we had only to hook on the gig and hoist it
up, when the order was given to loose the sails. While we
were on the yards, we saw the Loriotte under weigh, and
before our yards were mast-headed, the Ayacucho had
spread her wings, and, with yards braced sharp up, was
standing athwart our hawse. There is no prettier sight
in the world than a full-rigged, clipper-built brig, sailing
sharp on the wind. In a moment, our slip-rope was gone,
the head-yards filled away, and we were off. Next came
the whaler; and in a half an hour from the time when four
vessels were lying quietly at anchor, without a rag out, or
a sign of motion, the bay was deserted, and four white
clouds were standing off to sea. Being sure of clearing the
point, we stood off with our yards a little braced in, while
the Ayacucho went off with a taught bowline, which
brought her to windward of us. During all this day, and
the greater part of the night, we had the usual south-
easter entertainment, a gale of wind, variegated and finally
topped off with a drenching rain of three or four hours.
At daybreak, the clouds thinned off and rolled away, and
the sun came up clear. The wind, instead of coming out
from the northward, as is usual, blew steadily and freshly
from the anchoring-ground. This was bad for us, for,
being " flying light," with little more than ballast trim,
we were in no condition for showing off on a taught bow-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 221
line, and had depended upon a fair wind, with which, by
the help of our Hght sails and studding-sails, we meant to
have been the first at the anchoring-ground ; but the Aya-
cucho was a good league to windward of us, and was stand-
ing in, in fine style. The whaler, however, was as far to
leeward of us, and the Loriotte was nearly out of sight,
among the islands, up the Canal. By hauling every brace
and bowline, and clapping watch-tackles upon all the sheets
and halyards, we managed to hold our own, and drop the
leeward vessels a little in every tack. When we reached the
anchoring-ground, the Ayacucho had got her anchor, furled
her sails, squared her yards, and was lying as quietly as if
nothing had happened for the last twenty-four hours.
We had our usual good luck in getting our anchor with-
out letting go another, and were all snug, with our boats at
the boom-ends, in half an hour. In about two hours more,
the whaler came in, and made a clumsy piece of work in
getting her anchor, being obliged to let go her best bower,
and finally, to get out a kedge and a hawser. They were
heave-ho-ing, stopping and unstopping, pawling, catting,
and fishing, for three hours ; and the sails hung from the
yards all the afternoon, and were not furled until sundown.
The Loriotte came in just after dark, and let go her
anchor, making no attempt to pick up the other until the
next day.
This affair led to a great dispute as to the sailing of our
ship and the Ayacucho. Bets were made between the cap-
tains, and the crews took it up in their own way; but as
she was bound to leeward and we to windward, and mer-
chant captains cannot deviate, a trial never took place ; and
perhaps it was well for us that it did not, for the Ayacucho
had been eight years in the Pacific, in every part of it —
Valparaiso, Sandwich Islands, Canton, California, and all,
and was called the fastest merchantman that traded in
the Pacific, unless it was the brig John Gilpin, and per-
haps the ship Ann McKim of Baltimore.
Saturday, Nov. 14th. This day we got under weigh,
with the agent and several Spaniards of note, as passengers,
boimd up to Monterey. We went ashore in the gig to
bring them off with their baggage, and found them waiting
222 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
on the beach, and a little afraid about going off, as the
surf was running very high. This was nuts to us; for we
liked to have a Spaniard wet with salt water; and then
the agent was very much disliked by the crew, one and all;
and we hoped, as there was no officer in the boat, to have
a chance to duck them; for we knew that they were such
" marines " that they would not know whether it was our
fault or not. Accordingly, we kept the boat so far from
shore as to oblige them to wet their feet in getting into
her; and then waited for a good high comber, and letting
the head slue a little round, sent the whole force of the sea
into the stern-sheets, drenching them from head to feet.
The Spaniards sprang out of the boat, swore, and shook
themselves and protested against trying it again ; and it
was with the greatest difficulty that the agent could prevail
upon them to make another attempt. The next time we
took care, and went off easily enough, and pulled aboard.
The crew came to the side to hoist in their baggage, and
we gave them the wink, and they heartily enjoyed the half-
drowned looks of the company.
Everything being now ready, and the passengers aboard,
we ran up the ensign and broad pennant, (for there was
no man-of-war, and we were the largest vessel on the coast,)
and the other vessels ran up their ensigns. Having hove
short, cast off the gaskets, and made the bunt of each sail
fast by the jigger, with a man on each yard; at the word,
the whole canvas of the ship was loosed, and with the
greatest rapidity possible, everything was sheeted home
and hoisted up, the anchor tripped and catheaded, and the
ship under headway. We were determined to show the
" spouter " how things could be done in a smart ship, with
a good crew, though not more than half their number. The
royal yards were all crossed at once, and royals and sky-
sails set, and, as we had the wind free, the booms were run
out, and every one was aloft, active as cats, laying out on
the yards and booms, reeving the studding-sail gear; and
sail after sail the captain piled upon her, until she was
covered with canvas, her sails looking like a great white
cloud resting upon a black speck. Before we doubled the
point, we were going at a dashing rate, and leaving the
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 223
shipping far astern. We had a fine breeze to take us
through the Canal, as they call this bay of forty miles long
by ten wide. The breeze died away at night, and we were
becalmed all day on Sunday, about half way between
Santa Barbara and Point Conception. Sunday night we
had a light, fair wind, which set us up again; and having a
fine sea-breeze on the first part of Monday, we had the
prospect of passing, without any trouble. Point Conception,
— the Cape Horn of California, where it begins to blow the
first of January, and blows all the year round. Toward
the latter part of the afternoon, however, the regular north-
west wind, as usual, set in, which brought in our studding-
sails, and gave us the chance of beating round the Point,
which we were now just abreast of, and which stretched off
into the Pacific, high, rocky and barren, forming the cen-
tral point of the coast for hundreds of miles north and
south. A cap-full of wind will be a bag-full here, and be-
fore night our royals were furled, and the ship was labor-
ing hard imder her top-gallant sails. At eight bells our
watch went below, leaving her with as much sail as she
could stagger under, the water flying over the forecastle
at every plunge. It was evidently blowing harder, but then
there was not a cloud in the sky, and the sun had gone
down bright.
We had been below but a short time, before we had the
usual premonitions of a coming gale: seas washing over
the whole forward part of the vessel, and her bows beat-
ing against them with a force and sound like the driving
of piles. The watch, too, seemed very busy trampling
about decks, and singing out at the ropes. A sailor can
always tell, by the sound, what sail is coming in, and, in a
short time, we heard the top-gallant sails come in, one after
another, and then the flying jib. This seemed to ease her
a good deal, and we were fast going off to the land of Nod,
when — bang, bang, bang — on the scuttle, and " All hands,
reef topsails, ahoy ! " started us out of our berths ; and, it
not being very cold weather, we had nothing extra to put
on, and were soon on deck. I shall never forget the fine-
ness of the sight. It was a clear, and rather a chilly night;
the stars were twinkling with an intense brightness, and
224 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
as far as the eye could reach, there was not a cloud to be
seen. The horizon met the sea in a defined line. A painter
could not have painted so clear a sky. There was not a
speck upon it. Yet it was blowing great guns from the
north-west. When you can see a cloud to windward, you
feel that there is a place for the wind to come from; but
here it seemed to come from nowhere. No person could
have told, from the heavens, by their eyesight alone, that
it was not a still summer's night. One reef after another,
we took in the topsails, and before we could get them
hoisted up, we heard a sound like a short, quick rattling of
thunder, and the jib was blown to atoms out of the bolt-
rope. We got the topsails set, and the fragments of the jib
stowed away, and the fore-topmast staysail set in its place,
when the great mainsail gaped open, and the sail ripped
from head to foot. " Lay up on that main-yard and furl
the sail, before it blows to tatters ! " shouted the captain ;
and in a moment, we were up, gathering the remains of
it upon the yard. We got it wrapped, round the yard, and
passed gaskets over it as snugly as possible, and were just
on deck again, when, with another loud rent, which was
heard throughout the ship, the fore-topcail, which had
been double-reefed, split in two, athwartships, just below
the reef-band, from earing to earing. Here again it was
down yard, haul out reef-tackles, and lay out upon the yard
for reefing. By hauling the reef-tackles chock-a-block, we
took the strain from the other earings, and passing the
close-reef earing, and knotting the points carefully, we
succeeded in setting the sail, close-reefed.
We had but just got the rigging coiled up, and were wait-
ing to hear " go below the watch ! " when the main royal
worked loose from the gaskets, and blew directly out to lee-
ward, flapping, and shaking the mast like a wand. Here
was a job for somebody. The royal must come in or be cut
adrift, or the mast w^ould be snapped short off. All the
light hands in the starboard watch were sent up, one after
another, but they could do nothing with it. At length,
John, the tall Frenchman, the head of the starboard watch,
(and a better sailor never stepped upon a deck,) sprang
aloft, and, by the help of his long arms and legs, succeeded,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 225
after a hard struggle, — the sail blowing over the yard-arm
to leeward, and the skysail blowing directly over his head,
— in smothering it, and frapping it with long pieces of sin-
net. He came very near being blown or shaken from the
yard, several times, but he was a true sailor, every finger a
fish-hook. Having made the sail snug, he prepared to send
the yard down, which was a long and difficult job; for,
frequently, he was obliged to stop and hold on with all his
might, for several minutes, the ship pitching so as to
make it impossible to do anything else at that height.
The yard at length came down safe, and after it, the fore
and mizen royal-yards were sent down. All hands were
then sent aloft, and for an hour or two we were hard at
work, making the booms well fast ; unreeving the studding-
sail and royal and skysail gear; getting rolling-ropes on
the yards ; setting up the weather breast-backstays ; and
making other preparations for a storm. It was a fine night
for a gale; just cool and bracing enough for quick work,
without being cold, and as bright as day. It was sport to
have a gale in such weather as this. Yet it blew like a
hurricane. The wind seemed to come with a spite, an edge
to it, which threatened to scrape us ofif the yards. The
mere force of the wind was greater than I had ever seen it
before ; but darkness, cold, and wet are the worst parts of
a storm, to a sailor.
Having got on deck again, we looked round to see what
time of night it was, and whose watch. In a few minutes
the man at the wheel struck four bells, and we found that
the other watch was out, and our own half out. Accord-
ingly, the starboard watch went below, and left the ship to
us for a couple of hours, yet with orders to stand by for a
call.
Hardly had they got below, before away went the fore-
topmast staysail, blown to ribbons. This was a small
sail, which we could manage in the watch, so that we were
not obliged to call up the other watch. We laid out upon
the bowsprit, where we were under water half the time, and
took in the fragments of the sail, and as she must have
some head sail on her, prepared to bend another staysail.
We got the new one out, into the nettings; seized on the
H — VOL. XXIII HC
226 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
tack, sheets, and halyards, and the hanks; manned the hal-
yards, cut adrift the f rapping Hnes, and hoisted away; but
before it was half way up the stay, it was blown all to
pieces. When we belayed the halyards, there was nothing
left but the bolt-rope. Now large eyes began to show them-
selves in the foresail, and knowing that it must soon go,
the mate ordered us upon the yard to furl it. Being un-
willing to call up the watch who had been on deck all night,
he roused out the carpenter, sailmaker, cook, steward, and
other idlers, and, with their help, we manned the fore-
yard, and after nearly half an hour's struggle, mastered
the sail, and got it well furled round the yard. The
force of the wind had never been greater than at this
moment. In going up the rigging, it seemed absolutely to
pin us down to the shrouds; and on the yard, there was no
such thing as turning a face to windward. Yet here was
no driving sleet, and darkness, and wet, and cold, as off
Cape Horn; and instead of a stiff oil-cloth suit, south-
wester caps, and thick boots, we had on hats, round jackets,
duck trowsers, light shoes, and everything light and easy.
All these things make a great difference to a sailor. When
we got on deck, the man at the wheel struck eight bells,
(four o'clock in the morning,) and "All starbowlines,
ahoy ! " brought the other watch up. But there was no
going below for us. The gale was now at its height, " blow-
ing like scissors and thumb-screws ; " the captain was on
deck; the ship, which was light, rolling and pitching as
though she would shake the long sticks out of her ; and the
sail gaping open and splitting, in every direction. The
mizen topsail, which was a comparatively new sail, and
close-reefed, split, from head to foot, in the bunt ; the fore-
topsail went, in one rent, from clew to earing, and was
blowing to tatters; one of the chain bobstays parted; the
spritsail-yard sprung in the slings ; the martingale had
slued away off to leeward ; and, owing to the long dry
weather, the lee rigging hung in large bights, at every
lurch. One of the main top-gallant shrouds had parted;
and, to crown all, the galley had got adrift, and gone over
to leeward, and the anchor on the lee bow had worked loose,
and was thumping the side. Here was work enough for all
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 227
hands for half a day. Our gang laid out on the mizen
topsail yard, and after more than half an hour's hard
■work, furled the sail, though it bellied out over our heads,
and again, by a slant of the wind, blew in under the yard,
with a fearful jerk, and almost threw us off from the foot-
ropes.
Double gaskets were passed round the yards, rolling
tackles and other gear bowsed taught, and everything made
as secure as could be. Coming down, we found the rest of
the crew just coming down the fore rigging, having furled
the tattered topsail, or, rather, swathed it round the yard,
which looked like a broken limb, bandaged. There was no
sail now on the ship but the spanker and the close-reefed
main topsail, which still held good. But this was too
much after sail; and order was given to furl the spanker.
The brails were hauled up, and all the light hands in the
starboard watch sent out on the gaff to pass the gaskets;
but they could do nothing with it. The second mate swore
at them for a parcel of " sogers," and sent up a couple of
the best men; but they could do no better, and the gaff
was lowered down. All hands were now employed in set-
ting up the lee rigging, fishing the spritsail-yard, lashing
the galley, and getting tackles upon the martingale, to
bowse it to windward. Being in the larboard watch, my
duty was forward, to assist in setting up the martingale.
Three of us were out on the martingale guys and back-
ropes for more than half an hour, carrying out, hooking
and unhooking the tackles, several times buried in the seas,
until the mate ordered us in, from fear of our being washed
off. The anchors were then to be taken up on the rail,
which kept all hands on the forecastle for an hour, though
every now and then the seas broke over it, washing the
rigging off to leeward, filling the lee scuppers breast high,
and washing chock aft to the taffrail.
Having got everything secure again, we were promising
ourselves some breakfast, for it was now nearly nine o'clock
in the forenoon, when the main topsail showed evident
signs of giving way. Some sail must be kept on the ship,
and the captain ordered the fore and main spencer gaffs to
be lowered down, and the two spencers (which were storm
228 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
sails, bran new, small, and made of the strongest canvas)
to be got up and bent ; leaving the main topsail to blow
away, with a blessing on it, if it would only last until we
could set the spencers. These we bent on very carefully,
with strong robands and seizings, and making tackles fast
to the clews, bowsed them down to the water-ways. By
this time the main topsail was among the things that have
been, and we went aloft to stow away the remnant of the
last sail of all those which were on the ship twenty-four
hours before. The spencers were now the only whole sails
on the ship, and, being strong and small, and near the deck,
presenting but little surface to the wind above the rail,
promised to hold out well. Hove-to under these, and eased
by having no sail above the tops, the ship rose and fell, and
drifted off to leeward like a line-of-battle ship.
It was now eleven o'clock, and the watch was sent be-
low to get breakfast, and at eight bells (noon,) as every-
thing was snug, although the gale had not in the least
abated, the watch was set, and the other watch and idlers
sent below. For three days and three nights, the gale con-
tinued with unabated fury, and with singular regularity.
There was no lulls, and very little variation in its fierce-
ness. Our ship, being light, rolled so as almost to send the
fore yard-arm under water, and drifted off bodily, to lee-
ward. All this time there was not a cloud to be seen in
the sky, day or night; — no, not so large as a man's hand.
Every morning the sun rose cloudless from the sea, and set
again at night, in the sea, in a flood of light. The stars,
too, came out of the blue, one after another, night after
night, unobscured, and twinkled as clear as on a still frosty
night at home, until the day came upon them. All this
time, the sea was rolling in immense surges, white with
foam, as far as the eye could reach, on every side, for we
were now leagues and leagues from shore.
The between-decks being empty, several of us slept there
in hammocks, which are the best things in the world to
sleep in during a storm; it not being true of them, as it is
of another kind of bed, " when the wind blows, the cradle
will rock ; " for it is the ship that rocks, while they always
hang vertically from the beams. During these seventy-two
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 229
hours we had nothing to do, but to turn in and out, four
hours on deck, and four below, eat, sleep, and keep watch.
The watches were only varied by taking the helm in turn,
and now and then, by one of the sails, which were furled,
blowing out of the gaskets, and getting adrift, which sent
us up on the yards; and by getting tackles on different
parts of the rigging, which were slack. Once, the wheel-
rope parted, which might have been fatal to us, had not
the chief mate sprung instantly with a relieving tackle to
windward, and kept the tiller up, till a new one could be
rove. On the morning of the twentieth, at daybreak, the
gale had evidently done its worst, and had somewhat
abated; so much so, that all hands were called to bend new
sails, although it was still blowing as hard as two com-
mon gales. One at a time, and with great difificulty and
labor, the old sails were unbent and sent down by the bunt-
lines, and three new topsails, made for the homeward pas-
sage round Cape Horn, and which had never been bent,
were got up from the sail-room, and under the care of the
sailmaker, were fitted for bending, and sent up by the hal-
yards into the tops, and, with stops and frapping lines, were
bent to the yards, close-reefed, sheeted home, and hoisted.
These were done one at a time, and with the greatest care
and difficulty. Two spare courses were then got up and
bent in the same manner and furled, and a storm-jib, with
the bonnet off, bent and furled to the boom. It was twelve
o'clock before we got through ; and five hours of more ex-
hausting labor I never experienced; and no one of that
ship's crew, I will venture to say, will ever desire again to
unbend and bend five large sails, in the teeth of a tremen-
dous north-wester. Towards night, a few clouds appeared
in the horizon, and as the gale moderated, the usual ap-
pearance of driving clouds relieved the face of the sky.
The fifth day after the commencement of the storm, we
shook a reef out of each topsail, and set the reefed fore-
sail, jib, and spanker; but it was not until after eight
days of reefed topsails that we had a whole sail on the
ship; and then it was quite soon enough, for the captain
was anxious to make up for leeway, the gale having blown
us half the distance to the Sandwich Islands.
230 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
Inch by inch, as fast as the gale would permit, we made
sail on the ship, for the wind still continued a-head, and
we had many days' sailing to get back to the longitude we
were in when the storm took us. For eight days more
we beat to windward under a stiff top-gallant breeze, when
the wind shifted and became variable. A light south-easter,
to which we could carry a reefed topmast studding-sail,
did wonders for our dead reckoning.
Friday, December 4th, after a passage of twenty days,
we arrived at the mouth of the bay of San Francisco.
CHAPTER XXVI
San Francisco — Monterey
OUR place of destination had been Monterey, but as we
were to the northward of it when the wind hauled
a-head, we made a fair wind for San Francisco.
This large bay, which lies in latitude 37° 58', was discovered
by Sir Francis Drake, and by him represented to be (as in-
deed it is) a magnificent bay, containing several good har-
bors, great depth of water, and surrounded by a fertile
and finely wooded country. About thirty miles from the
mouth of the bay, and on the south-east side, is a high
point, upon which the presidio is built. Behind this, is
the harbor in which trading vessels anchor, and near it, the
mission of San Francisco, and a newly begun settlement,
mostly of Yankee Californians, called Yerba Buena, which
promises well. Here, at anchor, and the only vessel, was
a brig under Russian colors, from Asitka, in Russian Am-
erica, which had come down to winter, and to take in a sup-
ply of tallow and grain, great quantities of which latter
article are raised in the missions at the head of the bay.
The second day after our arrival, we went on board the
brig, it being Sunday, as a matter of curiosity; and there
was enough there to gratify it. Though no larger than
the Pilgrim, she had five or six officers, and a crew of be-
tween twenty and thirty; and such a stupid and greasy-
looking set, I certainly never saw before. Although it
was quite comfortable weather, and we had nothing on but
straw hats, shirts, and duck trowsers, and were barefooted,
they had, every man of them, double-soled boots, coming
up to the knees, and well greased; thick woolen trowsers,
frocks, waistcoats, pea-jackets, woolen caps, and every-
thing in true Nova Zembla rig; and in the warmest days
they made no change. The clothing of one of these men
231
232 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
would weigh nearly as much as that of half our crew.
They had brutish faces, looked like the antipodes of sailors,
and apparently dealt in nothing but grease. They lived
upon grease; eat it, drank it, slept in the midst of it, and
their clothes were covered with it. To a Russian, grease
is the greatest luxury. They looked with greedy eyes upon
the tallow-bags as they were taken into the vessel, and, no
doubt, would have eaten one up whole, had not the officer
kept watch over it. The grease seemed actually coming
through their pores, and out in their hair, and on their
faces. It seems as if it were this saturation which makes
them stand cold and rain so well. If they were to go into a
warm climate, they would all die of the scurvy.
The vessel was no better than the crew. Everything
was in the oldest and most inconvenient fashion possible;
running trusses on the yards, and large hawser cables,
coiled all over the decks, and served and parcelled in all
directions. The topmasts, top-gallant masts and studding-
sail booms were nearly black for want of scraping, and the
decks would have turned the stomach of a man-of-war's-
man. The galley was down in the forecastle; and there
the crew lived, in the midst of the steam and grease of the
cooking, in a place as hot as an oven, and as dirty as a pigsty.
Five minutes in the forecastle was enough for us, and we
were glad to get into the open air. We made some trade
with them, buying Indian curiosities, of which they had
a great number; such as bead-work, feathers of birds, fur
moccasins, etc. I purchased a large robe, made of the
skins of some animals, dried and sewed nicely together, and
covered all over on the outside with thick downy feathers,
taken from the breasts of various birds, and arranged with
their different colors, so as to make a brilliant show.
A few days after our arrival, the rainy season set in,
and, for three weeks, it rained almost every hour, without
cessation. This was bad for our trade, for the collecting of
hides is managed differently in this port from what it is
in any other on the coast. The mission of San Francisco
near the anchorage, has no trade at all, but those of San
"Jose, Santa Clara, and others, situated on large creeks or
rivers which run into the bay, and distant between fifteen
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 233
and forty miles from the anchorage, do a greater business
in hides than any in California. Large boats, manned by
Indians, and capable of carrying nearly a thousand hides
apiece, are attached to the missions, and sent down to the
vessels with hides, to bring away goods in return. Some
of the crews of the vessels are obliged to go and come in the
boats, to look out for the hides and goods. These are
favorite expeditions with the sailors, in fine weather; but
now to be gone three or four days, in open boats, in con-
stant rain, without any shelter, and with cold food, was
hard service. Two of our men went up to Santa Clara in
one of these boats, and were gone three days, during all
which time they had a constant rain, and did not sleep a
wink, but passed three long nights, walking fore and aft
the boat, in the open air. When they got on board, they
were completely exhausted, and took a watch below of
twelve hours. All the hides, too, that came down in the
boats, were soaked with water, and unfit to put below, so
that we were obliged to trice them up to dry, in the inter-
vals of sunshine or wind, upon all parts of the vessel. We
got up tricing-lines from the jib-boom-end to each arm of
the fore yard, and thence to the main and cross-jack yard-
arms. Between the tops, too, and the mast-heads, from the
fore to the main swifters, and thence to the mizen rigging,
and in all directions athwartships, tricing-lines were run,
and strung with hides. The head stays and guys, and the
spritsail-yard, were lined, and, having still more, we got
out the swinging booms, and strung them and the forward
and after guys, with hides. The rail, fore and aft, the
windlass, capstan, the sides of the ship, and every vacant
place on deck, were covered with wet hides, on the least
sign of an interval for drying. Our ship was nothing but a
mass of hides, from the cat-harpins to the water's edge,
and from the jib-boom-end to the taffrail.
One cold, rainy evening, about eight o'clock, I received
orders to get ready to start for San Jose at four the next
morning, in one of these Indian boats, with four days' pro-
visions. I got my oil-cloth clothes, south-wester, and thick
boots all ready, and turned into my hammock early, de-
termined to get some sleep in advance, as the boat was to
tH RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
be alongside before daybreak. I slept on till all hands
were called in the morning; for, fortunately for me, the
Indians, intentionally, or from mistaking their orders,
had gone off alone in the night, and were far out of sight.
Thus I escaped three or four days of very uncomfortable
service.
Four of our men, a few days afterwards, went up in one
of the quarter-boats to Santa Clara, to carry the agent, and
remained out all night in a drenching rain, in the small
boat, where there was not room for them to turn round;
the agent having gone up to the mission and left the men to
their fate, making no provision for their accommodation,
and not even sending them anything to eat. After this,
they had to pull thirty miles, and when they got on board,
were so stiff that they could not come up the gangway
ladder. This filled up the measure of the agent's unpopu-
larity, and never after this could he get anything done by
any of the crew; and many a delay and vexation, and many
a good ducking in the surf, did he get to pay up old scores,
or " square the yards with the bloody quill-driver."
Having collected nearly all the hides that were to be
procured, we began our preparations for taking in a supply
of wood and water, for both of which, San Francisco is the
best place on the coast. A small island, situated about two
leagues from the anchorage, called by us " Wood Island,"
and by the Spaniards " Isle de los Angelos," was covered
with trees to the water's edge; and to this, two of our
crew, who were Kennebec men, and could handle an axe
like a plaything, were sent every morning to cut wood,
with two boys to pile it up for them. In about a week,
they had cut enough to last us a year, and the third mate,
with myself and three others, were sent over in a large,
schooner-rigged, open launch, which we had hired of the
mission, to take in the wood, and bring it to the ship.
We left the ship about noon, but, owing to a strong head
wind, and a tide, which here runs four or five knots, did
not get into the harbor, formed by two points of the island,
where the boats lie, until sundown. No sooner had we
come-to, than a strong south-easter, which had been threat-
ening us all day, set in, with heavy rain and a chilly at-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 235
mosphere. We were in rather a bad situation : an open
boat, a heavy rain, and a long night; for in winter, in this
latitude, it was dark nearly fifteen hours. Taking a
small skiff which we had brought with us, we went ashore,
but found no shelter, for everything was open to the rain,
and collecting a little wood, which we found by lifting up
the leaves and brush, and a few muscles, we put aboard
again, and made the best preparations in our power for
passing the night. We unbent the mainsail, and formed
an awning with it over the after part of the boat, made a
bed of wet logs of wood, and, with our jackets on, lay down,
about six o'clock, to sleep. Finding the rain running down
upon us, and our jackets getting wet through, and the
rough, knotty-logs, rather indifferent couches, we turned
out; and taking an iron pan which we brought with us, we
wiped it out dry, put some stones around it, cut the wet
bark from some sticks, and striking a light, made a small
fire in the pan. Keeping some sticks near, to dry, and
covering the whole over with a roof of boards, we kept up
a small fire, by which we cooked our muscles, and eat them,
rather for an occupation than from hunger. Still, it was
not ten o'clock, and the night was long before us, when one
of the party produced an old pack of Spanish cards from
his monkey-jacket pocket, which we hailed as a great wind-
fall; and keeping a dim, flickering light by our fagots, we
played game after game, till one or two o'clock, when, be-
coming really tired, we went to our logs again, one sitting
up at a time, in turn, to keep watch over the fire. Toward
morning, the rain ceased, and the air became sensibly
colder, so that we found sleep impossible, and sat up,
watching for daybreak. No sooner was it light than we
went ashore, and began our preparations for loading out
vessel. We were not mistaken in the coldness of the
weather, for a white frost was on the ground, a thing we
had never seen before in California, and one or two little
puddles of fresh water were skimmed over with a thin coat
of ice. In this state of the weather and before sunrise, in
the grey of the morning, we had to wade off, nearly up to
our hips in water, to load the skiff with the wood by arms-
full. The third mate remained on board the launch, two
236 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
more men staid in the skiff, to load and manage it, and all the
water-work, as usual, fell upon the two youngest of us; and
there we were, with frost on the ground, wading forward
and back, from the beach to the boat, with armsfull of
wood, barefooted, and our trowsers rolled up. When the
skiff went off with her load, we could only keep our feet
from freezing by racing up and down the beach on the hard
sand, as fast as we could go. We were all day at this work,
and towards sundown, having loaded the vessel as deep as
she would bear, we hove up our anchor, and made sail, beat-
ing out the bay. No sooner had we got into the large
bay, than we found a strong tide setting us out to seaward,
a thick fog which prevented our seeing the ship, and a
breeze too light to set us against the tide ; for we were as
deep as a sand-barge. By the utmost exertions, we saved
ourselves from being carried out to sea, and were glad to
reach the leewardmost point of the island, where we came-to,
and prepared to pass another night, more uncomfortable
than the first, for we were loaded up to the gunwale, and
had only a choice among logs and sticks for a resting-place.
The next morning, we made sail at slack water, with a fair
wind, and got on board by eleven o'clock, when all hands
were turned-to, to unload and stow away the wood, which
took till night.
Having now taken in all our wnood, the next morning
a water-party was ordered off with all the casks. From
this we escaped, having had a pretty good siege with the
wooding. The water-party were gone three days, during
which time they narrowly escaped being carried out to
sea, and passed one day on an island, where one of them
shot a deer, great numbers of which overrun the islands
and hills of San Francisco Bay.
While not off, on these wood and water parties, or up the
rivers to the missions, we had very easy times on board
the ship. We were moored, stem and stern, within a cable's
length of the shore, safe from south-easters, and with very
little boating to do; and as it rained nearly all the time,
awnings were put over the hatchways, and all hands sent
down between decks, where we were at work, day after day,
picking oakum, until we got enough to caulk the ship all
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 237
over, and to last the whole voyage. Then we made a
whole suit of gaskets for the voyage home, a pair of wheel-
ropes from strips of green hide, great quantities of spun-
yarn, and everything else that could be made between
decks. It being now mid-winter and in high latitude, the
nights were very long, so that we were not turned-to until
seven in the morning, and were obliged to knock off at
five in the evening, when we got supper; which gave us
nearly three hours before eight bells, at which time the
watch was set.
As we had now been about a year on the coast, it was
time to think of the voyage home; and knowing that the
last two or three months of our stay would be very busy
ones, and that we should never have so good an opportunity
to work for ourselves as the present, we all employed our
evenings in making clothes for the passage home, and more
especially for Cape Horn. As soon as supper was over and
the kids cleared away, and each one had taken his smoke,
we seated ourselves on our chests round the lamp, which
swung from a beam, and each one went to work in his own
way, some making hats, others trowsers, others jackets, etc.,
etc.; and no one was idle. The boys who could not sew
well enough to make their own clothes, laid up grass into
sinnet for the men, who sewed for them in return. Sev-
eral of us clubbed together and bought a large piece of
twilled cotton, which we made into trowsers and jackets,
and giving them several coats of linseed oil, laid them by
for Cape Horn. I also sewed and covered a tarpaulin hat,
thick and strong enough to sit down upon, and made my-
self a complete suit of flannel under-clothing, for bad
weather. Those who had no south-wester caps, made them,
and several of the crew made themselves tarpaulin jackets
and trowsers, lined on the inside with flannel. Industry
was the order of the day, and every one did something for
himself; for we knew that as the season advanced, and we
went further south, we should have no evenings to work
in.
Friday, December 25th. This day was Christmas; and
as it rained all day long, and there were no hides to take
in, and nothing especial to do, the captain gave us a
238 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
holiday, (the first we had had since leaving Boston,) and
plum duff for dinner. The Russian brig, following the
Old Style, had celebrated their Christmas eleven days be-
fore; when they had a grand blow-out and (as our men
said) drank, in the forecastle, a barrel of gin, ate up a bag
of tallow, and made a soup of the skin.
Sunday, December 2yth. We had now finished all our
business at this port, and it being Sunday, we unmoored
ship and got under weigh, firing a salute to the Russian
brig, and another to the Presidio, which were both an-
swered. The commandant of the Presidio, Don Gaudaloupe
Villego, a young man, and the most popular, among the
Americans and English, of any man in California, was
on board when we got under weigh. He spoke English
very well, and was suspected of being favorably inclined
to foreigners.
We sailed down this magnificent bay with a light wind,
the tide, which was running out, carrying us at the rate of
four or five knots. It was a fine day; the first of entire
sunshine we had had for more than a month. We passed
directly under the high cliff on which the Presidio is built,
and stood into the middle of the bay, from whence we could
see small bays, making up into the interior, on every side;
large and beautifully- wooded islands; and the mouths of
several small rivers. If California ever becomes a pros-
perous country, this bay will be the centre of its prosperity.
The abundance of wood and water, the extreme fertility
of its shores, the excellence of its climate, which is as
near to being perfect as any in the world, and its facilities
for navigation, affording the best anchoring-grounds in
the whole western coast of America, all fit it for a place of
great importance; and, indeed, it has attracted much at-
tention, for the settlement of "Yerba Buena," where we
lay at anchor, made chiefly by Americans and English, and
which bids fair to become the most important trading place
on the coast, at this time began to supply traders, Russian
ships, and whalers, with their stores of wheat and frijoles.
The tide leaving us, we came to anchor near the mouth
of the bay, under a high and beautifully sloping hill, upon
which herds of hundreds and hundreds of red deer, and
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 239
the stag, with his high branching antlers, were bounding
about, looking at us for a moment, and then starting off,
affrighted at the noises which we made for the purpose of
seeing the variety of their beautiful attitudes and mo-
tions.
At midnight, the tide having turned, we hove up our anchor
and stood out of the bay, with a fine starry heaven above us,
— the first we had seen for weeks and weeks. Before the
light northerly winds, which blow here with the regularity
of trades, we worked slowly along, and made Point Afio
Neuvo, the northerly point of the Bay of Monterey, on
Monday afternoon. We spoke, going in, the brig Diana, of
the Sandwich Islands, from the North-west Coast, last from
Asitka. She was off the point at the same time with us,
but did not get in to the anchoring-ground until an hour or
two after us. It was ten o'clock on Tuesday morning when
we came to anchor. The town looked just as it did when I
saw it last, which was eleven months before, in the brig
Pilgrim. The pretty lawn on which it stands, as green as
sun and rain could make it ; the pine wood on the south ;
the small river on the north side; the houses, with their
white plastered sides and red-tiled roofs, dotted about on
the green ; the low, white presidio, with its soiled, tri-colored
flag flying, and the discordant din of drums and trumpets
for the noon parade; all brought up the scene we had wit-
nessed here with so much pleasure nearly a year before,
when coming from a long voyage, and our unprepossessing
reception at Santa Barbara. It seemed almost like coming
to a home.
CHAPTER XXVII
The Sunday Wash-up — On Shore — A Set-to — A
Grandee — " Sail Ho ! " — A Fandango
THE only other vessel in port was the Russian govern-
ment bark, from Asitka, mounting eight guns, (four
of which we found to be Quakers,) and having on
board the ex-governor, who was going in her to Mazatlan,
and thence overland to Vera Cruz. He offered to take let-
ters, and deliver them to the American consul at Vera Cruz,
whence they could be easily forwarded to the United States.
We accordingly made up a packet of letters, almost every
one writing, and dating them "January 1st, 1836." The
governor was true to his promise, and they all reached Bos-
ton before the middle of March ; the shortest communica-
tion ever yet made across the country.
The brig Pilgrim had been lying in Monterey through the
latter part of November, according to orders, waiting for
us. Day after day, Captain Faucon went up to the hill to
look out for us, and at last, gave us up, thinking we must
have gone down in the gale which we experienced off Point
Conception, and which had blown with great fury over the
whole coast, driving ashore several vessels in the snuggest
ports. An English brig, which had put into San Francisco,
lost both her anchors ; the Rosa was driven upon a mud
bank in San Diego ; and the Pilgrim, with great difficulty,
rode out the gale in Monterey, with three anchors a-head.
She sailed early in December for San Diego and intermedios.
As we were to be here over Sunday, and Monterey was
the best place to go ashore on the whole coast, and we had
had no liberty-day for nearly three months, every one was
for going ashore. On Sunday morning, as soon as the decks
were washed, and we had got breakfast, those who had ob-
tained liberty began to clean themselves, as it is called, to
240
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 241
go ashore. A bucket of fresh water apiece, a cake of soap,
a large coarse towel, and we went to work scrubbing one
another, on the forecastle. Having gone through this, the
next thing was to get into the head, — one on each side —
with a bucket apiece, and duck one another, by drawing up
water and heaving over each other, while we were stripped
to a pair of trowsers. Then came the rigging-up. The usual
outfit of pumps, white stockings, loose white duck trowsers,
blue jackets, clean checked shirts, black kerchiefs, hats well
varnished, with a fathom of black ribbon over the left eye,
a silk handkerchief flying from the outside jacket pocket,
and four or five dollars tied up in the back of the neckerchief,
and we were " all right." One of the quarter-boats pulled
us ashore, and we steamed up to the town. I tried to find
the church, in order to see the worship, but was told that
there was no service, except a mass early in the morning;
so we went about the town, visiting the Americans and
English, and the natives whom we had known when we
were here before. Toward noon we procured horses, and
rode out to the Carmel mission, which is about a league
from the town, where we got something in the way of a
dinner — beef, eggs, frijoles, tortillas, and some middling
wine — from the mayordomo, who, of course, refused to
make any charge, as it was the Lord's gift, yet received our
present, as a gratuity, with a low bow, a touch of the hat,
and " Dios se lo pague ! "
After this repast, we had a fine run, scouring the whole
country on our fleet horses, and came into town soon after
sundown. Here we found our companions who had refused
to go to ride with us, thinking that a sailor has no more
business with a horse than a fish has with a balloon. They
were moored, stem and stern, in a grog-shop, making a
great noise, with a crowd of Indians and hungry half-
breeds about them, and with a fair prospect of being
stripped and dirked, or left to pass the night in the cala-
bozo. With a great deal of trouble, we managed to get
them down to the boats, though not without many angry
looks and interferences from the Spaniards, who had marked
them out for their prey. The Diana's crew, — a set of worth-
less outcasts, who had been picked up at the islands from the
242 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
refuse of whale-ships, — were all as drunk as beasts, and
had a set-to, on the beach, with their captain, who was in
no better state than themselves. They swore they would
not go aboard, and went back to the town, were stripped
and beaten, and lodged in the calabozo, until the next day,
when the captain bought them out. Our forecastle, as usual
after a liberty-day, was a scene of tumult all night long,
from the drunken ones. They had just got to sleep toward
morning, when they were turned up with the rest, and kept
at work all day in the water, carrying hides, their heads
aching so that they could hardly stand. This is sailor's
pleasure.
Nothing worthy of remark happened while we were here,
except a little boxing-match on board our own ship, which
gave us something to talk about. A broad-backed, big-
headed Cape Cod boy, about sixteen years old, had been
playing the bully, for the whole voyage, over a slender,
delicate-looking boy, from one of the Boston schools, and
over whom he had much the advantage, in strength, age,
and experience in the ship's duty, for this was the first time
the Boston boy had been on salt water. The latter, how-
ever, had "picked up his crumbs," was learning his duty,
and getting strength and confidence daily; and began to
assert his rights against his oppressor. Still, the other was
his master, and, by his superior strength, always tackled
with him and threw him down. One afternoon, before we
were turned-to, these boys got into a violent squabble in the
between-decks, when George (the Boston boy) said he
would fight Nat, if he could have fair play. The chief mate
heard the noise, dove down the hatchway, hauled them
both up on deck, and told them to shake hands and have no
more trouble for the voyage, or else they should fight till
one gave in for beaten. Finding neither willing to make an
offer for reconciliation, he called all hands up, (for the cap-
tain was ashore, and he could do as he chose aboard,)
ranged the crew in the waist, marked a line on the deck,
brought the two boys up to it, making them " toe the mark ;"
then made the bight of a rope fast to a belaying pin, and
stretched it across the deck, bringing it just above their
waists. " No striking below the rope ! " And there they
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 243
stood, one on each side of it, face to face, and went at it
like two game-cocks. The Cape Cod boy, Nat, put in his
double-fisters, starting the blood, and bringing the black and
blue spots all over the face and arms of the other, whom
we expected to see give in every moment : but the more he
was hurt, the better he fought. Time after time he was
knocked nearly down, but up he came again and faced the
mark, as bold as a lion, again to take the heavy blows, which
sounded so as to make one's heart turn with pity for him.
At length he came up to the mark for the last time, his shirt
torn from his body, his face covered with blood and bruises,
and his eyes flashing fire, and swore he would stand there
until one or the other was killed, and set-to like a young
fury. " Hurrah in the bow ! " said the men, cheering him
on. " Well crowed ! " " Never say die, while there's a shot
in the locker ! " Nat tried to close with him, knowing his
advantage, but the mate stopped that, saying there should
be fair play, and no fingering. Nat then came up to the
mark, but looked white about the mouth, and his blows were
not given with half the spirit of his first. He was evidently
cowed. He had always been his master, and had nothing
to gain, and everything to lose ; while the other fought for
honor and freedom, under a sense of wrong. It would not
do. It was soon over. Nat gave in ; not so much beaten,
as cowed and mortified ; and never afterwards tried to act
the bully on board. We took George forward, washed him
in the deck-tub, complimented his pluck, and from this time
he became somebody on board, having fought himself into
notice. Mr. Brown's plan had a good effect, for there was
no more quarrelling among the boys for the rest of the
voyage.
Wednesday, January 6th. Set sail from Monterey, with
a number of Spaniards as passengers, and shaped our course
for Santa Barbara. The Diana went out of the bay in com-
pany with us, but parted from us off Point Pinos, being
bound to the Sandwich Islands. We had a smacking
breeze for several hours, and went along at a great rate,
until night, when it died away, as usual, and the land-
breeze set in, which brought us upon a taught bowline.
Among our passengers was a young man who was the
244 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
best representation of a decayed gentleman I had ever
seen. He reminded me much of some of the characters
in Gil Bias. He was of the aristocracy of the country,
his family being of pure Spanish blood, and once of
great importance in Mexico. His father had been governor
of the province, and having amassed a large property,
settled at San Diego, vi^here he built a large house with a
court-yard in front, kept a great retinue of Indians, and set
up for the grandee of that part of the country. His son
was sent to Mexico, where he received the best education,
and went into the first society of the capital. Misfortune,
extravagance, and the want of funds, or any manner of
getting interest on money, soon eat the estate up, and Don
Juan Bandini returned from Mexico accomplished, poor,
and proud, and without any office or occupation, to lead the
life of most young men of the better families — dissolute and
extravagant when the means are at hand; ambitious at
heart, and impotent in act; often pinched for bread; keep-
ing up an appearance of style, when their poverty is known
to each half-naked Indian boy in the street, and they stand
in dread of every small trader and shopkeeper in the place.
He had a slight and elegant figure, moved gracefully,
danced and w^altzed beautifully, spoke the best of Castilian,
with a pleasant and refined voice and accent, and had,
throughout, the bearing of a man of high birth and figure.
Yet here he was, with his passage given him, (as I after-
wards learned,) for he had not the means of paying for it,
and living upon the charity of our agent. He was polite
to every one, spoke to the sailors, and gave four reals — I
dare say the last he had in his pocket — to the steward, who
waited upon him. I could not but feel a pity for him, espe-
cially when I saw him by the side of his fellow-passenger
and townsman, a fat, coarse, vulgar, pretending fellow of a
Yankee trader, who had made money in San Diego, and
was eating out the very vitals of the Bandinis, fattening
upon their extravagance, grinding them in their poverty;
having mortgages on their lands, forestalling their cattle,
and already making an inroad upon their jewels, which were
their last hope.
Don Juan had with him a retainer, who was as much
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 24S
like many of the characters in Gil Bias as his master. He
called himself a private secretary, though there was no
writing for him to do, and he lived in the steerage with
the carpenter and sailmaker. He was certainly a character;
could read and write extremely well; spoke good Spanish;
had been all over Spanish America, and lived in every
possible situation, and served in every conceivable capacity,
though generally in that of confidential servant to some
man of figure. I cultivated this man's acquaintance, and
during the five weeks that he was with us, — for he re-
mained on board until we arrived at San Diego, — I gained
a greater knowledge of the state of political parties in
Mexico, and the habits and affairs of the different classes
of society, than I could have learned from almost any one
else. He took great pains in correcting my Spanish, and
supplying me with colloquial phrases, and common terms
and exclamations in speaking. He lent me a file of late
newspapers from the city of Mexico, which were full of
triumphal receptions of Santa Ana, who had just returned
from Tampico after a victory, and with the preparations for
his expedition against the Texans. " Viva Santa Ana ! "
was the by-word everywhere, and it had even reached Cali-
fornia, though there were still many here, among whom
was Don Juan Bandini, who were opposed to his govern-
ment, and intriguing to bring in Bustamente. Santa Ana,
they said, was for breaking down the missions ; or, as they
termed it — " Santa Ana no quiere religion." Yet I had no
doubt that the office of administrador of San Diego would
reconcile Don Juan to any dynasty, and any state of the
church. In these papers, too, I found scraps of American
and English news ; but which were so unconnected, and I
was so ignorant of everything preceding them for eighteen
months past, that they only awakened a curiosity which
they could not satisfy. One article spoke of Taney as Jus-
ticia Mayor de los Estados Unidos, (what had become of
Marshall? was he dead, or banished?) and another made
known, by news received from Vera Cruz, that " El Viz-
conde Melbourne " had returned to the office of " primer
ministro," in place of Sir Roberto Peel. (Sir Robert Peel
had been minister, then? and where were Earl Grey and
246 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the Duke of Wellington?) Here were the outlines of a
grand parliamentary overturn, the filling up of which I
could imagine at my leisure.
The second morning after leaving Monterey, we were
off Point Conception. It was a bright, sunny day, and the
wind, though strong, was fair; and everything was in
striking contrast with our experience in the same place
two months before, when we were drifting off from a
northwester under a fore and main spencer. " Sail ho ! "
cried a man who was rigging out a top-gallant studding-
sail boom. — " Where away ? " — " Weather beam, sir ! " and
in a few minutes a full-rigged brig was seen standing out
from under Point Conception. The studding-sail halyards
were let go, and the yards boom-ended, the after yards
braced aback, and we waited her coming down. She
rounded to, backed her main topsail, and showed her decks
full of men, four guns on a side, hammock nettings, and
everything man-of-war fashion, except that there was no
boatswain's whistle, and no uniforms on the quarter-deck.
A short, square-built man, in a rough grey jacket, with a
speaking-trumpet in hand, stood in the weather hammock
nettings. " Ship ahoy ! " — " Hallo ! " — " What ship is that,
pray?" — "Alert." — "Where are you from, pray?" etc., etc.
She proved to be the brig Convoy, from the Sandwich
Islands, engaged in otter hunting, among the islands which
lie along the coast. Her armament was from her being
an illegal trader. The otter are very numerous among these
islands, and being of great value, the government require
a heavy sum for a license to hunt them, and lay a high
duty upon every one shot or carried out of the country.
This vessel had no license, and paid no duty, besides being
engaged in smuggling goods on board other vessels trading
on the coast, and belonging to the same owners in Oahu.
Our captain told him to look out for the Mexicans, but he
said they had not an armed vessel of his size in the whole
Pacific. This was without doubt the same vessel that
showed herself off Santa Barbara a few months before.
These vessels frequently remain on the coast for years, with-
out making port, except at the islands for wood and water,
and an occasional visit to Oahu for a new outfit.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 247
Sunday, January loih. Arrived at Santa Barbara, and
on the following Wednesday, slipped our cable and went
to sea, on account of a south-easter. Returned to our an-
chorage the next day. We were the only vessel in the
port. The Pilgrim had passed through the Canal and
hove-to off the town, nearly six weeks before, on her pas-
sage down from Monterey, and was now at the leeward.
She heard here of our safe arrival at San Francisco.
Great preparations were making on shore for the mar-
riage of our agent, who was to marry Donna Anneta De
G De N ^y C , youngest daughter of Don
Antonio N , the grandee of the place, and the head
of the first family in California. Our steward was ashore
three days, making pastry and cake, and some of the
best of our stores were sent off with him. On the day
appointed for the wedding, we took the captain ashore in
the gig, and had orders to come for him at night, with
leave to go up to the house and see the fandango. Return-
ing on board, we found preparations making for a salute.
Our guns were loaded and run out, men appointed to each,
cartridges served out, matches lighted, and all the flags
ready to be run up. I took my place at the starboard after
gun, and we all waited for the signal from on shore. At
ten o'clock the bride went up with her sister to the confes-
sional, dressed in deep black. Nearly an hour intervened,
when the great doors of the mission church opened, the
bells rang out a loud, discordant peal, the private signal
for us was run up by the captain ashore, the bride, dressed
in complete white, came out of the church with the bride-
groom, followed by a long procession. Just as she stepped
from the church door, a small white cloud issued from the
bows of our ship, which was full in sight, the loud report
echoed among the surrounding hills and over the bay, and
instantly the ship was dressed in flags and pennants from
stem to stern. Twenty-three guns followed in regular
succession, with an interval of fifteen seconds between
each when the cloud cleared away, and the ship lay dressed
in her colors, all day. At sun-down, another salute of the
same number of guns was fired, and all the flags run down.
This we thought was pretty well — a gun every fifteen sec-
248 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
onds — for a merchantman with only four guns and a dozen
or twenty men.
After supper, the gig's crew were called, and we rowed
ashore, dressed in our uniform, beached the boat, and went
up to the fandango. The bride's father's house was the
principal one in the place, with a large court in front, upon
which a tent was built, capable of containing several hun-
dred people. As we drew near, we heard the accustomed
sound of violins and guitars, and saw a great motion of
the people within. Going in, we found nearly all the
people of the town — men, women, and children — collected and
crowded together, leaving barely room for the dancers;
for on these occasions no invitations are given, but every
one is expected to come, though there is always a private
entertainment within the house for particular friends.
The old women sat down in rows, clapping their hands to
the music, and applauding the young ones. The music
was lively, and among the tunes, we recognized several of
our popular airs, which we, without doubt, have taken
from the Spanish. In the dancing, I was much disap-
pointed. The women stood upright, with their hands down
by their sides, their eyes fixed upon the ground before
them, and slided about without any perceptible means of
motion ; for their feet were invisible, the hem of their
dresses forming a perfect circle about them, reaching to the
ground. They looked as grave as though they were going
through some religious ceremony, their faces as little ex-
cited as their limbs; and on the whole, instead of the spir-
ited, fascinating Spanish dances which I had expected, I
found the Californian fandango, on the part of the women
at least, a lifeless affair. The men did better. They
danced with grace and spirit, moving in circles round their
nearly stationary partners, and showing their figures to
great advantage.
A great deal was said about our friend Don Juan Ban-
dini, and when he did appear, which was toward the close
of the evening, he certainly gave us the most graceful danc-
ing that I had ever seen. He was dressed in white panta-
loons neatly made, a short jacket of dark silk, gaily fig-
ured, white stockings and thin morocco slippers upon his
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 249
very small feet. His slight and graceful figure was well
calculated for dancing, and he moved about with the grace
and daintiness of a young fawn. An occasional touch of
the toe to the ground, seemed all that was necessary to give
him a long interval of motion in the air. At the same
time he was not fantastic or flourishing, but appeared to
be rather repressing a strong tendency to motion. He
was loudly applauded, and danced frequently toward the
close of the evening. After the supper, the waltzing began,
which was confined to a very few of the " gente de razon,"
and was considered a high accomplishment, and a mark of
aristocracy. Here, too, Don Juan figured greatly, waltz-
ing with the sister of the bride, (Donna Angustia, a hand-
some woman and a general favorite,) in a variety of beauti-
ful, but, to me, offensive figures, which lasted as much as
half an hour, no one else taking the floor. They were re-
peatedly and loudly applauded, the old men and women
jumping out of their seats in admiration, and the young
people waving their hats and handkerchiefs. Indeed among
people of the character of these Mexicans, the waltz seemed
to me to have found its right place. The great amusement
of the evening, — which I suppose was owing to its being
carnival — was the breaking of eggs filled with cologne, or
other essences, upon the heads of the company. One end
of the egg is broken and the inside taken out, then it is
partly filled with cologne, and the whole sealed up. The
women bring a great number of these secretly about them,
and the amusement is to break one upon the head of
a gentleman when his back is turned. He is bound in
gallantry to find out the lady and return the compliment,
though it must not be done if the person sees you. A tall,
stately Don, with immense grey whiskers, and a look of
great importance, was standing before me, when I felt a
light hand on my shoulder, and turning round, saw Donna
Angustia, (whom we all knew, as she had been up to Mon-
terey, and down again, in the Alert,) with her finger upon
her lip, motioning me gently aside. I stepped back a little,
when she went up behind the Don, and with one hand
knocked off his huge sombrero, and at the same instant,
with the other, broke the egg upon his head, and spring-
250 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
ing behind me, was out of sight in a moment. The Don
turned slowly round, the cologne, running down his face,
and over his clothes and a loud laugh breaking out from
every quarter. He looked round in vain, for some time,
until the direction of so many laughing eyes showed him
the fair offender. She was his niece, and a great favorite
with him, so old Don Domingo had to join in the laugh.
A great many such tricks were played, and many a war
of sharp manceuvering was carried on between couples
of the younger people, and at every successful exploit a
general laugh was raised.
Another singular custom I was for some time at a loss
about. A pretty young girl was dancing, named, after what
would appear to us the sacrilegious custom of the country —
Espiritu Santo, when a young man went behind her and
placed his hat directly upon her head, letting it fall down
over her eyes, and sprang back among the crowd. She
danced for some time with the hat on, when she threw
it off, which called forth a general shout ; and the young
man was obliged to go out upon the floor and pick it up.
Some of the ladies, upon whose heads hats had been placed,
threw them off at once, and a few kept them on through-
out the dance, and took them off at the end, and held them
out in their hands, when the owner stepped out, bowed,
and took it from them. I soon began to suspect the mean-
ing of the thing, and was afterwards told that it was a com-
pliment, and an offer to become the lady's gallant for the
rest of the evening, and to wait upon her home. If the
hat was thrown off, the offer was refused, and the gentle-
man was obliged to pick up his hat amid a general laugh.
Much amusement was caused sometimes by gentlemen
putting hats on the ladies' heads, without permitting them
to see whom it was done by. This obliged them to throw
them off, or keep them on at a venture, and when they came
to discover the owner, the laugh was often turned upon
them.
The captain sent for us about ten o'clock, and we went
aboard in high spirits, having enjoyed the new scene much,
and were of great importance among the crew, from having
so much to tell, and from the prospect of going every night
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 251
until it was over; for these fandangos generally last three
days. The next day, two of us were sent up to the town,
and took care to come back by way of Capitan Noriego's
and take a look into the booth. The musicians were still
there, upon their platform, scraping and twanging away,
and a few people, apparently of the lower classes, were
dancing. The dancing is kept up, at intervals, through-
out the day, but the crowd, the spirit, and the elite, come
in at night. The next night, which was the last, we went
ashore in the same manner, until we got almost tired of the
monotonous twang of the instruments, the drawling sounds
which the women kept up, as an accompaniment, and the
slapping of the hands in time with the music, in place of
castanets. We found ourselves as great objects of attention
as any persons or anything at the place. Our sailor dresses
— and we took great pains to have them neat and ship-
shape — were much admired, and we were invited, from
every quarter, to give them an American sailor's dance;
but after the ridiculous figure some of our countrymen
cut, in dancing after the Spaniards, we thought it best
to leave it to their imaginations. Our agent, with a tight,
black, swallow-tailed coat, just imported from Boston, a
high stiff cravat, looking as if he had been pinned and
skewered, with only his feet and hands left free, took
the floor just after Bandini ; and we thought they had had
enough of Yankee grace.
The last night they kept it up in great style, and were
getting into a high-go, when the captain called us off to
go aboard, for, it being south-easter season, he was afraid
to remain on shore long; and it was well he did not, for
that very night, we slipped our cables, as a crowner to our
fun ashore, and stood off before a south-easter, which lasted
twelve hours, and returned to our anchorage the next day.
CHAPTER XXVIII
An Old Friend — A Victim — California Rangers —
News from Home — Last Looks
MONDAY, Feb. ist. After having been in port
twenty-one days, we sailed for San Pedro, where we
arrived on the following day, having gone " all fluk-
ing," with the weather clew of the mainsail hauled up, the
yards braced in a little, and the lower studding-sails just
drawing; the wind hardly shifting a point during the passage.
Here we found the Ayacucho and the Pilgrim, which last
we had not seen since the nth of September, — nearly five
months ; and I really felt something like an affection for the
old brig which had been my first home, and in which I had
spent nearly a year, and got the first rough and tumble
of a sea life. She, too, was associated, in my mind with
Boston, the wharf from which we sailed, anchorage in the
stream, leave-taking, and all such matters, which were now
to me like small links connecting me with another world,
which I had once been in, and which, please God, I might yet
see again. I went on board the first night, after supper;
found the old cook in the galley, playing upon the fife which
I had given him, as a parting present; had a hearty shake
of the hand from him ; and dove down into the forecastle,
where were my old shipmates, the same as ever, glad to
see me ; for they had nearly given us up as lost, especially
when they did not find us in Santa Barbara. They had
been at San Diego last, had been lying at San Pedro nearly
a month, and had received three thousand hides from the
pueblo. These were taken from her the next day, which
filled us up, and we both got under weigh on the 4th, she
bound up to San Francisco again, and we to San Diego,
where we arrived on the 6th.
We were always glad to see San Diego; it being the
* 252
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 253
depot, and a snug little place, and seeming quite like home,
especially to me, who had spent a summer there. There
was no vessel in port, the Rosa having sailed for Valpa-
raiso and Cadiz, and the Catalina for Callao, nearly a month
before. We discharged our hides, and in four days were
ready to sail again for the windward ; and, to our great
joy — for the last time! Over thirty thousand hides had
been already collected, cured, and stowed away in the house,
which, together with what we should collect, and the Pil-
grim would bring down from San Francisco, would make
out her cargo. The thought that we were actually going
up for the last time, and that the next time we went round
San Diego point it would be " homeward bound," brought
things so near a close, that we felt as though we were just
there, though it must still be the greater part of a year
before we could see Boston.
I spent one evening, as had been my custom, at the
oven with the Sandwich Islanders ; but it was far from
being the usual noisy, laughing time. It has been said,
that the greatest curse to each of the South Sea islands,
was the first man who discovered it; and every one who
knows anything of the history of our commerce in those
parts, knows how much truth there is in this ; and that
the white men, \yith their vices, have brought in diseases
before unknown to the islanders, and which are now sweep-
ing off the native population of the Sandwich Islands, at
the rate of one fortieth of the entire population annually.
They seem to be a doomed people. The curse of a people
calling themselves Christian, seems to follow them every-
where; and even here, in this obscure place, lay two young
islanders, whom I had left strong, active young men, in
the vigor of health, wasting away under a disease, which
they would never have known but for their intercourse with
Christianized Mexico and people from Christian America.
One of them was not so ill ; and was moving about, smok-
ing his pipe, and talking, and trying to keep up his spirits;
but the other, who was my friend, and Aikane — Hope, was
the most dreadful object I had ever seen in my life: his
eyes sunken and dead, his cheeks fallen in against his
teeth, his hands looking like claws ; a dreadful cough, which
254 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
seemed to rack his whole shattered system, a hollow whis-
pering voice, and an entire inability to move himself.
There he lay, upon a mat, on the ground, which was the
only floor of the oven, with no medicine, no comforts,
and no one to care for, or help him, but a few Kanakas,
who were willing enough, but could do nothing. The
sight of him made me sick, and faint. Poor fellow ! Dur-
ing the four months that I lived upon the beach, we were
continually together, both in work, and in our excursions
in the woods, and upon the water. I really felt a strong
affection for him, and preferred him to any of my own
countrymen there; and I believe there was nothing which
he would not have done for me. When I came into the
oven he looked at me, held out his hand, and said, in a low
voice, but with a delightful smile, "Aloha, Aikane ! Aloha
nui! " I comforted him as well as I could, and promised
to ask the captain to help him from the medicine-chest,
and told him I had no doubt the captain would do what
he could for him, as he had worked in our employ for
several years, both on shore and aboard our vessels on the
coast. I went aboard and turned into my hammock, but
I could not sleep.
Thinking, from my education, that I must have some
knowledge of medicine, the Kanakas had insisted upon
my examining him carefully; and it was not a sight to
be forgotten. One of our crew, an old man-of-war's man,
of twenty years' standing, who had seen sin and suffering
in every shape, and whom I afterwards took to see Hope,
said it was dreadfully worse than anything he had ever seen,
or even dreamed of. He was horror-struck, as his counte-
nance showed ; yet he had been among the worst cases in our
naval hospitals. I could not get the thought of the poor
fellow out of my head all night ; his horrible suffering, and
his apparently inevitable, horrible end.
The next day I told the captain of Hope's state, and
asked him if he would be so kind as to go and see him.
" What? a d d Kanaka? "
" Yes, sir," said I ; " but he has worked four years for our
vessels, and has been in the employ of our owners, both on
shore and aboard."
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 255
" Oh ! he be d d ! " said the captain, and walked off.
This same man died afterwards of a fever on the deadly
coast of Sumatra; and God grant he had better care taken
of him in his sufferings, than he ever gave to any one else !
Finding nothing was to be got from the captain, I consulted
an old shipmate, who had much experience in these matters,
and got from him a recipe, which he always kept by him.
With this I went to the mate, and told him the case. Mr.
Brown had been entrusted with the general care of the
medicine-chest, and although a driving fellow, and a taught
hand in a watch, he had good feelings, and was always in-
clined to be kind to the sick. He said that Hope was not
strictly one of the crew, but as he was in our employ when
taken sick, he should have the medicines ; and he got them
and gave them to me, with leave to go ashore at night.
Nothing could exceed the delight of the Kanakas, when I
came bringing the medicines. All their terms of affection
and gratitude were spent upon me, and in a sense wasted,
(for I could not understand half of them,) yet they made all
known by their manner. Poor Hope was so much revived
at the bare thought of anything's being done for him. that
he was already stronger and better. I knew he must die as
he was, and he could but die under the medicines, and any
chance was worth running. An oven, exposed to every wind
and change of weather, is no place to take calomel ; but noth-
ing else would do, and strong remedies must be used, or he
was gone. The applications, internal and external, were
powerful, and I gave him strict directions to keep warm and
sheltered, telling him it was his only chance for life. Twice,
after this, I visited him, having only time to run up, while
waiting in the boat. He promised to take his medicines
regularly until we returned, and insisted upon it that he was
doing better.
We got under weigh on the loth, bound up to San Pedro,
and had three days of calm and head winds, making but little
progress. On the fourth, we took a stiff south-easter, which
obliged us to reef our topsails. While on the yard, we saw a
sail on the weather bow, and in about half an hour, passed
the Ayacucho, under double-reefed topsails, beating down to
San Diego. Arrived at San Pedro on the fourth day, and
258 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
came-to in the old place, a league from shore, with no other
vessel in port, and the prospect of three weeks, or more, of
dull life, rolling goods up a slippery hill, carrying hides on
our heads over sharp stones, and, perhaps, slipping for a
south-easter.
There was but one man in the only house here, and him
I shall always remember as a good specimen of a California
ranger. He had been a tailor in Philadelphia, and getting
intemperate and in debt, he joined a trapping party and went
to the Columbia river, and thence down to Monterey, where
he spent everything, left his party, and came to the Pueblo de
los Angelos, to work at his trade. Here he went dead to
leeward among the pulperias, gambling rooms, etc., and came
down to San Pedro, to be moral by being out of temptation.
He had been in the house several weeks, working hard at
his trade, upon orders which he had brought with him, and
talked much of his resolution, and opened his heart to us
about his past life. After we had been here some time, he
started off one morning, in fine spirits, well dressed, to carry
the clothes which he had been making to the pueblo, and say-
ing he would bring back his money and some fresh orders
the next day. The next day came, and a week passed, and
nearly a fortnight, when, one day, going ashore, we saw a
tall man, who looked like our friend the tailor, getting out
of the back of an Indian's cart, which had just come down
from the pueblo. He stood for the house, but we bore up
after him ; when finding that we were overhauling him, he
hove-to and spoke us. Such a sight I never saw before.
Barefooted, with an old pair of trowsers tied round his waist
by a piece of green hide, a soiled cotton shirt, and a torn
Indian hat ; " cleaned out," to the last real, and completely
"used up." He confessed the whole matter; acknowledged
that he was on his back; and now he had a prospect of a fit
of the horrors for a week, and of being worse than useless
for months. This is a specimen of the life of half of the
Americans and English who are adrift over the whole of
California. One of the same stamp was Russell, who was
master of the hide-house at San Diego, while I was there,
and afterwards turned away for his misconduct. He spent
his own money and nearly all the stores among the half-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 257
bloods upon the beach, and being turned away, went up to
the Presidio, where he lived the Hfe of a desperate " loafer,"
until some rascally deed sent him off '' between two days,"
with men on horseback, dogs, and Indians in full cry after
him, among the hills. One night, he burst into our room at
the hide-house, breathless, pale as a ghost, covered with
mud, and torn by thorns and briers, nearly naked, and
begged for a crust of bread, saying he had neither eaten nor
slept for three days. Here was the great Mr. Russell, who
a month before was " Don Tomas," " Capitan de la playa,"
" Maestro de la casa," etc., etc., begging food and shelter of
Kanakas and sailors. He staid with us till he gave himself
up, and was dragged off to the calabozo.
Another, and a more amusing specimen, was one whom
we saw at San Francisco. He had been a lad on board the
ship California, in one of her first voyages, and ran away
and commenced Ranchero, gambling, stealing horses, etc.
He worked along up to San Francisco, and was living on a
rancho near there, while we were in port. One morning,
when we went ashore in the boat, we found him at the
landing-place, dressed in California style, — a wide hat, faded
velveteen trowsers, and a blanket cloak thrown over his
shoulders — and wishing to go off in the boat, saying he was
going to pasear with our captain a little. We had many
doubts of the reception he would meet with; but he seemed
to think himself company for any one. We took him
aboard, landed him at the gangway, and went about our
work, keeping an eye upon the quarter-deck, where the
captain was walking. The lad went up to him with the most
complete assurance, and raising his hat, wished him a good
afternoon. Captain T turned round, looked at him from
head to foot, and saying coolly, " Hallo ! who the h are
you ? " kept on his walk. This was a rebuff not to be mis-
taken, and the joke passed about among the crew by winks
and signs, at different parts of the ship. Finding himself
disappointed at headquarters, he edged along forward to
the mate, who was overseeing some work on the forecastle,
and tried to begin a yarn ; but it would not do. The mate
had seen the reception he had met with aft, and would
have no cast-off company. The second mate was aloft, and
I — VOL. XXIII HC
2S8 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the third mate and myself were painting the quarter-boat,
which hung by the davits, so he betook himself to us ; but
we looked at one another, and the officer was too busy to
say a word. From us, he went to one and another of the
crew, but the joke had got before him, and he found every-
body busy and silent. Looking over the rail a few moments
afterward, we saw him at the galley-door talking to the
cook. This was a great comedown, from the highest seat
in the synagogue to a seat in the galley with the black
cook. At night, too, when supper was called, he stood in
the waist for some time, hoping to be asked down with the
officers, but they went below, one after another, and left
him. His next chance was with the carpenter and sail-
maker, and he lounged round the after hatchway until the
last had gone down. We had now had fun enough out of
him, and taking pity on him, offered him a pot of tea, and a
cut at the kid, with the rest, in the forecastle. He was
hungry, and it was growing dark, and he began to see that
there was no use in playing the caballero any longer, and
came down into the forecastle, put into the " grub " in
sailor's style, threw off all his airs, and enjoyed the joke
as much as any one: for a man must take a joke among
sailors. He gave us the whole account of his adventures in
the country, — roguery and all — and was very entertaining.
He was a smart, unprincipled fellow, was at the bottom of
most of the rascally doings of the country, and gave us a
great deal of interesting information in the ways of the
world we were in.
Saturday, Feb. isth. Were called up at midnight to slip
for a violent north-easter, for this rascally hole of San
Pedro is unsafe in every wind but a south-wester, which
is seldom known to blow more than once in a half century.
We went off with a flowing sheet, and hove-to under the lee
of Catalina island, where we lay three days, and then re-
turned to our anchorage.
Tuesday, Feb. 2^d. This afternoon, a signal was made
from the shore, and we went off in the gig, and found
the agent's clerk, who had been up to the pueblo, waiting at
the landing-place, with a package under his arm, covered
with brown paper, and tied carefully with twine. No
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 2S9
sooner had we shoved off than he told us there was good news
from Santa Barbara. " What's that ? " said one of the
crew ; " has the bloody agent slipped off the hooks ? Has
the old bundle of bones got him at last?" — "No; better
than that. The California has arrived." Letters, papers,
news, and, perhaps, — friends, on board ! Our hearts were
all up in our mouths, and we pulled away like good fellows ;
for the precious packet could not be opened except by the
captain. As we pulled under the stern, the clerk held up
the package, and called out to the mate, who was leaning
over the taft'rail, that the California had arrived.
" Hurrah ! " said the mate, so as to be heard fore and
aft; "California come, and news from Boston!"
Instantly there was a confusion on board which no one
could account for who has not been in the same situation.
All discipline seemed for a moment relaxed.
" What's that, Mr. Brown ? " said the cook, putting his
head out of the galley — "California come?"
" Aye, aye ! you angel of darkness, and there's a letter for
you from Bullknop 'treet, number two-two-five — green door
and brass knocker ! "
The packet was sent down into the cabin, and every one
waited to hear of the result. As nothing came up, the offi-
cers began to feel that they were acting rather a child's part,
and turned the crew to again and the same strict discipline
was restored, which prohibits speech between man and man,
while at work on deck ; so that, when the steward came for-
ward with letters for the crew, each man took his letters,
carried them below to his chest, and came up again imme-
diately ; and not a letter was read until we had cleared up
decks for the night.
An overstrained sense of manliness is the characteristic
of seafaring men, or, rather, of life on board ship. This
often gives an appearance of want of feeling, and even of
cruelty. From this, if a man comes within an ace of break-
ing his neck and escapes, it is made a joke of ; and no notice
must be taken of a bruise or cut ; and any expression of
pity, or any show of attention, would look sisterly, and un-
becoming a man who has to face the rough and tumble of
such a life. From this, too, the sick are neglected at sea,
260 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
and whatever sailors may be ashore, a sick man finds little
sympathy or attention, forward or aft. A man, too, can
have nothing peculiar or sacred on board ship ; for all the
nicer feelings they take pride in disregarding, both in them-
selves and others. A thin-skinned man could not live an
hour on ship-board. One would be torn raw unless he had
the hide of an ox. A moment of natural feeling for home
and friends, and then the frigid routine of sea-life returned.
Jokes were made upon those who showed any interest in
the expected news, and everything near and dear was made
common stock for rude jokes and unfeeling coarseness, to
which no exception could be taken by any one.
Supper, too, must be eaten before the letters were read;
and when, at last, they were brought out, they all got round
any one who had a letter, and expected to have it read
aloud, and have it all in common. If any one went by
himself to read, it was — •" Fair play, there ; and no skulk-
ing ! " I took mine and went into the sailmaker's berth,
where I could read it without interruption. It was dated
August, just a year from the time I had sailed from home;
and every one was well, and no great change had taken
place. Thus, for one year, my mind was set at ease, yet it
was already six months from the date of the letter, and
what another year would bring to pass, who could tell?
Every one away -"^rom home thinks that some great thing
must have happened, while to those at home there seems
to be a continued monotony and lack of incident.
As much as my feelings were taken up by my own intel-
ligence from home, I could not but be amused by a scene in
the steerage. The carpenter had been married just before
leaving Boston, and during the voyage had talked much
about his wife, and had to bear and forbear, as every man,
known to be married, must, aboard ship; yet the certainty
of hearing from his wife by the first ship, seemed to keep
up his spirits. The California came, the packet was brought
on board ; no one was in higher spirits than he ; but when
the letters came forward, there was none for him. The
captain looked again, but there was no mistake. Poor
" Chips," could eat no supper. He was completely down
in the mouth, "Sails" (the sailmaker) tried to comfort
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 261
him, and told him he was a bloody fool to give up his grub
for any woman's daughter, and reminded him that he had
told him a dozen times that he'd never see or hear from
his wife again.
"Ah ! ". said " Chips," " you don't know what it is to have
a wife, and " —
" Don't I ? " said Sails ; and then came, for the hundredth
time, the story of his coming ashore at New York, from
the Constellation frigate, after a cruise of four years round
the Horn, — being paid off with over five hundred dollars, —
marrying, and taking a couple of rooms in a four-story
house, — furnishing the rooms, (with a particular account
of the furniture, including a dozen flag-bottomed chairs,
which he always dilated upon, whenever the subject of fur-
niture was alluded to,) — going off to sea again, leaving his
wife half-pay, like a fool, — coming home and finding her
"off, like Bob's horse, with nobody to pay the reckoning;"
furniture gone, — flag-bottomed chairs and all ; — and with
it, his " long togs," the half-pay, his beaver hat, white linen
shirts, and everything else. His wife he never saw, or
heard of, from that day to this, and never wished to. Then
followed a sweeping assertion, not much to the credit of
the sex, if true, though he has Pope to back him. " Come,
Chips, cheer up like a man, and take some hot grub ! Don't
be made a fool of by anything in petticoats ! As for your
wife, you'll never see her again ; she was ' up keeleg and off '
before you were outside of Cape Cod. You hove your
money away like a fool; but every man must learn once, just
as I did; so you'd better square the yards with her, and
make the best of it."
This was the best consolation " Sails " had to offer, but
it did not seem to be just the thing the carpenter wanted;
for, during several days, he was very much dejected, and
bore with difficulty the jokes of the sailors, and with still
more difficulty their attempts at advice and consolation, of
most of which the sailmaker's was a good specimen.
Thursday, Feb. 2^th. Set sail for Santa Barbara, where
we arrived on Sunday, the 28th. We just missed of seeing
the California, for she had sailed three days before, bound
to Monterey, to enter her cargo and procure her license, and
262 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
thence to San Francisco, etc. Captain Arthur left files of
Boston papers for Captain T , which, after they had
been read and talked over in the cabin, I procured from my
friend the third mate. One file was of all the Boston
Transcripts for the month of August, 1835, and the rest
were about a dozen Daily Advertisers and Couriers, of dif-
ferent dates. After all, there is nothing in a strange land
like a newspaper from home. Even a letter, in many re-
spects, is nothing, in comparison with it. It carries you
back to the spot, better than anything else. It is almost
equal to clairvoyance. The names of the streets, with the
things advertised, are almost as good as seeing the signs;
and while reading " Boy lost ! " one can almost hear the
bell and well-known voice of " Old Wilson," crying the
boy as " strayed, stolen, or mislaid ! " Then there was the
Commencement at Cambridge, and the full account of the
exercises at the graduating of my own class. A list of all
those familiar names, (beginning as usual with Abbot, and
ending with W.,) which, as I read them over, one by one,
brought up their faces and characters as I had known them
in the various scenes of college life. Then I imagined them
upon the stage, speaking their orations, dissertations, col-
loquies, etc., with the gestures and tones of each, and tried
to fancy the manner in which each would handle his sub-
ject,* * * * * ^ handsome, showy, and superficial;* * * *,
with his strong head, clear brain, cool self-possession;
*****, modest, sensitive, and underrated; * * * * *^ the
mouth-piece of the debating clubs, noisy, vaporous, and
democratic ; and so following. Then I could see them receiv-
ing their A. Bs. from the dignified, feudal-looking President,
with his " auctoritate mihi commissa," and walking off the
stage with their diplomas in their hands ; while upon the
very same day, their classmate was walking up and down
California beach with a hide upon his head.
Every watch below, for a week, I pored over these papers,
until I was sure there could be nothing in them that had
escaped my attention, and was ashamed to keep them any
longer.
Saturday, March §th. This was an important day in our
almanac, for it was on this day that we were first assured
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 263
that our voyage was really drawing to a close. The captain
gave orders to have the ship ready for getting under weigh ;
and observed that there was a good breeze to take us down
to San Pedro. Then we were not going up to windward.
Thus much was certain, and was soon known, fore and aft;
and when we went in the gig to take him off, he shook
hands with the people on the beach, and said that he never
expected to see Santa Barbara again. This settled the mat-
ter, and sent a thrill of pleasure through the heart of every
one in the boat. We pulled off with a will, saying to our-
selves (I can speak for myself at least) — " Good-by, Santa
Barbara ! — This is the last pull here — No more duckings in
your breakers, and slipping from your cursed south-
easters ! " The news was soon known aboard, and put life
into everything when we were getting under weigh. Each
one was taking his last look at the mission, the town, the
breakers on the beach, and swearing that no money would
make him ship to see them again ; and when all hands tallied
on to the cat-fall, the chorus of " Time for us to go ! " was
raised for the first time, and joined in, with full swing, by
everybody. One would have thought we were on our voyage
home, so near did it seem to us, though there were yet three
months for us on the coast.
We left here the young Englishman, George Marsh, of
whom I have before spoken, who was wrecked upon the
Pelew Islands. He left us to take the berth of second mate
on board the Ayacucho, which was lying in port. He was
well qualified for this, and his education would enable him
to rise to any situation on board ship. I felt really sorry to
part from him. There was something about him which
excited my curiosity; for I could not, for a moment, doubt
that he was well born, and, in early life, well bred. There
was the latent gentleman about him, and the sense of honor,
and no little of the pride, of a young man of good family.
The situation was offered him only a few hours before we
sailed; and though he must give up returning to America,
yet I have no doubt that the change from a dog's berth to
an officer's, was too agreeable to his feelings to be declined.
We pulled him on board the Ayacucho, and when he left
the boat he gave each of its crew a piece of money, except
264 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
myself, and shook hands with me, nodding his head, as much
as to say, — " We understand one another," and sprang on
board. Had I known, an hour sooner, that he was to leave
us, I would have made an effort to get from him the true
history of his early life. He knew that I had no faith in the
story which he told the crew, and perhaps, in the moment
of parting from me, probably forever, he would have given
me the true account. Whether I shall ever meet him again,
or whether his manuscript narrative of his adventures in
the Pelew Islands, which would be creditable to him and
interesting to the world, will ever see the light, I cannot tell.
His is one of those cases which are more numerous than
those suppose, who have never lived anywhere but in their
own homes, and never walked but in one line from their
cradles to their graves. We must come down from our
heights, and leave our straight paths, for the byways and
low places of life, if we would learn truths by strong con-
trasts ; and in hovels, in forecastles, and among our own
outcasts in foreign lands, see what has been wrought upon
our fellow-creatures by accident, hardship, or vice.
Two days brought us to San Pedro, and two days more
(to our no small joy) gave us our last view of that place,
which was universally called the hell of California, and
seemed designed, in every way, for the wear and tear of
sailors. Not even the last view could bring out one feeling
of regret. No thanks, thought I, as we left the sandy shores
in the distance, for the hours I have walked over your
stones, barefooted, with hides on my head ; — for the burdens
I have carried up your steep, muddy hill ; — for the duckings
in your surf ; and for the long days and longer nights passed
on your desolate hill, watching piles of hides, hearing the
sharp bark of your eternal coati, and the dismal hooting
of your owls.
As I bade good-by to each successive place, I felt as
though one link after another were struck from the chain
of my servitude. Having kept close in shore, for the land-
breeze, we passed the mission of San Juan Campestrano
the same night, and saw distinctly, by the bright moonUght,
the hill which I had gone down by a pair of halyards in
search of a few paltry hides. " Forsan et hsec olim,"
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 265
thought I, and took my last look of that place too. And on
the next morning we were under the high point of San
Diego. The flood tide took us swiftly in, and we came-to,
opposite our hide-house, and prepared to get everything in
trim for a long stay. This was our last port. Here we
were to discharge everything from the ship, clean her out,
smoke her, take in our hides, wood, water, etc., and set sail
for Boston. While all this was doing, we were to lie still
in one place, and the port was a safe one, and there was no
fear of south-easters. Accordingly, having picked out a
good berth, in the stream, with a good smooth beach op-
posite, for a landing-place and within two cables' length of
our hide-house, we moored ship, unbent all the sails, sent
down the top-gallant yards and all the studding-sail booms,
and housed the top-gallant masts. The boats were then
hove out, and all the sails, spare spars, the stores, the
rigging not rove, and, in fact, everything which was not in
daily use, sent ashore, and stowed away in the house. Then
went all our hides and horns, and we left hardly anything
in the ship but her ballast, and this we made preparation
to heave out, the next day. At night, after we had knocked
ofif, and were sitting round in the forecastle, smoking and
talking and taking sailor's pleasure, we congratulated our-
selves upon being in that situation in which we had wished
ourselves every time we had come into San Diego. "If we
were only here for the last time," we had often said, " with
our top-gallant masts housed and our sails unbent ! " — and
now we had our wish. Six weeks, or two months, of the
hardest work we had yet seen, was before us, and then—
" Good-by to California ! "
CHAPTER XXIX
Loading for Home — A Surprise — Last of an Old Friend —
The Last Hide — A Hard Case — Up Anchor, for
Home ! — Homeward Bound
WE TURNED-IN early, knowing that we might
expect an early call ; and sure enough, before the
stars had quite faded, " All hands ahoy ! " and we
were turned-to, heaving out ballast. A regulation of the
port forbids any ballast to be thrown overboard; accord-
ingly, our long-boat was lined inside with rough boards and
brought alongside the gangway, but where one tub-full went
into the boat, twenty went overboard. This is done by every
vessel, for the ballast can make but little difference in the
channel, and it saves more than a week of labor, which
would be spent in loading the boats, rowing them to the
point, and unloading them. When any people from the
Presidio were on board, the boat was hauled up and ba.llast
thrown in ; but when the coast was clear, she was dropped
astern again, and the ballast fell overboard. This is one of
those petty frauds which every vessel practises in ports of
inferior foreign nations, and which are lost sight of, among^
the countless deeds of greater weight which are hardly less
common. Fortunately a sailor, not being a free agent in
work aboard ship, is not accountable ; yet the fact of being
constantly employed, without thought, in such things, begets
an indifference to the rights of others.
Friday, and a part of Saturday, we were engaged in this
work, until we had thrown out all but what we wanted
under our cargo on the passage home; when, as the next
day was Sunday, and a good day for smoking ship, we
cleared everything out of the cabin and forecastle, made a
slow fire of charcoal, birch bark, brimstone, and other mat-
ters, on the ballast in the bottom of the hold, calked up the
266
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 267
hatches and every open seam, and pasted over the cracks of
the windows, and the slides of the scuttles, and companion-
way. Wherever smoke was seen coming out, we calked and
pasted, and, so far as we could, made the ship smoke tight.
The captain and officers slept under the awning which was
spread over the quarter-deck ; and we stowed ourselves away
under an old studding-sail, which we drew over one side of
the forecastle. The next day, from fear that something
might happen, orders were given for no one to leave the
ship, and, as the decks were lumbered up with everything,
we could not wash them down, so we had nothing to do, all
day long. Unfortunately, our books were where we could
not get at them, and we were turning about for something
to do, when one man recollected a book he had left in the
galley. He went after it, and it proved to be Woodstock.
This was a great windfall, and as all could not read it at
once, I, being the scholar of the company, was appointed
reader. I got a knot of six or eight about me, and no one
could have had a more attentive audience. Some laughed
at the " scholars," and went over the other side of the fore-
castle, to work, and spin their yarns; but I carried the day,
and had the cream of the crew for my hearers. Many of
the reflections, and the political parts, I omitted, but all
the narrative they were delighted with; especially the de-
scriptions of the Puritans, and the sermons and harangues
of the Round-head soldiers. The gallantry of Charles, Dr.
Radcliffe's plots, the knavery of " trusty Tompkins," — in
fact, every part seemed to chain their attention. Many
things which, while I was reading, I had a misgiving about,
thinking them above their capacity, I was surprised to find
them enter into completely.
I read nearly all day, until sundown ; when, as soon as
supper was over, as I had nearly finished, they got a light
from the galley; and by skipping what was less interesting,
I carried them through to the marriage of Everard, and
the restoration of Charles the Second, before eight o'clock.
The next morning, we took the battens from the hatches,
and opened the ship. A few stifled rats were found; and
what bugs, cockroaches, fleas, and other vermin, there might
have been on board, must have unrove their life-lines before
268 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the hatches were opened. The ship being novr ready, we
covered the bottom of the hold over, fore and aft, with dried
brush for dunnage, and having levelled everything away,
we were ready to take in our cargo. All the hides that had
been collected since the California left the coast, (a little
more than two years,) amounting to about forty thousand,
were cured, dried, and stowed away in the house, waiting
for our good ship to take them to Boston.
Now began the operation of taking in our cargo, which
kept us hard at work, from the grey of the morning till
star-light, for six weeks, with the exception of Sundays,
and of just time to swallow our meals. To carry the work
on quicker, a division of labor was made. Two men threw
the hides down from the piles in the house, two more picked
them up and put them on a long horizontal pole, raised a
few feet from the ground, where they were beaten, by two
more, with flails, somewhat like those used in threshing
wheat. When beaten, they were taken from this pole by
two more, and placed upon a platform of boards ; and ten
or a dozen men, with their trowsers rolled up, were con-
stantly going, back and forth, from the platform to the boat,
which was kept off where she would just float, with the
hides upon their heads. The throwing the hides upon the
pole was the most difficult work, and required a sleight of
hand which was only to be got by long practice. As I was
known for a hide-curer, this post was assigned to me, and
I continued at it for six or eight days, tossing, in that time,
from eight to ten thousand hides, until my wrists became
so lame that I gave in; and was transferred to the gang that
was employed in filling the boats, where I remained for
the rest of the time. As we were obliged to carry the hides
on our heads from fear of their getting wet, we each had
a piece of sheepskin sewed into the inside of our hats, with
the wool next to our heads, and thus were able to bear the
weight, day after day, which would otherwise have soon
worn off our hair, and borne hard upon our skulls. Upon
the whole, ours was the best berth ; for though the water
was nipping cold, early in the morning and late at night,
and being so continually wet was rather an exposure, yet
we got rid of the constant dust and dirt from the beating of
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 269
the hides, and being all of us young and hearty, did not
mind the exposure. The older men of the crew, whom it
would have been dangerous to have kept in the water, re-
mained on board with the mate, to stow the hides away, as
fast as they were brought off by the boats.
We continued at work in this manner until the lower
hold was filled to within four feet of the beams, when all
hands were called aboard to commence stccving. As this is
a peculiar operation, it will require a minute description.
Before stowing the hides, as I have said, the ballast is
levelled off, just above the keelson, and then loose dunnage
placed upon it, on which the hides rest. The greatest care
is used in stowing, to make the ship hold as many hides as
possible. It is no mean art, and a man skilled in it is an
important character in California. Many a dispute have I
heard raging high between professed " beach-combers," as
to whether the hides should be stowed " shingling," or
" back-to-back, and flipper-to-flipper ; " upon which point
there was an entire and bitter division of sentiment among
the savans. We adopted each method at different periods
of the stowing, and parties ran high in the forecastle, some
siding with " old Bill " in favor of the former, and others
scouting him, and relying upon " English Bob " of the
Ayacucho, who had been eight years in California, and was
willing to risk his life and limb for the latter method. At
length a compromise was effected, and a middle course, of
shifting the ends and backs at every lay, was adopted,
which worked well, and which, though they held it inferior
to their own, each party granted was better than that of
the other.
Having filled the ship up, in this way, to within four
feet of her beams, the process of steeving commenced, by
which an hundred hides are got into a place where one
could not be forced by hand, and which presses the hides
to the utmost, sometimes starting the beams of the ship,
resembling in its effects the jack-screws which are used in
stowing cotton. Each morning we went ashore, and beat
and brought off as many hides as we could steeve in the
course of the day, and, after breakfast, went down into the
hold, where we remained at work until night. The whole
270 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
length of the hold, from stem to stern, was floored off level,
and we began with raising a pile in the after part, hard
against the bulkhead of the run, and filling it up to the
beams, crowding in as many as we could by hand and push-
ing in with oars; when a large "book" was made of from
twenty-five to fifty hides, doubled at the backs, and put into
one another, like the leaves of a book. An opening was
then made between two hides in the pile, and the back of
the outside hide of the book inserted. Two long, heavy
spars, called steeves, made of the strongest wood, and
sharpened off like a wedge at one end, were placed with
their wedge ends into the inside of the hide which was the
centre of the book, and to the other end of each, straps were
fitted, into which large tackles were hooked, composed each
of two huge purchase blocks, one hooked to the strap on the
end of the steeve, and the other into a dog, fastened into
one of the beams, as far aft as it could be got. When this
was arranged, and the ways greased upon which the book
was to slide, the falls of the tackles were stretched forward,
and all hands tallied on, and bowsed away until the book
was well entered; when these tackles were nippered, straps
and toggles clapped upon the falls, and two more luff tackles
hooked on, with dogs, in the same manner ; and thus, by luff
upon luff, the power was multiplied, until into a pile in
which one hide more could not be crowded by hand, an
hundred or an hundred and fifty were often driven in by
this complication of purchases. When the last luff was
hooked on, all hands were called to the rope — cook, steward,
and all — and ranging ourselves at the falls, one behind the
other, sitting down on the hides, with our heads just even
with the beams, we set taught upon the tackles, and striking
up a song, and all lying back at the chorus, we bowsed the
tackles home, and drove the large books chock in out of
sight.
The sailor's songs for capstans and falls are of a peculiar
kind, having a chorus at the end of each line. The burden
is usually sung, by one alone, and, at the chorus, all hands
join in, — and the louder the noise, the better. With us,
the chorus seemed almost to raise the decks of the ship, and
might be heard at a great distance, ashore. A song is as
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 271
«jecessary to sailors as the drum and fife to a soldier. They
can't pull in time, or pull with a will, without it. Many
a time, when a thing goes heavy, with one fellow yo-ho-ing,
a lively song, like " Heave, to the girls ! " " Nancy oh ! "
" Jack Crosstree," etc., has put life and strength into every
arm. We often found a great difference in the effect of
the different songs in driving in the hides. Two or three
songs would be tried, one after the other, with no effect; —
not an inch could be got upon the tackles — when a new
song, struck up, seemed to hit the humor of the moment,
and drove the tackles " two blocks " at once. " Heave
round hearty ! " "Captain gone ashore ! " and the like,
might do for common pulls, but in an emergency, when we
wanted a heavy, " raise-the-dead " pull, which should start
the beams of the ship, there was nothing like " Time for us
to go ! " " Round the corner," or " Hurrah ! hurrah ! my
hearty bullies ! "
This was the most lively part of our work. A little boat-
ing and beach work in the morning; then twenty or thirty
men down in a close hold, where we were obliged to sit
down and slide about, passing hides, and rowsing about the
great steeves, tackles, and dogs, singing out at the falls, and
seeing the ship filling up every day. The work was as hard
as it could well be. There was not a moment's cessation
from Monday morning till Saturday night, when we were
generally beaten out, and glad to have a full night's rest, a
wash and shift of clothes, and a quiet Sunday. During all
this time, — which would have startled Dr. Graham — we
lived upon almost nothing but fresh beef; fried beefsteaks,
three times a day, — morning, noon, and night. At morn-
ing and night we had a quart of tea to each man; and an
allowance of about a pound of hard bread a day; but our
chief article of food was the beef. A mess, consisting of six
men, had a large wooden kid piled up with beefsteaks, cut
thick, and fried in fat, with the grease poured over them.
Round this we sat, attacking it with our jack-knives and
teeth, and with the appetite of young lions, and sent back
an empty kid to the galley. This was done three times a day.
How many pounds each man ate in a day, I will not at-
tempt to compute. A whole bullock (we ate liver and all)
272 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
lasted us but four days. Such devouring of flesh, I will
venture to say, was seldom known before. What one man
ate in a day, over a hearty man's allowance, would make a
Russian's heart leap into his mouth. Indeed, during all
the time we were upon the coast, our principal food was
fresh beef, and every man had perfect health ; but this was
a time of especial devouring; and what we should have
done without meat, I cannot tell. Once or twice, when our
bullocks failed and we were obliged to make a meal upon
dry bread and water, it seemed like feeding upon shavings.
Light and dry, feeling unsatisfied, and, at the same time,
full, we were glad to see four quarters of a bullock, just
killed, swinging from the fore-top. Whatever theories may
be started by sedentary men, certainly no men could have
gone through more hard work and exposure for sixteen
months in more perfect health, and without ailings and
failings, than our ship's crew, let them have lived upon
Hygeia's own baking and dressing.
Friday, April 15th. Arrived, brig Pilgrim, from the
windward. It was a sad sight for her crew to see us getting
ready to go off the coast, while they, who had been longer on
the coast than the Alert, were condemned to another year's
hard service. I spent an evening on board, and found them
making the best of the matter, and determined to rough it
out as they might; but my friend S was determined to
go home in the ship, if money or interest could bring it to
pass. After considerable negotiating and working, he suc-
ceeded in persuading my English friend, Tom Harris, —
my companion in the anchor watch — for thirty dollars,
some clothes, and an intimation from Captain Faucon that
he should want a second mate before the voyage was up, to
take his place in the brig as soon as she was ready to go up
to windward.
The first opportunity I could get to speak to Captain
Faucon, I asked him to step up to the oven and look at
Hope, whom he knew well, having had him on board his
vessel. He went to see him, but said that he had so little
medicine, and expected to be so long on the coast, that he
could do nothing for him, but that Captain Arthur would
take care of him when he came down in the California,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 273
which would be in a week or more. I had been to see Hope
the first night after we got into San Diego this last time,
and had frequently since spent the early part of a night in
the oven. I hardly expected, when I left him to go to wind-
ward, to find him alive upon my return. He was certainly
as low as he could well be when I left him, and what would
be the effect of the medicines that I gave him. I hardly then
dared to conjecture. Yet I knew that he must die without
them. I was not a little rejoiced, therefore, and relieved,
upon our return, to see him decidedly better. The medi-
cines were strong, and took hold and gave a check to the
disorder which was destroying him; and, more than that,
they had begun the work of exterminating it. I shall never
forget the gratitude that he expressed. All the Kanakas
attributed his escape solely to my knowledge, and would not
be persuaded that I had not all the secrets of the physical
system open to me and under my control. My medicines,
however, were gone, and no more could be got from the
ship, so that his life was left to hang upon the arrival of
the California.
Sunday, April 24th. We had now been nearly seven
weeks in San Diego, and had taken in the greater part of
our cargo, and were looking out, every day, for the arrival
of the California, which had our agent on board; when, this
afternoon, some Kanakas, who had been over the hill for
rabbits and to fight rattlesnakes, came running down the
path, singing out, " Kail ho ! " with all their might. Mr.
H., our third mate, was ashore, and asking them particu-
larly about the size of the sail, etc., and learning that it
was " Moku — Nui Mokii," hailed our ship, and said that
the California was on the other side of the point. In-
stantly, all hands were turned up, the bow guns run out
and loaded, the ensign and broad pennant set, the yards
squared by lifts and braces, and everything got ready to
make a good appearance. The instant she showed her nose
round the point, we began our salute. She came in under
top-gallant sails, clewed up and furled her sails in good
order, and came-to, within good swinging distance of us.
It being Sunday, and nothing to do, all hands were on the
forecastle, criticising the new-comer. She was a good, sub-
274 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
stantial ship, not quite so long as the Alert, and wall-sided
and kettle-bottomed, after the latest fashion of south-shore
cotton and sugar wagons; strong, too, and tight, and a
good average sailor, but with no pretensions to beauty, and
nothing in the style of a " crack ship." Upon the whole,
we were perfectly satisfied that the Alert might hold up
her head with a ship twice as smart as she.
At night, some of us got a boat and went on board, and
found a large, roomy forecastle, (for she was squarer for-
ward than the Alert,) and a crew of a dozen or fifteen men
and boys, sitting around on their chests, smoking and talk-
ing, and ready to give a welcome to any of our ship's com-
pany. It was just seven months since they left Boston,
which seemed but yesterday to us. Accordingly, we had
much to ask, for though we had seen the newspapers that
she brought, yet these were the very men who had been in
Boston and seen everything with their own eyes. One of
the green-hands was a Boston boy, from one of the public
schools, and, of course, knew many things which we wished
to ask about, and on inquiring the names of our two Boston
boys, found that they had been schoolmates of his. Our
men had hundreds of questions to ask about Ann street,
the boarding-houses, the ships in port, the rate of wages,
and other matters.
Among her crew were two English man-of-war's-men, so
that, of course, we soon had music. They sang in the true
sailor's style, and the rest of the crew, which was a re-
markably musical one, joined in the choruses. They had
many of the latest sailor songs, which had not yet got about
among our merchantmen, and which they were very choice
of. They began soon after we came on board, and kept it
up until after two bells, when the second mate came for-
ward and called " the Alerts away ! " Battle-songs, drink-
ing-songs, boat-songs, love-songs, and everything else, they
seemed to have a complete assortment of, and I was glad
to find that " All in the Downs," " Poor Tom Bowline,"
" The Bay of Biscay," " List, ye Landsmen ! " and all
those classical songs of the sea, still held their places. In
addition to these, they had picked up at the theatres and
other places a few songs of a little more genteel cast, which
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 275
they were very proud of; and I shall never forget hearing
an old salt, who had broken his voice by hard drinking on
shore, and bellowing from the mast-head in a hundred
north-westers, with all manner of ungovernable trills and
quavers — in the high notes, breaking into a rough falsetto
— and in the low ones, growling along like the dying away
of the boatswain's " all hands ahoy ! " down the hatch-way,
singing, " Oh no, we never mention him."
" Perhaps, like me, he struggles with
Each feeling of regret ;
But if he's loved as I have loved.
He never can forget ! "
The last line, being the conclusion, he roared out at the
top of his voice, breaking each word up into half a dozen
syllables. This was very popular, and Jack was called upon
every night to give them his " sentimental song." No one
called for it more loudly than I, for the complete absurdity
of the execution, and the sailors' perfect satisfaction in it,
were ludicrous beyond measure.
The next day, the California commenced unloading het
cargo; and her boats' crews, in coming and going, sang
their boat-songs, keeping time with their oars. This they
did all day long for several days, until their hides were all
discharged, when a gang of them were sent on board the
Alert, to help us steeve our hides. This was a windfall
for us, for they had a set of new songs for the capstan and
fall, and ours had got nearly worn out by six weeks' con-
stant use. I have no doubt that this timely reinforcement
of songs hastened our work several days.
Our cargo was now nearly all taken in ; and my old
friend, the Pilgrim, having completed her discharge, un-
moored, to set sail the next morning on another long trip
to windward. I was just thinking of her hard lot, and
congratulating myself upon my escape from her, when I
received a summons into the cabin. I went aft, and there
found, seated round the cabin table, my own captain, Cap-
tain Faucon of the Pilgrim, and Mr. R , the agent.
Captcin T turned to me and asked abruptly —
" D — ^-, do you want to go home in the ship ? "
276 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
" Certainly, sir," said I ; *' I expect to go home in the
ship."
" Then," said he, " you must get some one to go in your
place on board the Pilgrim."
I was so completely " taken aback " by this sudden
intimation, that for a moment I could make no reply. I
knew that it would be hopeless to attempt to prevail upon
any of the ship's crew to take twelve months more upon
the California in the brig. I knew, too, that Captain T
had received orders to bring me home in the Alert, and he
had told me, when I was at the hide-house, that I was to go
home in her; and even if this had not been so, it was cruel
to give me no notice of the step they were going to take,
until a few hours before the brig would sail. As soon as
I had got my wits about me, I put on a bold front, and told
him plainly that I had a letter in my chest informing me
that he had been written to, by the owners in Boston, to
bring me home in the ship, and moreover, that he had told
me that I was to go in the ship.
To have this told him, and to be opposed in such a
manner, was more than my lord paramount had been
used to.
He turned fiercely upon me, and tried to look me down,
and face me out of my statement; but finding that that
wouldn't do, and that I was entering upon my defence in
such a way as would show to the other two that he was in
the wrong, — he changed his ground, and pointed to the
shipping papers of the Pilgrim, from which my name had
never been erased, and said that there was my name, — that
I belonged to her, — that he had an absolute discretionary
power, — and, in short, that I must be on board the Pilgrim
by the next morning with my chest and hammock, or have
some one ready to go in my place, and that he would not
hear another word from me. No court or star chamber
could proceed more summarily with a poor devil, than this
trio was about to do with me ; condemning me to a punish-
ment worse than a Botany Bay exile, and to a fate which
would alter the whole current of my future life; for two
years more in California would have made me a sailor for
the rest of my days. I felt all this, and saw the necessity
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 277
of being determined. I repeated what I had said, and in-
sisted upon my right to return in the ship.
I " raised my arm, and tauld my crack,
Before them a'."
But it would have all availed me nothing, had I been
" some poor body," before this absolute, domineering tri-
bunal. But they saw that I would not go, unless " vi et
armis," and they knew that I had friends and interest
enough at home to make them suffer for any injustice they
might do me. It was probably this that turned the
matter; for the captain changed his tone entirely, and
asked me if, in case any one went in my place, I would give
him the same sum that S gave Harris to exchange
with him. I told him that if any one was sent on board
the brig, I should pity him, and be willing to help him to
that, or almost any amount; but would not speak of it as
an exchange.
"Very well," said he. "Go forward about your business,
and send English Ben here to me !"
I went forward with a light heart, but feeling as angry,
and as much contempt as I could well contain between my
teeth. English Ben was sent aft, and in a few moments
came forward, looking as though he had received his sen-
tence to be hung. The captain had told him to get his
things ready to go on board the brig the next morning; and
that I would give him thirty dollars and a suit of clothes.
The hands had " knocked off " for dinner, and were stand-
ing about the forecastle, when Ben came forward and told
his story. I could see plainly that it made a great excite-
ment, and that, unless I explained the matter to them, the
feeling would be turned against me. Ben was a poor En-
glish boy, a stranger in Boston, and without friends or
money; and being an active, willing lad, and a good sailor
for his years, was a general favorite. "Oh, yes !" said the
crew, "the captain has let you off, because you are a
gentleman's son, and have got friends, and know the own-
ers ; and taken Ben, because he is poor, and has got nobody
to say a word for him !" I knew that this was too true to
be answered, but I excused myself from any blame, and
278 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
told them that I had a right to go home, at all events.
This pacified them a little, but Jack had got a notion that
a poor lad was to be imposed upon, and did not distinguish
very clearly; and though I knew that I was in no fault,
and, in fact, had barely escaped the grossest injustice, yet
I felt that my berth was getting to be a disagreeable one.
The notion that I was not "one of them," which, by a
participation in all their labor and hardships, and having
no favor shown me, had been laid asleep, was beginning to
revive. But far stronger than any feeling for myself,
was the pity I felt for the poor lad. He had depended
upon going home in the ship; and from Boston, was going
immediately to Liverpool, to see his friends. Beside this,
. having begun the voyage with very few clothes, he had
taken up the greater part of his wages in the slop-chest,
and it was every day a losing concern to him ; and, like all
the rest of the crew, he had a hearty hatred of California,
and the prospect of eighteen months or two years more of
hide-droghing seemed completely to break down his spirit.
I had determined not to go myself, happen what would,
and I knew that the captain would not dare to attempt to
force me. I knew, too, that the two captains had agreed
together to get some one, and that unless I could prevail
upon somebody to go voluntarily, there would be no help
for Ben. From this consideration, though I had said that
I would have nothing to do with an exchange, I did my
best to get some one to go voluntarily. I offered to give
an order upon the owners in Boston for six month's wages,
and also all the clothes, books, and other matters, which I
should not want upon the voyage home. When this offer
was published in the ship, and the case of poor Ben was set
forth in strong colors, several, who would not have dreamed
of going themselves, were busy in talking it up to others,
who, they thought, might be tempted to accept it; and, at
length, one fellow, a harum-scarum lad, whom we called
Harry Bluff, and who did not care what country or ship he
was in, if he had clothes enough and money enough —
partly from pity for Ben, and partly from the thought he
should have "cruising money" for the rest of his stay, —
came forward, and offered to go and "sling his hammock in
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 279
the bloody hooker." Lest his purpose should cool, I signed
an order for the sum upon the owners in Boston, gave him
all the clothes I could spare, and sent him aft to the
captain, to let him know what had been done. The skipper
accepted the exchange, and was, doubtless, glad to have it
pass off so easily. At the same time he cashed the order,
which was endorsed to him/ and the next morning, the
lad went aboard the brig, apparently in good spirits, having
shaken hands with each of us and wished us a pleasant
passage home, jingling the money in his pockets, and call-
ing out, "Never say die, while there's a shot in the locker."
The same boat carried off Harris, my old watchmate, who
had previously made an exchange with my friend S .
I was sorry to part with Harris. Nearly two hundred
hours (as we had calculated it) had we walked the ship's
deck together, at anchor watch, when all hands were below,
and talked over and over every subject which came within
the ken of either of us. He gave me a strong gripe with
his hand ; and I told him, if he came to Boston again, not
to fail to find me out, and let me see an old watchmate.
The same boat brought on board S , my friend, who
had begun the voyage with me from Boston, and, like me,
was going back to his family and to the society which we
had been born and brought up in. We congratulated one
another upon finding what we had long talked over and
wished for, thus brought about ; and none on board the ship
were more glad than ourselves to see the old brig standing
round the point, under full sail. As she passed abreast of
us, we all collected in the waist, and gave her three loud,
hearty cheers, waving our hats in the air. Her crew sprang
into the rigging and chains, answered us with three as loud,
to which we, after the nautical custom, gave one in return.
I took my last look of their familiar faces as they got over
the rail, and saw the old black cook put his head out of the
galley, and wave his cap over his head. The crew flew
aloft to loose the top-gallant sails and royals; the two cap-
tains waved their hands to one another; and, in ten min-
1 When the crew were paid off in Boston, the owners answered the order,
. but generously refused to deduct the amount from the pay-roll, saying that
i the exchange was made under compulsion. They also allowed S his
. exchange money.
280 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
utes, we saw the last inch of her white canvas, as she
rounded the point.
Relieved as I was to see her well off, (and I felt like one
who had just sprung from an iron trap which was clos-
ing upon him) I had yet a feeling of regret at taking the
last look at the old craft in which I had spent a year, and
the first year, of my sailor's life — which had been my first
home in the new world into which I had entered — and
with which I had associated so many things, — my first
leaving home, my first crossing the equator. Cape Horn,
Juan Fernandez, death at sea, and other things, serious
and common. Yet, with all this, and the feeling I had
for my old shipmates, condemned to another term of Cali-
fornia life, the thought that we were done with it, and that
one week more would see us on our way to Boston, was a
cure for everything.
Friday, May 6th, completed the taking of our cargo,
and was a memorable day in our calendar. The time when
we were to take in our last hide, we had looked forward to,
for sixteen months, as the first bright spot. When the last
hide was stowed away, and the hatches calked down, the
tarpaulins battened on to them, the long-boat hoisted in
and secured, and the decks swept down for the night, —
the chief mate sprang upon the top of the long-boat, called
all hands into the waist, and giving us a signal by swinging
his cap over his head, — we gave three long, loud cheers,
which came from the bottom of our hearts, and made the
hills and valleys ring again. In a moment, we heard three,
in answer, from the California's crew, who had seen us
taking in our long-boat, and — " the cry they heard — its
meaning knew."
The last week, we had been occupied in taking in a
supply of wood and water for the passage home, and bring-
ing on board the spare spars, sails, etc. I was sent off with
a party of Indians to fill the water-casks, at a spring, about
three miles from the shipping, and near the town, and
was absent three days, living at the town, and spending the
daytime in filling the casks and transporting them on ox-
carts to the landing-place, whence they were taken on
board by the crew with boats. This being all done with,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 281
we gave one day to bending our sails; and at night, every
sail, from the courses to the skysails, was bent, and every
studding-sail ready for setting.
Before our sailing, an unsuccessful attempt was made
by one of the crew of the California to effect an exchange
with one of our number. It was a lad, between fifteen
and sixteen years of age, who went by the name of the
" reefer," having been a midshipman in an East India
Company's ship. His singular character and story had ex-
cited our interest ever since the ship came into the port.
He was a delicate, slender little fellow, with a beautiful
pearly complexion, regular features, forehead as white as
marble, black haired, curling beautifully, rounded, taper-
ing, delicate fingers, small feet, soft voice, gentle manners,
and, in fact, every sign of having been well born and bred.
At the same time there was something in his expression
which showed a slight deficiency of intellect. How great
the deficiency was, or what it resulted from; whether he
was born so ; whether it was the result of disease or ac-
cident ; or whether, as some said, it was brought on by
his distress of mind, during the voyage, I cannot say.
From his own account of himself, and from many cir-
cumstances which were known in connection with his
story, he must have been the son of a man of wealth.
His mother was an Italian woman. He was probably
a natural son, for in scarcely any other way could the
incidents of his early life be accounted for. He said
that his parents did not live together, and he seemed to
have been ill treated by his father. Though he had been
delicately brought up, and indulged in every way, (and
he had then with him trinkets which had been given him
at home,) yet his education had been sadly neglected; and
when only twelve years old, he was sent as midshipman
in the Company's service. His own story was, that he
afterwards ran away from home, upon a difficulty which he
had with his father, and went to Liverpool, whence he
sailed in the ship Rialto, Captain Holmes, for Boston.
Captain Holmes endeavored to get him a passage back,
but there being no vessel to sail for some time, the boy left
him, and went to board at a common sailor's boarding-
282 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
house, in Ann street, where he supported himself for a
few weeks by selHng some of his valuables. At length,
according to his own account, being desirous of returning
home, he went to a shipping-office, where the shipping
articles of the California were open. Upon asking where
the ship was going, he was told by the shipping-master that
she was bound to California. Not knowing where that was,
he told him that he wanted to go to Europe, and asked if
California was in Europe. The shipping-master answered
him in a way which the boy did not understand, and ad-
vised him to ship. The boy signed the articles, received
his advance, laid out a little of it in clothes, and spent the
rest, and was ready to go on board, when, upon the morn-
ing of sailing, he heard that the ship was bound upon the
North-west Coast, on a two or three years' voyage, and was
not going to Europe. Frightened at this prospect, he
slipped away when the crew was going aboard, wandered
up into another part of the town, and spent all the fore-
noon in straying about the common, and the neighboring
streets. Having no money, and all his clothes and other
things being in the chest, on board, and being a stranger,
he became tired and hungry, and ventured down toward the
shipping, to see if the vessel had sailed. He was just
turning the corner of a street, when the shipping-master,
who had been in search of him, popped upon him, seized
him, and carried him on board. He cried and struggled,
and said he did not wish to go in the ship, but the top-
sails were at the mast-head, the fasts just ready to be cast
off, and everything in the hurry and confusion of departure,
so that he was hardly noticed; and the few who did inquire
about the matter were told that it was merely a boy who
had spent his advance and tried to run away. Had the
owners of the vessel known anything of the matter, they
would have interfered at once; but they either knew noth-
ing of it, or heard, like the rest, that it was only an unruly
boy who was sick of his bargain. As soon as the boy found
himself actually at sea, and upon a voyage of two or three
years in length, his spirits failed him; he refused to work,
and became so miserable, that Captain Arthur took him
into the cabin, where he assisted the steward, and occasion-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 283
ally pulled and hauled about decks. He was in this capac-
ity when we saw him ; and though it was much better for
him than the life in the forecastle, and the hard work, watch-
ing, and exposure, which his delicate frame could not have
borne, yet, to be joined with a black fellow in waiting upon
a man whom he probably looked upon as but little, in
point of education and manners, above one of his father's
servants, was almost too much for his spirit to bear. Had
he entered upon his situation of his own free will, he could
have endured it; but to have been deceived, and, in addi-
tion to that, forced into it, was intolerable. He made every
effort to go home in our ship, but his captain refused to
part with him except in the way of exchange, and that he
could not effect. If this account of the whole matter,
which we had from the boy, and which was confirmed by
all the crew, be correct, I cannot understand why Captain
Arthur should have refused to let him go, especially being
a captain who had the name, not only with that crew, but
with all whom he had ever commanded, of an unusually
kind-hearted man. The truth is, the unlimited power
which merchant captains have, upon long voyages on
strange coasts, takes away a sense of responsibility, and too
often, even in men otherwise well-disposed, substitutes a
disregard for the rights and feelings of others. The lad
was sent on shore to join the gang at the hide-house; from
whence, I was afterwards rejoiced to hear, he effected his
escape, and went down to Callao in a small Spanish
schooner; and from. Callao, he probably returned to Eng-
land.
Soon after the arrival of the California, I spoke to Cap-
tain Arthur about Hope ; and as he had known him on the
voyage before, and was very fond of him, he immediately
went to see him, gave him proper medicines, and, under
such care, he began rapidly to recover. The Saturday
night before our sailing, I spent an hour in the oven, and
took leave of my Kanaka friends; and, really, this was the
only thing connected with leaving California which was in
any way unpleasant. I felt an interest and affection for
many of these simple, true-hearted men, such as I never
felt before but for a near relation. Hope shook me by the
284 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
hand, said he should soon be well again, and ready to work
for me when I came upon the coast, next voyage, as officer
of the ship; and told me not to forget, when I became
captain, how to be kind to the sick. Old "Mr. Bingham"
and " King Mannini " went down to the boat with me, shook
me heartily by the hand, wished us a good voyage, and
went back to the oven, chanting one of their deep monoto-
nous songs, the burden of which I gathered to be about us
and our voyage.
Sunday, May 8th. This promised to be our last day in
California. Our forty thousand hides, thirty thousand
horns, besides several barrels of otter and beaver skins,
were all stowed below, and the hatches calked down. All
our spare spars were taken on board and lashed ; our water-
casks secured; and our live stock, consisting of four bul-
locks, a dozen sheep, a dozen or more pigs, and three or
four dozen of poultry, were all stowed away in their dif-
ferent quarters : the bullocks in the long-boat, the sheep in
a pen on the fore-hatch, and the pigs in a sty under the
bows of the long-boat, and the poultry in their proper
coop ; and the jolly-boat was full of hay for the sheep
and bullocks. Our unusually large cargo, together with
the stores for a five months' voyage, brought the ship chan-
nels down into the water. In addition to this, she had been
steeved so thoroughly, and was so bound by the compression
of her cargo, forced into her by so powerful machinery, that
she was like a man in a straight-jacket, and would be but a
dull sailer, until she had worked herself loose.
The California had finished discharging her cargo, and
was to get under weigh at the same time with us. Having
washed down decks and got our breakfast, the two vessels
lay side by side, in complete readiness for sea, our ensigns
hanging from the peaks, and our tall spars reflected from
the glassy surface of the river, which, since sunrise, had
been unbroken by a ripple. At length, a few whiffs came
across the water, and, by eleven o'clock, the regular north-
west wind set steadily in. There was no need of calling
all hands, for we had all been hanging about the forecastle
the whole forenoon, and were ready for a start upon the
first sign of a breeze. All eyes were aft upon the captain,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 285
who was walking the deck, with, every now and then, a
look to windward. He made a sign to the mate, who came
forward, took his station, deliberately between the knight-
heads, cast a glance aloft, and called out, " All hands, lay
aloft and loose the sails ! " We were half in the rigging
before the order came, and never since we left Boston were
the gaskets off the yards, and the rigging overhauled, in
a shorter time. " All ready forward, sir ! " — " All ready
the main!" — "Cross-jack yards all ready, sir!" — "Lay
down, all hands but one on each yard ! " The yard-arm
and bunt gaskets were cast off; and each sail hung by the
jigger, with one man standing by the tie to let it go. At
the same moment that we sprang aloft, a dozen hands
sprang into the rigging of the California, and in an instant
were all over her yards ; and her sails, too, were ready
to be dropped at the word. In the mean time our bow gun
had been loaded and run out, and its discharge was to be
the signal for dropping sails. A cloud of smoke came
out of our bows; the echoes of the gun rattled our farewell
among the hills of California; and the two ships were
covered, from head to foot, with their white canvas. For
a few minutes, all was uproar and apparent confusion : men
flying about like monkeys in the rigging; ropes and blocks
fLying; orders given and answered, and the confused noises
of men singing out at the ropes. The top-sails came to
the mast-heads with "Cheerily, men !" and, in a few min-
utes, every sail was set; for the wind was light. The head
sails were backed, the windlass came round " slip — slap " to
the cry of the sailors; — "Hove short, sir," said the mate;
— "Up with him !" — "Aye, aye, sir." — A few hearty and
long heaves, and the anchor showed its head. "Hook
ca* ! " — The fall was stretched along the decks ; all hands
laid hold ; — " Hurrah, for the last time," said the mate ; and
the anchor came to the cat-head to the tune of " Time for
us to go," with a loud chorus. Everything was done quick,
as though it were for the last time. The head yards were
filled away, and our ship began to move through the water
on her homeward-bound course.
The California had got under weigh at the same mo-
ment ; and we sailed down the narrow bay abreast and were
286 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
just off the mouth, and finding ourselves gradually shooting
ahead of her, were on the point of giving her three parting
cheers, when, suddenly, we found ourselves stopped short,
and the California ranging fast ahead of us. A bar
stretches across the mouth of the harbor, with water enough
to float common vessels, but, being low in the water, and
having kept well to leeward, as we were bound to the south-
ward, we had stuck fast, while the California, being light,
had floated over.
We kept all sail on, in the hope of forcing over, but fail-
ing in this, we hove aback, and lay waiting for the tide,
which was on the flood, to take us back into the channel.
This was somewhat of a damper to us, and the captain
looked not a little mortified and vexed. "This is the same
place where the Rosa got ashore," observed the redheaded
second mate, most mal-a-propos. A malediction on the
Rosa, and him too, was all the answer he got, and he slunk
off to leeward. In a few minutes, the force of the wind and
the rising of the tide backed us into the stream, and we
were on our way to our old anchoring-place, the tide setting
swiftly up, and the ship barely manageable, in the light
breeze. We came-to, in our old berth, opposite the hide-
house, whose inmates were not a little surprised to see us
return. We felt as though we were tied to California; and
some of the crew swore that they never should get clear of
the bloody coast.
In about half an hour, which was near high water, the
order was given to man the windlass, and again the anchor
was catted; but not a word was said about the last time.
The California had come back on finding that we had re-
turned, and was hove-to, waiting for us, off the point.
This time we passed the bar safely, and were soon up with
the California, who filled away, and kept us company. She
seemed desirous of a trial of speed, and our captain accepted
the challenge, although we were loaded down to the bolts
of our chain plates, as deep as a sand-barge, and bound so
taught with our cargo that we were no more fit for a race
than a man in fetters; — while our antagonist was in her best
trim. Being clear of the point, the breeze became stiff, and
the royal masts bent under our sails, but we would not
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 287
take them in until we saw three boys spring aloft into the
rigging of the California; when they were all furled at
once, but with orders to stay aloft at the top-gallant mast-
heads, and loose them, again at the word. It was my duty to
furl the fore royal; and while standing by to loose it again,
I had a fine view of the scene. From where I stood, the
two vessels seemed nothing but spars and sails, while their
narrow decks, far below, slanting over by the force of the
wind aloft, appeared hardly capable of supporting the
great fabrics raised upon them. The California was to
windward of us, and had every advantage; yet, while the
breeze was stiff, we held our own. As soon as it began to
slacken, she ranged a little ahead, and the order was given to
loose the royals. In an instant the gaskets were off and
the bunt dropped. "Sheet home the fore royal! — Weather
sheet's home !" — "Hoist away, sir !" is bawled from aloft.
"Overhaul your clew-lines !" shouts the mate. "Aye, aye,
sir, all clear !"— "Taught leech ! belay ! Well the lee brace ;
haul taught to windward" — and the royals are set. These
brought us up again ; but the wind continuing light, the Cal-
ifornia set hers, and it was soon evident that she was walk-
ing away from us. Our captain then hailed, and said that he
should keep off to his course ; adding — "She isn't the Alert
now. If I had her in your trim, she would have been out
of sight by this time." This was good^-naturedly answered
from the California, and she braced sharp up, and stood
close upon the wind up the coast; while we squared away
our yards, and stood before the wind to the south-south-
west. The California's crew manned her weather rigging,
waved their hats in the air, and gave u three hearty
cheers, which we answered as heartily, and the customary
single cheer came back to us from over the water. She
stood on her way, doomed to eighteen months' or two years'
hard service upon that hated coast, while we were making
our way to our home, to which every hour and every mile
was bringing us nearer.
As soon as we parted company with the California, all
hands were sent aloft to set the studding-sails. Booms
were rigged out, tacks and halyards rove, sail after sail
packed upon her, until every available inch of canvas was
288 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
spread, that we might not lose a breath of the fair wind.
We could now see how much she was cramped and deadened
by her cargo; for with a good breeze on her quarter, and
every stitch of canvas spread, we could not get more than
six knots out of her. She had no more life in her than if
she were water-logged. The log was hove several times;
but she was doing her best. We had hardly patience with
her, but the older sailors said — "Stand by ! you'll see her
work herself loose in a week or two, and then she'll walk
up to Cape Horn like a race-horse."
When all sail had been set, and the decks cleared up, the
California was a speck in the horizon, and the coast lay
like a low cloud along the north-east. At sunset they were
both out of sight, and we were once more upon the ocean
where sky and water meet
CHAPTER XXX
Beginning the Long Return Voyage — A Scare
AT EIGHT o'clock all hands were called aft, and the
l\ watches set for the voyage. Some changes were
-*--^ made; but I was glad to find myself still in the lar-
board watch. Our crew was somewhat diminished; for
a man and a boy had gone in the Pilgrim ; another was
second mate of the Ayacucho ; and a third, the oldest man
of the crew, had broken down under the hard work and
constant exposure on the coast, and, having had a stroke of
the palsy, was left behind at the hide-house, under the
charge of Captain Arthur. The poor fellow wished very
much to come home in the ship; and he ought to have been
brought h^me in her. But a live dog is better than a dead
lion, and a sick sailor belongs to nobody's mess; so he was
sent ashore with the rest of the lumber, which was only in
the way. By these diminutions, we were short-handed for a
voyage round Cape Horn in the dead of winter. Besides
S and myself, there were only five in the forecastle;
who, together with four boys in the steerage, the sailmaker,
carpenter, etc., composed the whole crew. In addition to
this, we were only three or four days out, when the sail-
maker, who was the oldest and best seaman on board, was
taken with the palsy, and was useless for the rest of the
voyage. The constant wading in the water, in all weathers,
to take off hides, together with the other labors, is too much
for old men, and for any who have not good constitutions.
Beside these two men of ours, the second officer of the Cali-
fornia and the carpenter of the Pilgrim broke down under
the work, and the latter died at Santa Barbara. The young
man, too, who came out with us from Boston in the Pil-
grim, had to be taken from his berth before the mast and
made clerk, on account of a fit of rheumatism which attacked
J — VOL. XXIIl HC
290 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
him soon after he came upon the coast. By the loss of the
sailmaker, our watch was reduced to five, of whom two
were boys, who never steered but in fine weather, so that
the other two and myself had to stand at the wheel four
hours apiece out of every twenty- four; and the other watch
had only four helmsmen. "Never mind — we're homeward
bound!" was the answer to everything; and we should
not have minded this, were it not for the thought that we
should be off Cape Horn in the very dead of winter. It
was now the first part of May ; and two months would bring
us off the cape in July, which is the worst month in the
year there ; when the sun rises at nine and sets at three, giv-
ing eighteen hours night, and there is snow and rain, gales
and high seas, in abundance.
The prospect of meeting this in a ship half manned, and
loaded so deep that every heavy sea must wash her fore
and aft, was by no means pleasant. The Alert, in her
passage out, doubled the Cape in the month of February,
which is midsummer; and we came round in the Pilgrim
in the latter part of October, which we thought was bad
enough. There was only one of our crew who had been
off there in the winter, and that was in a whaleship, much
lighter and higher than our ship; yet he said they had man-
killing weather for twenty days without intermission, and
their decks were swept twice, and they w^ere all glad enough
to see the last of it. The Brandywine frigate, also, in her
passage round, had sixty days off the Cape, and lost sev-
eral boats by the heavy seas. All this was for our comfort;
yet pass it we must; and all hands agreed to make the best
of it.
During our watches below we overhauled our clothes, and
made and mended everything for bad weather. Each of
us had made for himself a suit of oil-cloth or tarpaulin, and
these we got out, and gave thorough coatings of oil or tar,
and hung upon the stays to dry. Our stout boots, too, we
covered over with a thick mixture of melted grease and tar,
and hung out to dry. Thus we took advantage of the
warm sun and fine weather of the Pacific to prepare for
its other face. In the forenoon watches below, our fore-
castle looked like the workshop of what a sailor is, — a Jack
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 291
at all trades. Thick stockings and drawers were darned
and patched; mittens dragged from the bottom of the chest
and mended; comforters made for the neck and ears; old
flannel shirts cut up to line monkey jackets; south-westers
lined with flannel, and a pot of paint smuggled forward to
give them a coat on the outside; and everything turned to
hand; so that, although two years had left us but a scanty
wardrobe, yet the economy and invention which necessity
teaches a sailor, soon put each of us in pretty good trim for
bad weather, even before we had seen the last of the fine.
Even the cobbler's art was not out of place. Several old
shoes were very decently repaired, and with waxed ends,
an awl, and the top of an old boot, I made me quite a
respectable sheath for my knife.
There was one difficulty, however, which nothing that
we could do would remedy; and that was the leaking of
the forecastle, which made it very uncomfortable in bad
weather, and rendered half of the berths tenantless. The
tightest ships, in a long voyage, from the constant strain
which is upon the bowsprit, will leak, more or less, round
the heel of the bowsprit, and the bitts, which come down
into the forecastle; but, in addition to this, we had an unac-
countable leak on the starboard bow, near the cat-head,
which drove us from the forward berths on that side, and,
indeed, when she was on the starboard tack, from all the
forward berths. One of the after berths, too, leaked in
very bad weather; so that in a ship which was in other
respects as tight as a bottle, and brought her cargo to Bos-
ton perfectly dry, we had, after every effort made to prevent
it, in the way of caulking and leading, a forecastle with
only three dry berths for seven of us. However, as there
is never but one watch below at a time, by 'turning in and
out,' we did pretty well. And there being, in our watch,
but three of us who lived forward, we generally had a dry
berth apiece in bad weather.*
All this, however, was but anticipation. We were still
^ On remaving the cat-head, after the ship arrived _ at Boston, it was
found that there were two holes under it which had been bored for the
purpose of dnving treenails, and which, accidentally, had not been plugged
up when the cat-head was placed over them. This was sufficient to account
for the leak, and for our not having been able to discover and stop it.
292 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
in fine weather in the North Pacific, running down the
north-east trades, which we took on the second day after
leaving San Diego.
Sunday, May 15th, one week out, we were in latitude
14° 56' N., long. 116° 14' W., having gone, by reckoning,
over thirteen hundred miles in seven days. In fact, ever
since leaving San Diego, we had had a fair wind, and as
much as we wanted of it. For seven days, our lower and
topmast studding-sails were set all the time, and our royals
and top-gallant studding-sails, whenever she could stagger
under them. Indeed, the captain had shown, from the mo-
ment we got to sea, that he was to have no boy's play, but
that the ship had got to carry all she could, and that he
was going to make up, by " cracking on " to her, what she
wanted in lightness. In this way, we frequently made
three degrees of latitude, besides something in longitude,
in the course of twenty-four hours. — Our days were spent
in the usual ship's work. The rigging which had become
slack from being long in port was to be set up ; breast back-
stays got up ; studding-sail booms rigged upon the main
yard; and the royal studding-sails got ready for the light
trades ; ring-tail set ; and new rigging fitted and sails got
ready for Cape Horn. For, with a ship's gear, as well as
a sailor's wardrobe, fine weather must be improved to get
ready for the bad to come. Our forenoon watch below, as I
have said, was given to our own work, and our night
watches were spent in the usual manner: — a trick at the
wheel, a look-out on the forecastle, a nap on a coil of rig-
ging under the lee of the rail ; a yarn round the windlass-
end; or, as was generally my way, a solitary walk fore and
aft, in the weather waist, between the windlass-end and the
main tack. Every wave that she threw aside brought us
nearer home, and every day's observation at noon showed a
progress which, if it continued, would in less than five
months, take us into Boston Bay. This is the pleasure of
life at sea, — fine weather, day after day, without interrup-
tion, — fair wind, and a plenty of it, — and homeward bound.
Every one was in good humor ; things went right ; and all
was done with a will. At the dog watch, all hands
came on deck, and stood round the weather side of the fore-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 293
castle, or sat upon the windlass, and sung sea songs, and
those ballads of pirates and highwaymen, which sailors de-
light in. Home, too, and what we should do when we got
there, and when and how we should arrive, was no infre-
quent topic. Every night, after the kids and pots were put
away, and we had lighted our pipes and cigars at the galley,
and gathered about the windlass, the first question was, —
"Well, Tom, what was the latitude to-day?"
"Why fourteen, north, and she has been going seven
knots ever since."
"Well, this will bring us up to the line in five days."
"Yes, but these trades won't last twenty-four hours
longer," says an old salt, pointing with the sharp of his
hand to leeward, — "I know that by the look of the clouds."
Then came all manner of calculations and conjectures as
to the continuance of the wind, the weather under the line,
the south-east trades, etc., and rough guesses as to the
time the ship would be up with the Horn; and some, more
venturous, gave her so many days to Boston light, and of-
fered to bet that she would not exceed it.
" You'd better wait till you get round Cape Horn," says
an old croaker.
" Yes," says another, " you may see Boston, but you've
got to ' smell hell ' before that good day."
Rumors also of what had been said in the cabin, as usual,
found their way forward. The steward had heard the cap-
tain say something about the straits of Magellan, and the
man at the wheel fancied he had heard him tell the "pas-
senger " that, if he found the wind ahead and the weather
very bad ofT the Cape, he should stick her off for New Hol-
land, and come home round the Cape of Good Hope.
This passenger — the first and only one we had had, ex-
cept to go from port to port, on the coast, was no one else
than a gentleman whom I had known in my better days;
and the last person I should have expected to have seen on
the coast of California — Professor N , of Cambridge.
I had left him quietly seated in the chair of Botany and
Ornithology, in Harvard University; and the next I saw
of him, was strolling about San Diego beach, in a sailor's
gea-jacket, with a wide straw hat, and barefooted, with his
294 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
trowsers rolled up to his knees, picking up stones and shells.
He had travelled overland to the North-west Coast, and
come dov^rn in a small vessel to Monterey. There he learned
that there w^as a ship at the leeward, about to sail for Bos-
ton; and, taking passage in the Pilgrim, which was then
at Monterey, he came slowly down, visiting the inter-
mediate ports, and examining the trees, plants, earths, birds,
etc., and joined us at San Diego shortly before we sailed.
The second mate of the Pilgrim told me that they had
an old gentleman on board who knew me, and came from the
college that I had been in. He could not recollect his name,
but said he was a " sort of an oldish man," with white hair,
and spent all his time in the bush, and along the beach,
picking up flowers and shells, and such truck, and had a
dozen boxes and barrels, full of them. I thought over every-
body who would be likely to be there, but could fix upon no
one; when, the next day, just as we were about to shove
off from the beach, he came down to the boat, in the rig I
have described, with his shoes in his hand, and his pockets
full of specimens. I knew him at once, though I should not
have been more surprised to have seen the Old South steeple
shoot up from the hide-house. He probably had no less
difficulty in recognizing me. As we left home about the
same time, we had nothing to tell one another; and, owing
to our different situations on board, I saw but little of him
on the passage home. Sometimes, when I was at the wheel
of a calm night, and the steering required no attention, and
the officer of the watch was forward, he would come aft
and hold a short yarn with me; but this was against the
rules of the ship, as is, in fact, all intercourse between pas-
sengers and the crew. I was often amused to see the sailors
puzzled to know what to make of him, and to hear their
conjectures about him and his business. They were as
much puzzled as our old sailmaker was with the captain's
instruments in the cabin. He said there were three: — the
c/jr o-nometer, the c/?re-nometer, and the the-nomeitr.
(Chronometer, barometer, and thermometer.) The Pil-
grim's crew christened Mr. N. " Old Curious," from his
zeal for curiosities, and some of them said that he was
crazy, and that his friends let him go about and amuse him-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 295
self in this way. Why else a rich man (sailors call every
man rich who does not work with his hands, and wears a
long coat and cravat) should leave a Christian country, and
come to such a place as California, to pick up shells and
stones, they could not understand. One of them, however,
an old salt, who had seen something more of the world
ashore, set all to rights, as he thought, — " Oh, 'vast there ! —
You don't know anything about them craft. I've seen them
colleges, and know the ropes. They keep all such things
for cur'osities, and study 'em, and have men a' purpose to
go and get 'em. This old chap knows what he's about. He
a'n't the child you take him for. He'll carry all these things
to the college, and if they are better than any that they have
had before, he'll be head of the college. Then, by-and-by,
somebody else will go after some more, and if they beat him,
he'll have to go again, or else give up his berth. That's the
way they do it. This old covey knows the ropes. He has
worked a traverse over 'em, and come 'way out here, where
nobody's ever been afore, and where they'll never think of
coming." This explanation satisfied Jack; and as it raised
Mr. N.'s credit for capacity, and was near enough to the
truth for common purposes, I did not disturb it.
With the exception of Mr. N., we had no one on board but
the regular ship's company, and the live stock. Upon this,
we had made a considerable inroad. We killed one of the
bullocks every four days, so that they did not last us up to
the line. We, or, rather, they, then began upon the sheep and
the poultry, for these never come into Jack's mess.^ The
pigs were left for the latter part of the voyage, for they
1 The customs as to the allowance of " grub " are very nearly the same
in all American merchantmen. Whenever a pig is killed, the sailors
have one mess from it. The rest goes to the cabin. The smaller live
Stock, poultry, etc., they never taste. And, indeed, they do not complain
of this, for it would take a great deal to supply them with a g09d meal,
and without the accompaniments, (which could hardly be furnished to
them,) it would not be much better than salt beef. But even as to the
salt beef, they are scarcely dealt fairly with; for whenever a barrel is
opened, before any of the beef is put into the harness-cask, the steward
comes up, and picks it all over, and takes out the best pieces, (those
that have any fat in them) for the cabin. This was done in both the
vessels I was in, and the men said that it was usual in other vessels.
Indeed, it is made no secret, but some of the crew are usually called
to help in assorting and putting away the pieces. By this arrangement,
the hard, dry pieces, which the sailors call " old horse," come to their
share.
There is a singular piece of rhyme, traditional among sailors, which they
say over such pieces of beef. I do not know that it ever appeared in print
296 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
are sailors, and can stand all weathers. We had an old
sow on board, the mother of a numerous progeny, who had
been twice round the Cape of Good Hope, and once round
Cape Horn. The last time going round, was very nearly
her death. We heard her squealing and moaning one dark
night, after it had been snowing and hailing for several
hours, and getting into the sty, we found her nearly frozen
to death. We got some straw, an old sail, and other things,
and wrapped her up in a corner of the sty, where she staid
until we got into fine weather again.
Wednesday, May i8th. Lat. g° 54' N., long. 113° 1/ W.
The north-east trades had now left us, and we had the usual
variable winds, which prevail near the line, together with
some rain. So long as we were in these latitudes, we had
but little rest in our watch on deck at night, for, as the
winds were light and variable, and we could not lose a
breath, we were all the watch bracing the yards, and taking
in and making sail, and " humbugging " with our flying
kites. A little puff of wind on the larboard quarter, and
then — " larboard fore braces ! " and studding-booms were
rigged out, studding-sails set alow and aloft, the yards
trimmed, and jibs and spanker in; when it would come. as
calm as a duck-pond, and the man at the wheel stand with
the palm of his hand up, feeling for the wind. " Keep her
off a little ! " " All aback forward, sir ! " cries a man from
the forecastle. Down go the braces again ; in come the
studding-sails, all in a mess, which half an hour won't set
right; yards braced sharp up; and she's on the starboard
before. When seated round the kid, if a particularly bad piece is found,
one of them takes it up, and addressing it, repeats these lines:
"Old horse! old horse! what brought you here?"
— " From Sacarap to Portland pier
I've carted stone this many a year:
Till, killed by blows and sore abuse.
They salted me down for sailors' use.
The sailors they do me despise:
They turn me over and damn my eyes;
Cut off my meat, and pick my bones.
And pitch the rest to Davy Jones."
There is a story current among seamen, that a beef -dealer was convicted, at
Boston, of having sold old horse for ship's stores, instead of beef, and had
been sentenced to be confined in jail, until he should eat the whole of it; and
that he is now lying in Boston jail. I have heard this story often, on board
other_ vessels beside those of our own nation. It is very generally believed,
and is always highly commended, as a fair instance of retaliatory justice.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 297
tack, close hauled. The studding-sails must now be cleared
away, and set up in the tops, and on the booms. By the time
this is done, and you are looking out for a soft plank for a
nap, — " Lay aft here, and square in the head yards ! " and
the studding-sails are all set again on the starboard side.
So it goes until it is eight bells, — call the watch, — heave the
log, — relieve the wheel, and go below the larboard watch.
Sunday, May 226. Lat. 5° 14' N., long. 166° 45' W. We
were now a fortnight out, and within five degrees of the
line, to which two days of good breeze would take us ; but
we had, for the most part, what sailors call " an Irishman's
hurricane, — right up and down." This day it rained nearly
all day, and being Sunday, and nothing to do, we stopped
up the scuppers and filled the decks with rain water, and
bringing all our clothes on deck, had a grand wash, fore and
aft. When this was through, we stripped to our drawers,
and taking pieces of soap and strips of canvas for towels,
We turned-to and soaped, washed, and scrubbed one another
down, to get off, as we said, the California dust; for the
common wash in salt water, which is all Jack can get, being
on an allowance of fresh, had little efficacy, and was more
for taste than utility. The captain was below all the after-
noon, and we had something nearer to a Saturnalia than
anything we had yet seen ; for the mate came into the scup-
pers, with a couple of boys to scrub him, and got into a
battle with them in heaving water. By unplugging the holes,
we let the soap-suds off the decks, and in a short time had a
new supply of rain water, in which we had a grand rinsing.
It was surprising to see how much soap and fresh water did
for the complexions of many of us; how much of what we
supposed to be tan and sea-blacking, we got rid of. The
next day, the sun rising clear, the ship was covered, fore and
aft, with clothes of all sorts, hanging out to dry.
As we approached the line, the wind became more east-
erly, and the weather clearer, and in twenty days from San
Diego, —
Saturday, May 28th, at about three P. M., with a fine
breeze from the east-south-east, we crossed the equator. In
twenty-four hours after crossing the line, which was very
unusual, we took the regular south-east trades. These
296 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
winds come a little from the eastward of south-east, and.,
with us, they blew directly from the east-south-east, whicK
was fortunate for us, for our course was south-by-west, and
we could thus go one point free. The yards were braced
so that every sail drew, from the spanker to the flying-jib;
and the upper yards being squared in a little, the fore and
main top-gallant studding-sails were set, and just drew
handsomely. For twelve days this breeze blew steadily, not
varying a point, and just so fresh that we could carry our
royals ; and, during the whole time, we hardly started a
brace. Such progress did we make, that at the end of seven
days from the time we took the breeze, on
Sunday, June 5th, we were in lat. 19° 29' S., and long.
118" 01' W., having made twelve hundred miles in seven
days, very nearly upon a taught bowline. Our good ship
was getting to be herself again, had increased her rate of
sailing more than one-third since leaving San Diego. The
crew ceased complaining of her, and the officers hove the
log every two hours with evident satisfaction. This was
glorious sailing. A steady breeze; the light trade-wind
clouds over our heads; the incomparable temperature of the
Pacific, — neither hot nor cold; a clear sun every day, and
clear moon and stars each night; and new constellations
rising in the south, and the familiar ones sinking in the
north, as we went on our course, — " stemming nightly
toward the pole." Already we had sunk the north star and
the Great Bear in the northern horizon, and all hands looked
out sharp to the southward for the Magellan Clouds, which,
each succeeding night, we expected to make. " The next
time we see the north star," said one, " we shall be standing
to the northward, the other side of the Horn." This was
true enough, and no doubt it would be a welcome sight ; for
sailors say that in coming home from round Cape Horn, and
the Cape of Good Hope, the north star is the first land you
make.
These trades were the same that, in the passage out in
the Pilgrim, lasted nearly all the way from Juan Fernandez
to the line; blowing steadily on our starboard quarter for
three weeks, without our starting a brace, or even brailing
down the skysails. Though we had now the same wind,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 299
and were in the same latitude with the Pilgrim on her pas-
sage out, yet we were nearly twelve hundred miles to the
westward of her course; for the captain, depending upon
the strong south-west winds which prevail in high southern
latitudes during the winter months, took the full advantage
of the trades, and stood well to the westward, so far that we
passed within about two hundred miles of Ducie's Island.
It was this weather and sailing that brought to my mind
a little incident that occurred on board the Pilgrim, while
we were in the same latitude. We were going along at a
great rate, dead before the wind, with studding-sails out on
both sides, alow and aloft, on a dark night, just after mid-
night, and everything was as still as the grave, except the
washing of the water by the vessel's side; for, being before
the wind, with a smooth sea, the little brig, covered with
canvas, was doing great business, with very little noise.
The other watch was below, and all our watch, except my-
self and the man at the wheel, were asleep under the lee of
the boat. The second mate, who came out before the mast,
and was always very thick with me, had been holding a yarn
with me, and just gone aft to his place on the quarter-deck,
and I had resumed my usual walk to and from the windlass-
end, when, suddenly, we heard a loud scream coming from
ahead, apparently directly from under the bows. The dark-
ness, and complete stillness of the night, and the solitude of
the ocean, gave to the sound a dreadful and almost super-
natural effect. I stood perfectly still, and my heart beat
quick. The sound woke up the rest of the watch, who stood
looking at one another. " What, in the name of God, is
that ? " said the second mate, coming slowly forward. The
first thought I had was, that it might be a boat, with the
crew of some wrecked vessel, or perhaps the boat of some
whaleship, out over night, and we had run them down in
the darkness. Another scream, but less loud than the first.
This started us, and we ran forward, and looked over the
bows, and over the sides, to leeward, but nothing was to be
seen or heard. What was to be done. Call the captain, and
heave the ship aback? Just as this moment, in crossing the
forecastle, one of the men saw a light below, and looking
down the scuttle, saw the watch all out of their berths, and
300 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
afoul of one poor fellow, dragging him out of his berth,
and shaking him, to wake him out of a nightmare. They
had been waked out of their sleep, and as much alarmed at
the scream as we were, and were hesitating whether to come
on deck, when the second sound, coming directly from one
of the berths, revealed the cause of the alarm. The fellow
got a good shaking for the trouble he had given. We made
a joke of the matter and we could well laugh, for our minds
were not a little relieved by its ridiculous termination.
We were now close upon the southern tropical line, and,
with so fine a breeze, were daily leaving the sun behind us,
and drawing nearer to Cape Horn, for which it behoved us
to make every preparation. Our rigging was all examined
and overhauled, and mended, or replaced with new, where
it was necessary : new and strong bobstays fitted in the place
of the chain ones, which were worn out; the spritsail yard
and martingale guys and back-ropes set well taught; bran
new fore and main braces rove; top-gallant sheets, and
wheel-ropes, made of green hide, laid up in the form of
rope, were stretched and fitted; and new top-sail clewlines,
etc., rove; new fore-topmast back-stays fitted; and other
preparations made, in good season, that the ropes might
have time to stretch and become limber before we got into
cold weather.
Sunday, June 12th. Lat. 26° 04' S., 116° 31' W.
We had now lost the regular trades, and had the winds
variable, principally from the westward, and kept on, in a
southerly course, sailing very nearly upon a meridian, and
at the end of the week,
Sunday, June igth, were in lat. 34° 15' S., and long.
116" 38' 'w.
CHAPTER XXXI
Bad Prospects — First Touch of Cape Horn — Icebergs —
Temperance Ships — Lying-up — Ice — Difficulty on
Board — Change of Course — Straits of Magellan
THERE now began to be a decided change in the ap-
pearance of things. The days became shorter and
shorter; the sun running lower in its course each
day, and giving less and less heat; and the nights so cold
as to prevent our sleeping on deck; the Magellan Clouds in
sight, of a clear night; the skies looking cold and angry;
and, at times, a long, heavy, ugly sea, setting in from the
southward, told us what we were coming to. Still, however,
we had a fine, strong breeze, and kept on our way, under as
much sail as our ship would bear. Toward the middle of
the week, the wind hauled to the southward, which brought
us upon a taught bowline, made the ship meet, nearly head
on, the heavy swell which rolled from that direction; and
there was something not at all encouraging in the manner
in which she met it. Being so deep and heavy, she wanted
the buoyancy which should have carried her over the seas,
and she dropped heavily into them, the water washing over
the decks ; and every now and then, when an unusually large
sea met her fairly upon the bows, she struck it with a sound
as dead and heavy as that with which a sledge-hammer falls
upon the pile, and took the whole of it in upon the fore-
castle, and rising, carried it aft in the scuppers, washing
the rigging off the pins, and carrying along with it every-
thing which was loose on deck. She had been acting in this
way all of our forenoon watch below; as we could tell by
the washing of the water over our heads, and the heavy
breaking of the seas against her bows, (with a sound as
though she were striking against a rock,) only the thickness
of the plank from our heads, as we lay in our berths, which
301
302 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
are directly against the bows. At eight bells, the watch was
called, and we came on deck, one hand going aft to take the
wheel, and another going to the galley to get the grub for
dinner. I stood on the forecastle, looking at the seas, which
were rolling high, as far as the eye could reach, their tops
white with foam, and the body of them of a deep indigo
blue, reflecting the bright rays of the sun. Our ship rose
slowly over a few of the largest of them, until one immense
fellow came rolling on, threatening to cover her, and which
I was sailor enough to know, by " the feeling of her " under
my feet, she would not rise over. I sprang upon the
knight-heads, and seizing hold of the fore-stay with my
hands, drew myself upon it. My feet were just off the
stanchion, when she struck fairly into the middle of the
sea, and it washed her fore and aft, burying her in the water.
As soon as she rose out of it, I looked aft, and everything
forward of the main-mast, except the long-boat, which was
griped and double-lashed down to the ring-bolts, was swept
off clear. The galley, the pig-sty, the hen-coop, and a large
sheep-pen which had been built upon the forehatch, were
all gone, in the twinkling of an eye — leaving the deck as
clean as a chin new-reaped — and not a stick left, to show
where they had stood. In the scuppers lay the galley, bottom
up, and a few boards floating about, the wreck of the sheep-
pen, — and half a dozen miserable sheep floating among
them, wet through, and not a little frightened at the sudden
change that had come upon them. As soon as the sea had
washed by, all hands sprung out of the forecastle to see
what had become of the ship and in a few moments the cook
and old Bill crawled out from under the galley, where they
had been lying in the water, nearly smothered, with the
galley over them. Fortunately, it rested against the bul-
warks, or it would have broken some of their bones. When
the water ran off, we picked the sheep up, and put them in
the long-boat, got the galley back in its place, and set things
a little to rights ; but, had not our ship had uncommonly high
bulwarks and rail, everything must have been washed over-
board, not excepting Old Bill and the cook. Bill had been
standing at the galley-door, with the kid of beef in his hand
for the forecastle mess, when, away he went, kid, beef, and
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 303
all. He held on to the kid till the last, like a good fellow,
but the beef was gone, and when the water had run off, we
saw it lying high and dry, like a rock at low tide — nothing
could hurt that. We took the loss of our beef very easily,
consoling ourselves with the recollection that the cabin had
more to lose than we; and chuckled not a little at seeing
the remains of the chicken-pie and pan-cakes floating in
the scuppers. " This will never do ! " was what some said,
and every one felt. Here we were, not yet within a thou-
sand miles of the latitude of Cape Horn, and our decks
swept by a sea not one half so high as we must expect to
find there. Some blamed the captain for loading his ship so
deep, when he knew what he must expect ; while others said
that the wind was always southwest, off the Cape, in the
Avinter; and that, running before it, we should not mind
the seas so much. When we got down into the forecastle.
Old Bill, who was somewhat of a croaker, — having met
with a great many accidents at sea — said that if that was
the way she was going to act, we might as well make our
wills, and balance the books at once, and put on a clean
shirt. " 'Vast there, you bloody old owl ! You're always
hanging out blue lights ! You're frightened by the ducking
you got in the scuppers, and can't take a joke! What's the
use in being always on the look-out for Davy Jones?"
** Stand by ! " says another, " and we'll get an afternoon
watch below, by this scrape ;" but in this they were disap-
pointed, for at two bells, all hands were called and set to
work, getting lashings upon everything on deck ; and the
captain talked of sending down the long top-gallant masts;
but, as the sea went down toward night, and the wind
hauled abeam, we left them standing, and set the studding-
sails.
The next day, all hands were turned-to upon unbending
the old sails, and getting up the new ones ; for a ship, unlike
people on shore, puts on her best suit in bad weather. The
old sails were sent down, and three new topsails, and new
fore and main courses, jib, and fore-topmast staysail, which
were made on the coast, and never had been used, were
bent, with a complete set of new earrings, robands and reef-
points; and reef-tackles were rove to the courses, and spill-
304 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.,
ing-lines to the top-sails. These, with new braces and clew-
lines, fore and aft, gave us a good suit of running rigging.
The wind continued westerly, and the weather and sea
less rough since the day on which we shipped the heavy
sea, and we were making great progress under studding-sails,
with our light sails all set, keeping a little to the eastward
of south; for the captain, depending upon westerly winds
off the Cape, had kept so far to the westward, that though
we were within about five hundred miles of the latitude of
Cape Horn, we were nearly seventeen hundred miles to the
westward of it. Through the rest of the week, we continued
on with a fair wind, gradually, as we got more to the south-
ward, keeping a more easterly course, and bringing the wind
on our larboard quarter, until —
Sunday, June 26th, when, having a fine, clear day, the
captain got a lunar observation, as well as his meridian
altitude, which made us in lat. 47° 50' S., long. 113° 49' W. ;
Cape Horn bearing, according to my calculation, E. S. E. Yz
E., and distant eighteen hundred miles.
Monday, June 27th. During the first part of this day, the
wind continued fair, and, as we were going before it, it
did not feel very cold, so that we kept at work on deck, in
our common clothes and round jackets. Our watch had an
afternoon watch below, for the first time since leaving San
Diego, and having inquired of the third mate what the
latitude was at noon, and made our usual guesses as to the
time she would need, to be up with the Horn, we turned-in,
for a nap. We were sleeping away " at the rates of knots,"
when three knocks on the scuttle, and " All hands ahoy ! "
started us from our berths. What could be the matter?
It did not appear to be blowing hard, and looking up through
the scuttle, we could see that it was a clear day, overhead;
yet the watch were taking in sail. We thought there must
be a sail in sight, and that we were about to heave-to and
speak her ; and were just congratulating ourselves upon it —
for we had seen neither sail nor land since we had left port
—when we heard the mate's voice on deck, (he turned-in
" all standing," and was always on deck the moment he was
called,) singing out to the men who were taking in the
studding-sails, and asking where his watch were. We did
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 305
not wait for a second call, but tumbled up the ladder ; and
there, on the starboard bow, was a bank of mist, covering
sea and sky, and driving directly for us. I had seen the
same before, in my passage round in the Pilgrim, and knew
what it meant, and that there was no time to be lost. We
had nothing on but thin clothes, yet there was not a moment
to spare, and at it we went.
The boys of the other watch were in the tops, taking in
the top-gallant studding-sails, and the lower and topmast
studding-sails were coming down by the run. It was noth-
ing but '* haul down and clew up," until we got all the
studding-sails in, and the royals, flying-jib, and mizen top-
gallant sail furled, and the ship kept off a little, to take the
squall. The fore and main top-gallant sails were still on
her, for the " old man " did not mean to be frightened in
broad daylight, and was determined to carry sail till the
last minute. We all stood waiting for its coming, when
the first blast showed us that it was not to be trifled with.
Rain, sleet, snow, and wind, enough to take our breath from
us, and make the toughest turn his back to windward!
The ship lay nearly over on her beam-ends; the spars
and rigging snapped and cracked; and her top-gallant masts
bent like whip-sticks. " Clew up the fore and main top-
gallant sails ! " shouted the captain, and all hands sprang
to the clewlines. The decks were standing nearly at an
angle of forty-five degrees, and the ship going like a mad
steed through the water, the whole forward part of her
in a smother of foam. The halyards were let go and the
yard clewed down, and the sheets started, and in a few
minutes the sails smothered and kept in by clewlines and
buntlines. — " Furl 'em, sir ? " asked the mate. — " Let go
the topsail halyards, fore and aft ! " shouted the captain,
in answer, at the top of his voice. Down came the top-
sail yards, the reef-tackles were manned and hauled out,
and we climbed up to windward, and sprang into the
weather rigging. The violence of the wind, and the hail
and sleet, driving nearly horizontally across the ocean,
seemed actually to pin us down to the rigging. It was
hard work making head against them. One after another,
we got out upon the yards. And here we had work to do ;
806 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
for our new sails, which had hardly been bent long enough
to get the starch out of them, were as stiff as boards, and
the new earings and reef-points, stiffened with the sleet,
knotted like pieces of iron wire. Having only our round
jackets and straw hats on, we were soon wet through, and
it was every moment growing colder. Our hands were soon
stiffened and numbed, which, added to the stiffness of
everything else, kept us a good while on the yard. After
we had got the sail hauled upon the yard, we had to wait a
long time for the weather earing to be passed; but there
was no fault to be found, for French John was at the ear-
ing, and a better sailor never laid out on a yard; so we
leaned over the yard, and beat our hands upon the sail to
keep them from freezing. At length the word came — •
" Haul out to leeward," — and we seized the reef-points and
hauled the band taught for the lee earing. " Taught
band — Knot away," and we got the first reef fast, and were
just going to lay down, when — " Two reefs — two reefs ! "
shouted the mate, and we had a second reef to take, in the
same way. When this was fast, we laid down on deck,
manned the halyards to leeward, nearly up to our knees in
water, set the topsail, and then laid aloft on the main top-
sail yard, and reefed that sail in the same manner; for, as
I have before stated, we were a good deal reduced in num-
bers, and, to make it worse, the carpenter, only two days
before, cut his leg with an axe, so that he could not go
aloft. This weakened us so that we could not well manage
more than one topsail at a time, in such weather as this,
and, of course, our labor was doubled. From the main top-
sail yard, we went upon the main yard, and took a reef in
the mainsail. No sooner had we got on deck, than — " Lay
aloft there, mizen-top-men, and close-reef the mizen top-
sail !" This called me ; and being nearest to the rigging, I
got first aloft, and out to the weather earing. English
Ben was on the yard just after me, and took the lee earing,
and the rest of our gang were soon on the yard, and began
to fist the sail, when the mate considerately sent up the
cook and steward, to help us. I could now account for the
long time it took to pass the other earings, for, to do my
best, with a strong hand to help me at the dog's ear, I
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 307
could not get it passed until I heard them beginning to
complain in the bunt. One reef after another we took in,
until the sail was close-reefed, when we went down and
hoisted away at the halyards. In the mean time, the jib
had been furled and the staysail set, and the ship, under
her reduced sail, had got more upright and was under man-
agement; but the two top-gallant sails were still hanging
in the buntlines, and slatting and jerking as though they
would take the masts out of her. We gave a look aloft, and
knew that our work was not done yet; and, sure enough,
no sooner did the mate see that we were on deck, than —
"Lay aloft there, four of you, and furl the top-gallant
sails !" This called me again, and two of us went aloft,
up the fore rigging, and two more up the main, upon the
top-gallant yards. The shrouds were now iced over, the
sleet having formed a crust or cake round all the stand-
ing rigging, and on the weather side of the masts and
yards. When we got upon the yard, my hands were so
numb that I could not have cast off the knot of the gasket
to have saved my life. We both lay over the yard for
a few seconds, beating our hands upon the sail, until
we started the blood into our fingers' ends, and at the
next moment our hands were in a burning heat. My com-
panion on the yard was a lad, who came out in the ship
a weak, puny boy, from one of the Boston schools, — "no
larger than a spritsail sheet knot," nor "heavier than a
paper of lamp-black," and "not strong enough to haul a
shad off a gridiron," but who was now "as long as a spare
topmast, strong enough to knock down an ox, and hearty
enough to eat him." We fisted the sail together, and after
six or eight minutes of hard hauling and pulling and beat-
ing down the sail, which was as stiff as sheet iron, we man-
aged to get it furled; and snugly furled it must be, for we
knew the mate well enough to be certain that if it got
adrift again, we should be called up from our watch below,
at any hour of the night, to furl it.
I had been on the look-out for a moment to jump below
and clap on a thick jacket and south-wester; but when we
got on deck we found that eight bells had been struck, and
the other watch gone below, so that there were two hours of
308 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
dog watch for us, and a plenty of work to do. It had now
set in for a steady gale from the south-west ; but we were
not yet far enough to the southward to make a fair wind
of it, for we must give Terra del Fuego a wide berth. The
decks were covered with snow, and there was a constant
driving of sleet. In fact, Cape Horn had set in with good
earnest. In the midst of all this, and before it became
dark, we had all the studding-sails to make up and stow
away, and then to lay aloft and rig in all the booms, fore
and aft, and coil away the tacks, sheets, and halyards.
This was pretty tough work for four or five hands, in the
face of a gale which almost took us off the yards, and with
ropes so stiff with ice that it was almost impossible to bend
them. I was nearly half an hour out on the end of the
fore yard, trying to coil away and stop down the topmast
studding-sail tack and lower halyards. It was after dark
when we got through, and we were not a little pleased to
hear four bells struck, which sent us below for two hours,
and gave us each a pot of hot tea with our cold beef and
bread, and, what was better yet, a suit of thick, dry cloth-
ing, fitted for the weather, in place of our thin clothes,
which were wet through and now frozen stiff.
This sudden turn, for which we were so little prepared,
was as unacceptable to me as to any of the rest; for I had
been troubled for several days with a slight tooth-ache, and
this cold weather, and wetting and freezing, were not the
best things in the world for it. I soon found that it was
getting strong hold, and running over all parts of my face;
and before the watch was out I went aft to the mate, who
had charge of the medicine-chest, to get something for it.
But the chest showed like the end of a long voyage, for
there was nothing that would answer but a few drops of
laudanum, which must be saved for any emergency; so I
had only to bear the pain as well as I could.
When we went on deck at eight bells, it had stopped
snowing, and there were a few stars out, but the clouds
were still black, and it was blowing a steady gale. Just be-
fore midnight, I went aloft and sent down the mizen royal
yard, and had the good luck to do it to the satisfaction of
the mate, who said it was done " out of hand and ship-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 309
shape." The next four hours below were but little relief to
me, for I lay awake in my berth, the whole time, from the
pain in my face, and heard every bell strike, and, at four
o'clock, turned out with the watch, feeling little spirit for
the hard duties of the day. Bad weather and hard work at
sea can be borne up against very well, if one only has spirit
and health ; but there is nothing brings a man down, at
such a time, like bodily pain and want of sleep. There was,
however, too much to do to allow time to think ; for the gale
of yesterday, and the heavy seas we met with a few days
before, while we had yet ten degrees more southing to
make, had convinced the captain that we had something
before us which was not to be trifled with, and orders were
given to send down the long top-gallant masts. The top-
gallant and royal yards were accordingly struck, the flying
jib-boom rigged in, and the top-gallant masts sent down
on deck, and all lashed together by the side of the long-
boat. The rigging was then sent down and coiled away
below, and everything made snug aloft. There was not a
sailor in the ship who was not rejoiced to see these sticks
come down; for, so long as the yards were aloft, on the
least sign of a lull, the top-gallant sails were loosed, and
then we had to furl them again in a snow-squall, and shin
up and down single ropes caked with ice, and send royal
•yards down in the teeth of a gale coming right from the
south pole. It was an interesting sight, too, to see our
noble ship, dismantled of all her top-hamper of long taper-
ing masts and yards, and boom pointed with spear-head,
which ornamented her in port ; and all that canvas, which
a few days before had covered her like a cloud, from the
truck to the water's edge, spreading far out beyond her
hull on either side, now gone; and she, stripped, like a
wrestler for the fight. It corresponded, too, with the
desolate character of her situation; — alone, as she was,
battling with storms, wind, and ice, at this extremity of
the globe, and in almost constant night.
Friday, July ist. We were now nearly up to the lati-
tude of Cape Horn, and having over forty degrees of east-
ing to make, we squared away the yards before a strong
westerly gale, shook a reef out of the fore-topsail, and
310 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
stood on our way, east-by-south, with the prospect of being
up with the Cape in a week or ten days. As for myself, I
had had no sleep for forty-eight hours; and the want of
rest, together with constant wet and cold, had increased the
swelling, so that my face was nearly as large as two, and
I found it impossible to get my mouth open wide enough
to eat. In this state, the steward applied to the captain for
some rice to boil for me, but he only got a — " No ! d — you !
Tell him to eat salt junk and hard bread, like the rest of
them." For this, of course, I was much obliged to him, and
in truth it was just what I expected. However, I did not
starve, for the mate, who was a man as well as a sailor,
and had always been a good friend to me, smuggled a pan
of rice into the galley, and told the cook to boil it for me,
and not let the " old man " see it. Had it been fine
weather, or in port, I should have gone below and lain by
until my face got well; but in such weather as this, and
short-handed as we were, it was not for me to desert my
post; so I kept on deck, and stood my watch and did my
duty as well as I could.
Saturday, July 2nd. This day the sun rose fair, but it
ran too low in the heavens to give any heat, or thaw out our
sails and rigging; yet the sight of it was pleasant; and we
had a steady " reef topsail breeze " from the westward.
The atmosphere, which had previously been clear and cold,
for the last few hours grew damp, and had a disagreeable,
wet chilliness in it ; and the man who came from the wheel
said he heard the captain tell " the passenger " that the
thermometer had fallen several degrees since morning,
which he could not account for in any other way than by
supposing that there must be ice near us ; though such a
thing had never been heard of in this latitude, at this sea-
son of the year. At twelve o'clock we went below, and had
just got through dinner, when the cook put his head down
the scuttle and told us to come on deck and see the finest
sight that we had ever seen. "Where away, cook?" asked
the first man who was up. " On the larboard bow." And
there lay, floating in the ocean, several miles off, an im-
mense, irregular mass, its top and points covered with
snow, and its center of a deep indigo color. This was an
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 311
iceberg, and of the largest size, as one of our men said who
had been in the Northern ocean. As far as the eye could
reach, the sea in every direction was of a deep blue color, the
waves running high and fresh, and sparkling in the light,
and in the midst lay this immense mountain-island, its
cavities and valleys thrown into deep shade, and its points
and pinnacles glittering in the sun. AH hands were soon on
deck, looking at it, and admiring in various ways its
beauty and grandeur. But no description can give any
idea of the strangeness, splendor, and, really, the sub-
limity, of the sight. Its great size; — for it must have been
from two to three miles in circumference, and several
hundred feet in height; — its slow motion, as its base rose
and sank in the water, and its high points nodded against
the clouds ; the dashing of the waves upon it, which, break-
ing high with foam, lined its base with a white crust; and
the thundering sound of the cracking of the mass, and
the breaking and tumbling down of huge pieces; together
with its nearness and approach, which added a slight ele-
ment of fear, — all combined to give to it the character of
true sublimity. The main body of the mass was, as I
have said, of an indigo color, its base crusted with frozen
foam; and as it grew thin and transparent toward the
edges and top, its color shaded off from a deep blue to the
whiteness of snow. It seemed to be drifting slowly toward
the north, so that we kept away and avoided it. It was in
sight all the afternoon ; and when we got to leeward of it,
the wind died away, so that we lay-to quite near it for a
greater part of the night. Unfortunately, there was no
moon, but it was a clear night, and we could plainly mark
the long, regular heaving of the stupendous mass, as its
edges moved slowly against the stars. Several times in our
watch loud cracks were heard, which sounded as though
they must have run through the whole length of the ice-
berg, and several pieces fell down with a thundering crash,
plunging heavily into the sea. Toward morning, a strong
breeze sprang up, and we filled away, and left it astern,
and at daylight it was out of sight. The next day, which
was
Sunday, July ^d, the breeze continued strong, the air
312 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
exceedingly chilly, and the thermometer low. In the
course of the day we saw several icebergs, of different sizes,
but none so near as the one which we saw the day before.
Some of them, as well as we could judge, at the distance
at which we were, must have been as large as that, if not
larger. At noon we were in latitude 55° 12' south, and
supposed longitude 89° 5' west. Toward night the wind
hauled to the southward, and headed us off our course a
little, and blew a tremendous gale; but this we did not
mind, as there was no rain nor snow, and we were already
under close sail.
Monday, July 4th. This was " independence day " in
Boston. What firing of guns, and ringing of bells, and
rejoicings of all sorts, in every part of our country! The
ladies (who have not gone down to Nahant, for a breath of
cool air, and sight of the ocean) walking the streets with
parasols over their heads, and the dandies in their white
pantaloons and silk stockings ! What quantities of ice-
cream have been eaten, and what quantities of ice brought
into the city from a distance, and sold out by the lump and
the pound! The smallest of the islands which we saw to-
day would have made the fortune of poor Jack, if he had
had it in Boston ; and I dare say he would have had no
objection to being there with it. This, to be sure, was no
place to keep the fourth of July. To keep ourselves warm,
and the ship out of the ice, was as much as we could do.
Yet no one forgot the day; and many were the wishes, and
conjectures, and comparisons, both serious and ludicrous,
which were made among all hands. The sun shone bright
as long as it was up, only that a scud of black clouds was
ever and anon driving across it. At noon we were in lat.
54° 27' S., and long. 85° 5' W., having made a good
deal of easting, but having lost in our latitude by the
heading of the wind. Between daylight and dark — that
is, between nine o'clock and three — we saw thirty-four
ice islands, of various sizes; some no bigger than the
hull of our vessel, and others apparently nearly as large
as the one that we first saw ; though, as we went on,
the islands became smaller and more numerous ; and, at
sundown of this day, a man at the mast-head saw large
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 313
fields of floating ice called " field-ice " at the south-east.
This kind of ice is much more dangerous than the large
islands, for those can be seen at a distance, and kept away
from; but the field-ice, floating in great quantities, and
covering the ocean for miles and miles, in pieces of every
size — large, flat, and broken cakes, with here and there an
island rising twenty and thirty feet, and as large as the
ship's hull; — this, it is very difficult to sheer clear of. A
constant look-out was necessary; for any of these pieces,
coming with the heave of the sea, were large enough to have
knocked a hole in the ship, and that would have been the
end of us; for no boat (even if we could have got one out)
could have lived in such a sea; and no man could have lived
in a boat in such weather. To make our condition still
worse, the wind came out due east, just after sundown, and
it blew a gale dead ahead, with hail and sleet, and a thick
fog, so that we could not see half the length of the ship.
Our chief reliance, the prevailing westerly gales, was thus
cut off; and here we were, nearly seven hundred miles to the
westward of the Cape, with a gale dead from the eastward,
and the weather so thick that we could not see the ice with
which we were surrounded, until it was directly under our
bows. At four, P. M. (it was then quite dark) all hands
were called, and sent aloft in a violent squall of hail and
rain, to take in sail. We had now all got on our " Cape
Horn rig " — thick boots, south-westers coming down over
our neck and ears, thick trowsers and jackets, and some
with oil-cloth suits over all. Mittens, too, we wore on
deck, but it would not do to go aloft with them on, for it
was impossible to work with them, and, being wet and stiff,
they might let a man slip overboard, for all the hold he
could get upon a rope ; so, we were obliged to work with
bare hands, which, as well as our faces, were often cut
with the hail-stones, which fell thick and large. Our ship
was now all cased with ice, — hull, spars, and standing rig-
ging; — and the running rigging so stiff that we could
hardly bend it so as to belay it, or, still worse, take a knot
with it; and the sails nearly as stiff as sheet iron. One
at a time, (for it was a long piece of work and required
many hands,) we furled the courses, mizen topsail, and
314 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
fore-topmast staysail, and close-reefed the fore and main
topsails, and hove the ship to under the fore, with the
main hauled up by the clewlines and buntlines, and ready
to be sheeted home, if we found it necessary to make sail
to get to windward of an ice island. A regular look-out was
then set, and kept by each watch in turn, until the morn-
ing. It was a tedious and anxious night. It blew hard the
whole time, and there was an almost constant driving of
either rain, hail, or snow. In addition to this, it was " as
thick as muck," and the ice was all about us. The captain
was on deck nearly the whole night, and kept the cook in
the galley, with a roaring fire, to make coffee for him,
which he took every few hours, and once or twice gave a
little to his officers; but not a drop of anything was there
for the crew. The captain, who sleeps all the daytime, and
comes and goes at night as he chooses, can have his brandy
and water in the cabin, and his hot coffee at the galley;
while Jack, who has to stand through everything, and work
in wet and cold, can have nothing to wet his lips or warm
his stomach. This was a " temperance ship," and, like
too many such ships, the temperance was all in the fore-
castle. The sailor, who only takes his one glass as it is
dealt out to him, is in danger of being drunk; while the
captain, who has all under his hand, and can drink as
much as he chooses, and upon whose self-possession and
cool judgment the lives of all depend, may be trusted with
any amount, to drink at his will. Sailors will never be
convinced that rum is a dangerous thing, by taking it
away from them, and giving it to the officers; nor that that
temperance is their friend, which takes from them what
they have always had, and gives them nothing in the place
of it. By seeing it allowed to their officers,, they will not
be convinced that it is taken from them for their good;
and by receiving nothing in its place, they will not believe
that it is done in kindness. On the contrary, many of
them look upon the change as a new instrument of tyranny.
Not that they prefer rum. I never knew a sailor, in my
life, who would not prefer a pot of hot coffee or chocolate,
in a cold night, to all the rum afloat. They all say that
rum only warms them for a time; yet, if they can get
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 31S
nothing better, they will miss what they have lost. The
momentary warmth and glow from drinking it; the break
and change which is made in a long, dreary watch by the
mere calling all hands aft and serving of it out; and the
simply having some event to look forward to, and to talk
about; give it an importance and a use which no one can
appreciate who has not stood his watch before the mast.
On my passage round Cape Horn before, the vessel that I
was in was not under temperance articles, and grog was
served out every middle and morning watch, and after
every reefing of topsails; and though I had never drank
rum before, and never intend to again, I took my allow-
ance then at the capstan, as the rest did, merely for the
momentary warmth it gave the system, and the change in
our feelings and aspect of our duties on the watch. At the
same time, as I have stated, there was not a man on board
who would not have pitched the rum to the dogs, (I have
heard them say so, a dozen times) for a pot of coffee or
chocolate ; or even for our common beverage — " water be-
witched, and tea begrudged," as it was.^ The temperance
reform is the best thing that ever was undertaken for the
sailor; but when the grog is taken from him, he ought to
have something in its place. As it is now, in most vessels,
it is a mere saving to the owners ; and this accounts for the
sudden increase of temperance ships, which surprised even
the best friends of the cause. If every merchant, when
he struck grog from the list of the expenses of his ship, had
been obliged to substitute as much coffee, or chocolate, as
would give each man a pot-full when he came off the top-
sail yard, on a stormy-night; — I fear Jack might have
gone to ruin on the old road.*
1 The proportions of the ingredients of the tea that was made for us, (and
ours, as I have before stated, was a favorable specimen of American mer-
chantmen) were, a pint of tea, and a pint and a half of molasses, to about
three gallons of water. These are all boiled down together in the " coppers,"
and before serving it out, the mess is stirred up with a stick, so as to give
each man his fair share of sweetening and tea-leaves. The tea for the cabin
is, of course, made in the usual way, in a tea-pot, and drank with sugar.
_ 2 I do not wish these remarks, so far as they relate to the saving of expense
in the outfit, to be applied to the owners of our ship, for she was supplied
with an abundance of stores, of the best kind that are given to seamen;
though the dispensing of them is necessarily left to the captain. Indeed, so
high was the reputation of " the employ " among men and officers, for the
character and outfit of their vessels, and for their liberality in conducting
their voyages, that when it was known that they had a ship fitting out for a
316 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
But this is not doubling Capt Horn. Eight hours of the
night, our watch was on deck, and during the whole of that
time we kept a bright look-out: one man on each bow, an-
other in the bunt of the fore yard, the third mate on the
scuttle, one on each quarter, and a man always standing by
the wheel. The chief mate was everywhere, and com-
manded the ship when the captain was below. When a
large piece of ice was seen in our way, or drifting near us,
the word was passed along, and the ship's head turned one
way and another; and sometimes the yards squared or
braced up. There was little else to do than to look out;
and we had the sharpest eyes in the ship on the forecastle.
The only variety was the monotonous voice of the look-out
forward — " Another island ! " — " Ice ahead ! " — " Ice on
the lee bow ! " — " Hard up the helm ! " — " Keep her off a
little ! "— " Stead-y ! "
In the meantime, the wet and cold had brought my face
into such a state that I could neither eat nor sleep; and
though I stood it out all night, yet, when it became light,
I was in such a state, that all hands told me I must go be-
low, and lie-by for a day or two, or I should be laid up for
a long time, and perhaps have the lock-jaw. When the
watch was changed I went into the steerage, and took off
my hat and comforter, and showed my face to the mate,
who told me to go below at once, and stay in my berth until
the swelling went down, and gave the cook orders to make
a poultice for me, and said he would speak to the captain,
I went below and turned-in, covering myself over with
blankets and jackets, and lay in my berth nearly twenty-
four hours, half asleep and half awake, stupid, from the
dull pain. I heard the watch called, and the men going up
and down, and sometimes a noise on deck, and a cry of
" ice," but I gave little attention to anything. At the end
of twenty-four hours the pain went down, and I had a long
sleep, which brought me back to my proper state ; yet my
face was so swollen and tender, that I was obliged to keep
to my berth for two or three days longer. During the two
days I had been below, the weather was much the same that
long voyage, and that hands were to be shipped at a certain time, — a half
hour before the time, as one of the crew told me, numbers of sailors were
steering down the wharf, hopping over the barrels, like flocks of sheep.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 317
it had been, head winds, and snow and rain ; or, if the
wind came fair, too foggy, and the ice too thick, to run.
At the end of the third day the ice was very thick; a com-
plete fog-bank covered the ship. It blew a tremendous
gale from the eastward, with sleet and snow, and there was
every promise of a dangerous and fatiguing night. At
dark, the captain called all hands aft, and told them that
not a man was to leave the deck that night; that the ship
was in the greatest danger ; any cake of ice might knock a
hole in her, or she might run on an island and go to pieces.
No one could tell whether she would be a ship the next
morning. The look-outs were then set, and every man
was put in his station. When I heard what was the state
of things, I began to put on my clothes to stand it out
with the rest of them, when the mate came below, and
looking at my face, ordered me back to my berth, saying
that if we went down, we should all go down together,
but if I went on deck I might lay myself up for life.
This was the first word I had heard from aft; for the
captain had done nothing, nor inquired how I was, since
I went below.
In obedience to the mate's orders, I went back to my
berth; but a more miserable night I never wish to spend.
I never felt the curse of sickness so keenly in my life. If
I could only have been on deck with the rest, where some-
thing was to be done, and seen, and heard; where there
were fellow-beings for companions in duty and danger —
but to be cooped up alone in a black hole, in equal danger,
but without the power to do, was the hardest trial. Sev-
eral times, in the course of the night, I got up, deter-
mined to go on deck; but the silence which showed that
there was nothing doing, and the knowledge that I might
make myself seriously ill, for nothing, kept me back. It
was not easy to sleep, lying, as I did, with my head
directly against the bows, which might be dashed in by
an island of ice, brought down by the very next sea
that struck her. This was the only time I had been ill
since I left Boston, and it was the worst time it could have
happened. I felt almost willing to bear the plagues of
Egypt for the rest of the voyage, if I could but be well
318 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
and strong for that one night. Yet it was a dreadful
night for those on deck. A watch of eighteen hours, with
wet, and cold, and constant anxiety, nearly wore them out;
and when they came below at nine o'clock for breakfast,
they almost dropped asleep on their chests, and some of
them were so stiff that they could with difficulty sit down.
Not a drop of anything had been given them during the
whole time, (though the captain, as on the night that I
was on deck, had his coffee every four hours,) except that
the mate stole a potful of coffee for two men to drink
behind the galley, while he kept a look-out for the captain.
Every man had his station, and was not allowed to leave
it; and nothing happened to break the monotony of the
night, except once setting the main topsails to run clear
of a large island to leeward, which they were drifting fast
upon. Some of the boys got so sleepy and stupefied, that
they actually fell asleep at their posts; and the young third
mate, whose station was the exposed one of standing on
the fore scuttle, was so stiff, when he was relieved, that
he could not bend his knees to get down. By a constant
look-out, and a quick shifting of the helm, as the islands
and pieces came in sight, the ship went clear of everything
but a few small pieces, though daylight showed the ocean
covered for miles. At daybreak it fell a dead calm, and
with the sun, the fog cleared a little, and a breeze sprung
up from the westward, which soon grew into a gale. We
had now a fair wind, daylight, and comparatively clear
weather; yet, to the surprise of every one, the ship con-
tinued hove-to. Why does not he run? What is the cap-
tain about? was asked by every one; and from questions,
it soon grew into complaints and murmurings. When the
daylight was so short, it was too bad to lose it, and a fair
wind, too, which every one had been praying for. As hour
followed hour, and the captain showed no sign of making
sail, the crew became impatient, and there was a good deal
of talking and consultation together, on the forecastle. They
had been beaten out with the exposure and hardship, and
impatient to get out of it, and this unaccountable delay was
more than they could bear in quietness, in their excited and
restless state. Some said that the captain was frightened, —
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 319
completely cowed, by the dangers and difficulties that sur-
rounded us, and was afraid to make sail ; while others said
that in his anxiety and suspense he had made a free use of
brandy and opium, and was unfit for his duty. The car-
penter, who was an intelligent man, and a thorough seaman,
and had great influence with the crew, came down into the
forecastle, and tried to induce the crew to go aft and ask the
captain why he did not run, or request him, in the name of
all hands, to make sail. This appeared to be a very rea-
sonable request, and the crew agreed that if he did not make
sail before noon, they would go aft. Noon came, and no
sail was made. A consultation was held again, and it was
proposed to take the ship from the captain and give the
command of her to the mate, who had been heard to say
that, if he could have his way, the ship would have been
half the distance to the Cape before night, — ice or no ice.
And so irritated and impatient had the crew become, that
even this proposition, which was open mutiny, punishable
with state prison, was entertained, and the carpenter went
to his berth, leaving it tacitly understood that something
serious would be done, if things remained as they were many
hours longer. When the carpenter left, we talked it all over,
and I gave my advice strongly against it. Another of the
men, too, who had known something of the kind attempted
in another ship by a crew who were dissatisfied with their
captain, and which was followed with serious consequences,
was opposed to it. S , who soon came down, joined us,
and we determined to have nothing to do with it. By these
means, they were soon induced to give it up, for the present,
though they said they would not lie where they were much
longer without knowing the reason.
The affair remained in this state until four o'clock, when
an order came forward for all hands to come aft upon the
quarter-deck. In about ten minutes they came forward
again, and the whole affair had been blown. The carpenter,
very prematurely, and without any authority from the crew,
had sounded the mate as to whether he would take command
of the ship, and intimated an intention to displace the captain;
and the mate, as in duty bound, had told the whole to the
captain, who immediately sent for all hands aft. Instead oi
320 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
violent measures, or, at least, an outbreak of quarter-deck
bravado, threats, and abuse, which they had every reason to
expect, a sense of common danger and common suffering
seemed to have tamed his spirit, and begotten something like
a humane fellow-feeling ; for he received the crew in a
manner quiet, and even almost kind. He told them what he
had heard, and said that he did not believe that they would
try to do any such thing as was intimated; that they had
always been good men, — obedient, and knew their duty, and
he had no fault to find with them ; and asked them what they
had to complain of — said that no one could say that he was
slow to carry sail, (which was true enough;) and that, as
soon as he thought it was safe and proper, he should make
sail. He added a few words about their duty in their present
situation, and sent them forward, saying that he should take
no further notice of the matter; but, at the same time, told
the carpenter to recollect whose power he was in, and that
if he heard another word from him he would have cause to
remember him to the day of his death.
This language of the captain had a very good effect upon
the crew, and they returned quietly to their duty.
For two days more the wind blew from the southward
and eastward ; or in the short intervals when it was fair,
the ice was too thick to run; yet the weather was not so
dreadfully bad, and the crew had watch and watch. I still
remained in my berth, fast recovering, yet still not well
enough to go safely on deck. And I should have been per-
fectly useless; for, from having eaten nothing for nearly
a week, except a little rice, which I forced into my mouth
the last day or two, I was as weak as an infant. To be sick
in a forecastle is miserable indeed. It is the worst part of
a dog's life; especially in bad weather. The forecastle, shut
up tight to keep out the water and cold air; — the watch
either on deck, or asleep in their berths; — no one to speak
to; — the pale light of the single lamp, swinging to and fro
from the beam, so dim that one can scarcely see, much less
read by it ; — the water dropping from the beams and carlines,
and running down the sides ; and the forecastle so wet, and
dark, and cheerless, and so lumbered up with chests and wet
clothes, that sitting up is worse than lying in the berth!
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 321
These are some of the evils. Fortunately, I needed no help
from any one, and no medicine ; and if I had needed help, I
don't know where I should have found it. Sailors are will-
ing enough, but it is true, as is often said — No one ships for
nurse on board a vessel. Our merchant ships are always
under-manned, and if one man is lost by sickness, they can-
not spare another to take care of him. A sailor is always
presumed to be well, and if he's sick, he's a poor dog. One
has to stand his wheel, and another his lookout, and the
sooner he gets on deck again, the better.
Accordingly, as soon as I could possibly go back to my
duty, I put on my thick clothes and boots and south-wester,
and made my appearance on deck. Though I had been but
a few days below, yet everything looked strangely enough.
The ship was cased in ice, — decks, sides, masts, yards, and
rigging. Two close-reefed top-sails were all the sail she had
on, and every sail and rope was frozen so stiff in its place,
that it seemed as though it would be impossible to start any-
thing. Reduced, too, to her top-masts, she had altogether a
most forlorn and crippled appearance. The sun had come
up brightly; the snow was swept off the decks, and ashes
thrown upon them, so that we could walk, for they had been
as slippery as glass. It was, of course, too cold to carry on
any ship's work, and we had only to walk the deck and keep
ourselves warm. The wind was still ahead, and the whole
ocean, to the eastward, covered with islands and field-ice.
At four bells the order was given to square away the yards;
and the man who came from the helm said that the captain
had kept her off to N. N. E. What could this mean ? Some
said that he was going to put into Valparaiso, and winter,
and others that he was going to run out of the ice and cross
the Pacific, and go home round the Cape of Good Hope,
Soon, however, it leaked out, and we found that we were
running for the straits of Magellan. The news soon spread
through the ship, and all tongues were at work, talking about
it. No one on board had been through the straits, but I had
in my chest an account of the passage of the ship A. J.
Donelson, of New York, through those straits, a few years
before. The account was given by the captain, and the rep-
resentation was as favorable as possible. It was soon read
K — VOL. XXIII HC
322 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
by every one on board, and various opinions pronounced.
The determination of our captain had at least this good
effect; it gave every one something to think and talk about,
made a break in our life, and diverted our minds from the
monotonous dreariness of the prospect before us. Having
made a fair wind of it, we were going off at a good rate,
and leaving the thickest of the ice behind us. This, at least,
was something.
Having been long enough below to get my hands well
warmed and softened, the first handling of the ropes was
rather tough ; but a few days hardened them, and as soon
as I got my mouth open wide enough to take in a piece of
salt beef and hard bread, I was all right again.
Sunday, July loth. Lat. 54° 10', long. 79° 07'. This was
our position at noon. The sun was out bright ; the ice was all
left behind, and things had quite a cheering appearance.
We brought our wet pea-jackets and trowsers on deck, and
hung them up in the rigging, that the breeze and the few
hours of sun might dry them a little; and, by the permission
of the cook, the galley was nearly filled with stockings and
mittens, hung round to be dried. Boots, too, were brought
up ; and having got a little tar and slush from below, we gave
them a thick coat. After dinner, all ^^ands were turned-to,
to get the anchors over the bows, bend on the chains, etc.
The fish-tackle was got up, fish-davit rigged out, and after
two or three hours of hare? and cold work, both the anchors
were ready for instant use, a couple of kedges got up, a
hawser coiled away upon the fore-hatch, and the deep-sea-
lead-line overhauled and got ready. Our spirits returned
with having something to do; and when the tackle was
manned to bowse the anchor home, notwithstanding the
desolation of the scene, we struck up " Cheerily ho ! " in full
chorus. This pleased the mate, who rubbed his hands and
cried out — " That's right, my boys ; never say die ! That
sounds like the old crew ! " and the captain came up, on
hearing the song, and said to the passenger, within hearing
of the man at the wheel, — " That sounds like a lively crew.
They'll have their song so long as there're enough left for
a chorus ! "
This preparation of the cable and anchors was for the
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 323
passage of the straits; for, being very crooked, and with a
variety of currents, it is necessary to come frequently to
anchor. This was not, by any means, a pleasant prospect,
for, of all the work that a sailor is called upon to do in cold
weather, there is none so bad as working the ground-tackle.
The heavy chain cables to be hauled and pulled about the
decks with bare hands; wet hawsers, slip-ropes, and buoy-
ropes to be hauled aboard, dripping in water, which is
running up your sleeves, and freezing; clearing hawse under
the bows; getting under weigh and coming-to, at all hours
of the night and day, and a constant look-out for rocks
and sands and turns of tides; — these are some of the dis-
agreeables of such a navigation to a common sailor. Fair
or foul, he wants to have nothing to do with the ground-
tackle between port and port. One of our hands, too, had
unluckily fallen upon a half of an old newspaper which
contained an account of the passage, through the straits, of
a Boston brig, called, I think, the Peruvian, in which she
lost every cable and anchor she had, got aground twice, and
arrived at Valparaiso in distress. This was set off against
the account of the A. J. Donelson, and led us to look forward
with less confidence to the passage, especially as no one on
board had ever been through, and the captain had no very
perfect charts. However, we were spared any further ex-
perience on the point ; for the next day, when we must have
been near the Cape of Pillars, which is the south-west point
of the mouth of the straits, a gale set in from the eastward,
with a heavy fog, so that we could not see half of the ship's
length ahead. This, of course, put an end to the project,
for the present; for a thick fog and a gale blowing dead
ahead are not the most favorable circumstances for the
passage of difficult and dangerous straits. This weather,
too, seemed likely to last for some time, and we could not
think of beating about the mouth of the straits for a week
or two, waiting for a favorable opportunity; so we braced
up on the larboard tack, put the ship's head due south, and
Struck her off for Cape Horn again.
CHAPTER XXXn
Ice Again — A Beautiful Afternoon — Cape Horn —
" Land Ho ! " — Heading for Home
IN our first attempt to double the Cape, when we came
up to the latitude of it, we were nearly seventeen hun-
dred miles to the westward, but, in running for the
straits of Magellan, we stood so far to the eastward, that
we made our second attempt at a distance of not more
than four or five hundred miles; and we had great hopes,
by this means, to run clear of the ice; thinking that the
easterly gales, which had prevailed for a long time, would
have driven it to the westward. With the wind about two
points free, the yards braced in a little, and two close-reefed
topsails and a reefed foresail on the ship, we made great way
toward the southward and, almost every watch, when we
came on deck, the air seemed to grow colder, and the sea to
run higher. Still, we saw no ice, and had great hopes of go-
ing clear of it altogether, when, one afternoon, about three
o'clock, while we were taking a siesta during our watch
below, "All hands ! " was called in a loud and fearful voice.
" Tumble up here, men ! — tumble up ! — don't stop for your
clothes — before we're upon it ! " We sprang out of our
berths and hurried upon deck. The loud, sharp voice of
the captain was heard giving orders, as though for life or
death, and we ran aft to the braces, not waiting to look
ahead, for not a moment was to be lost. The helm was
hard up, the after yards shaking, and the ship in the act
of wearing. Slowly, with stiff ropes and iced rigging,
we swung the yards round, everything coming hard, and
with a creaking and rending sound, like pulling up a plank
which had been frozen into the ice. The ship wore round
fairly, the yards were steadied, and we stood off on the
other tack, leaving behind us, directly under our larboard
324
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 325
quarter, a large ice island, peering out of the mist, and
reaching high above our tops, while astern ; and on either
side of the island, large tracts of field-ice were dimly seen,
heaving and rolling in the sea. We were now safe, and
standing to the northward ; but, in a few minutes more, had
it not been for the sharp look-out of the watch, we should
have been fairly upon the ice, and left our ship's old bones
adrift in the Southern ocean. After standing to the north-
ward a few hours, we wore ship, and the wind having hauled,
we stood to the southward and eastward. All night long,
a bright lookout was kept from every part of the deck; and
whenever ice was seen on the one bow or the other, the
helm was shifted and the yards braced, and by quick work-
ing of the ship she was kept clear. The accustomed cry of
" Ice ahead ! " — " Ice on the lee bow ! " — "Another island ! "
in the same tones, and with the same orders following them,
seemed to bring us directly back to our old position of the
week before. During our watch on deck, which was from
twelve to four, the wind came out ahead, with a pelting
storm of hail and sleet, and we lay hove-to, under a close-
reefed main topsail, the whole watch. During the next
watch it fell calm, with a drenching rain, until daybreak,
when the wind came out to the westward, and the weather
cleared up, and showed us the whole ocean, in the course
which we should have steered, had it not been for the head
wind and calm, completely blocked up with ice. Here then
our progress was stopped, and we wore ship, and once
more stood to the northward and eastward; not for the
straits of Magellan, but to make another attempt to double
the Cape, still farther to the eastward ; for the captain was
determined to get round if perseverance could do it ; and
the third time, he said, never failed.
With a fair wind we soon ran clear of the field-ice, and
by noon had only the stray islands floating far and near
upon the ocean. The sun was out bright, the sea of a deep
blue, fringed with the white foam of the waves which ran
high before a strong south-wester ; our solitary ship tore
on through the water, as though glad to be out of her
confinement; and the ice islands lay scattered upon the
ocean here and there, of various sizes and shapes, reflect-
326 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
ing the bright rays of the sun, and drifting slowly north-
ward before the gale. It was a contrast to much that we
had lately seen, and a spectacle not only of beauty, but of
life; for it required but little fancy to imagine these
islands to be animate masses which had broken loose from
the " thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice," and were work-
ing their way, by wind and current, some alone, and some
in fleets, to milder climes. No pencil has ever yet given
anything like the true effect of an iceberg. In a picture,
they are huge, uncouth masses, stuck in the sea, while
their chief beauty and grandeur, — their slow, stately motion;
the whirling of the snow about their summits, and the
fearful groaning and cracking of their parts, — the picture
cannot give. This is the large iceberg; while the small and
distant islands, floating on the smooth sea, in the light of
a clear day, look like little floating fairy isles of sapphire.
From a north-east course we gradually hauled to the
eastward, and after sailing about two hundred miles, which
brought us as near to the western coast of Terra del
Fuego as was safe, and having lost sight of the ice alto-
gether, — for the third time we put the ship's head to the
southward, to try the passage of the Cape. The weather
continued clear and cold, with a strong gale from the west-
ward, and we were fast getting up with the latitude of
the Cape, with a prospect of soon being round. One
fine afternoon, a man who had gone into the fore-top to
shift the rolling tackles, sung out, at the top of his voice,
and with evident glee, — " Sail ho ! " Neither land nor sail
had we seen since leaving San Diego; and any one who
has traversed the length of a whole ocean alone, can imag-
ine what an excitement such an announcement produced
on board. "Sail ho!" shouted the cook, jumping out of
his galley; "Sail ho!" shouted a man, throwing back the
slide of the scuttle, to the watch below, who were soon out
of their berths and on deck; and "Sail ho!" shouted the
captain down the companion-way to the passenger in the
cabin. Besides the pleasure of seeing a ship and human
beings in so desolate a place, it was important for us to
speak a vessel, to learn whether there was ice to the east-
ward, and to ascertain the longitude; for we had no chro-
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 327
nometer, and had been drifting about so long that we had
nearly lost our reckoning, and opportunities for lunar ob-
servations are not frequent or sure in such a place as Cape
Horn. For these various reasons, the excitement in our
little community was running high, and conjectures were
made, and everything thought of for which the captain
would hail, when the man aloft sung out — "Another sail,
large on the weather bow ! " This was a little odd, but
so much the better, and did not shake our faith in their
being sails. At length the man in the top hailed, and said
he believed it was land, after all. " Land in your eye ! "
said the mate, who was looking through a telescope ; " they
are ice islands, if I can see a hole through a ladder ; " and
a few moments showed the mate to be right and all our
expectations fled; and instead of what we most wished to
see, we had what we most dreaded, and what we hoped
we had seen the last of. We soon, however, left these
astern, having passed within about two miles of them;
and at sundown the horizon was clear in all directions.
Having a fine wind, we were soon up with and passed
the latitude of the Cape, and having stood far enough to
the southward to give it a wide berth, we began to stand
to the eastward, with a good prospect of being round and
steering to the northward on the other side, in a very few
days.
But ill luck seemed to have lighted upon us. Not four
hours had we been standing on in this course, before
it fell dead calm; and in half an hour it clouded up; a few
straggling blasts, with spits of snow and sleet, came from
the eastward; and in an hour more, we lay hove-to under
a close-reefed main topsail, drifting bodily off to leeward
before the fiercest storm that we had yet felt, blowing dead
ahead, from the eastward. It seemed as though the genius
of the place had been roused at finding that we had nearly
slipped through his fingers, and had come down upon us
with tenfold fury. The sailors said that every blast, as it
shook the shrouds, and whistled through the rigging, said
to the old ship, " No, you don't ! "— " No, you don't ! "
For eight days we lay drifting about in this manner.
Sometimes,— generally towards noon, — it fell calm; once of
328 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
twice a round copper ball showed itself for a few moments
in the place where the sun ought to have been; and a puff
or two came from the westward, giving some hope that
a fair wind had come at last. During the first two days,
we made sail for these puffs, shaking the reefs out of the
topsails and boarding the tacks of the courses; but find-
ing that it only made work for us when the gale set in
again, it was soon given up, and we lay-to under our close-
reefs.
We had less snow and hail than when we were
farther to the westward, but we had an abundance of what
is worse to a sailor in cold weather — drenching rain. Snow
is blinding, and very bad when coming upon a coast, but,
for genuine discomfort, give me rain with freezing weather.
A snow-storm is exciting, and it does not wet through
the clothes (which is important to a sailor) ; but a con-
stant rain there is no escaping from. It wets to the skin,
and makes all protection vain. We had long ago run
through all our dry clothes, and as sailors have no other
way of drying them than by the sun, we had nothing to
do but to put on those which were the least wet. At
the end of each watch, when we came below, we took off
our clothes and wrung them out; two taking hold of a
pair of trowsers, — one at each end, — and jackets in the
same way. Stockings, mittens, and all, were wrung out
also and then hung up to drain and chafe dry against the
bulk-heads. Then, feeling of all our clothes, we picked out
those which were the least wet, and put them on, so as
to be ready for a call, and turned-in, covered ourselves up
with blankets, and slept until three knocks on the scuttle
and the dismal sound of '* All starbowlines ahoy ! Eight
bells, there below! Do you hear the news?" drawled out
from on deck, and the sulky answer of "Aye, aye ! " from
below, sent us up again.
On deck, all was as dark as a pocket, and either a dead
calm, with the rain pouring steadily down, or, more gen-
erally, a violent gale dead ahead, with rain pelting hori-
zontally, and occasional variations of hail and sleet; — decks
afloat with water swashing from side to side, and con-
stantly wet feet; for boots could not be wrung out like
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 329
drawers, and no composition could stand the constant
soaking. In fact, wet and cold feet are inevitable in such
weather, and are not the least of those little items which
go to make up the grand total of the discomforts of a
winter passage round the Cape. Few words were spoken be-
tween the watches as they shifted, the wheel was relieved,
the mate took his place on the quarter-deck, the look-outs
in the bows ; and each man had his narrow space to walk fore
and aft in, or, rather, to swing himself forward and back
in, from one belaying pin to another, — for the decks were
too slippery with ice and water to allow of much walk-
ing. To make a walk, which is absolutely necessary to
pass away the time, one of us hit upon the expedient of
sanding the deck ; and afterwards, whenever the rain was
not so violent as to wash it off, the weatherside of the
quarter-deck, and a part of the waist and forecastle were
sprinkled with the sand which we had on board for holy-
stoning; and thus we made a good promenade, where we
walked fore and aft, two and two, hour after hour, in our
long, dull, and comfortless watches. The bells seemed to
be an hour or two apart, instead of half an hour, and an
age to elapse before the welcome sound of eight bells. The
sole object was to make the time pass on. Any change
was sought for, which would break the monotony of the
time ; and even the two hours' trick at the wheel, which
came round to each of us, in turn, once in every other
watch, was looked upon as a relief. Even the never-failing
resource of long yarns, which eke out many a watch,
seemed to have failed us now ; for we had been so long to-
gether that we had heard each other's stories told over and
over again, till we had them by heart ; each one knew the
whole history of each of the others, and we were fairly and
literally talked out. Singing and joking, we were in no
humor for, and, in fact, any sound of mirth or laughter
would have struck strangely upon our ears, and would
not have been tolerated, any more than whistling, or a
wind instrument. The last resort, that of speculating upon
the future, seemed now to fail us, for our discourag-
ing situation, and the danger we were really in, (as we
expected every day to find ourselves drifted back among
330 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the ice) " clapped a stopper " upon all that. From saying
— " when we get home " — we began insensibly to alter it
to—" if we get home " — and at last the subject was dropped
by a tacit consent.
In this state of things, a new light was struck out, and
a new field opened, by a change in the watch. One of our
watch was laid up for two or three days by a bad hand,
(for in cold weather the least cut or bruise ripens into a
sore,) and his place was supplied by the carpenter. This
was a windfall, and there was quite a contest, who should
have the carpenter to walk with him. As " Chips " was a
man of some little education, and he and I had had a good
deal of intercourse with each other, he fell in with me in
my walk. He was a Fin, but spoke English very well, and
gave me long accounts of his country; — the customs, the
trade, the towns, what little he knew of the government,
(I found he was no friend of Russia,) his voyages, his first
arrival in America, his marriage and courtship; — he had
married a countrywoman of his, a dress-maker, whom he
met with in Boston. I had very little to tell him of my
quiet, sedentary life at home; and, in spite of our best ef-
forts, which had protracted these yarns through five or
six watches, we fairly talked one another out, and I turned
him over to another man in the watch, and put myself
upon my own resources.
I commenced a deliberate system of time-killing, which
united some profit with a cheering up of the heavy hours.
As soon as I came on deck, and took my place and regular
walk, I began with repeating over to myself a string of
matters which I had in my memory, in regular order.
First, the multiplication table and the tables of weights
and measures; then the states of the union, with their
capitals; the counties of England, with their shire towns;
the kings of England in their order; and a large part of
the peerage, which I committed from an almanac that we
had on board; and then the Kanaka numerals. This car-
ried me through my facts, and, being repeated deliberately,
with long intervals, often eked out the two first bells.
Then came the ten commandments; the thirty-ninth chap-
ter of Job, and a few other passages from Scripture. The
T^'^O YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 331
next in the order, that I never varied from, came Cowper's
Castaway, which was a great favorite with me; the solemn
measure and gloomy character of which, as well as the
incident that it was founded upon, made it well suited to
a lonely watch at sea. Then his lines to Mary, his ad-
dress to the jackdaw, and a short extract from Table Talk;
(I abounded in Cowper, for I happened to have a volume
of his poems in my chest;) " Ille et nefasto " from Horace,
and Goethe's Erl King. After I had got through these,
I allowed myself a more general range among everything
that I could remember, both in prose and verse. In this
way, with an occasional break by relieving the wheel,
heaving the log, and going to the scuttle-butt for a drink
of water, the longest watch was passed away; and I was
so regular in my silent recitations, that if there was no
interruption by ship's duty, I could tell very nearly the
number of bells by my progress.
Our watches below were no more varied than the watch
on deck. All washing, sewing, and reading was given up;
and we did nothing but eat, sleep, and stand our watch,
leading what might be called a Cape Horn life. The fore-
castle was too uncomfortable to sit up in; and whenever
we were below, we were in our berths. To prevent the
rain, and the sea-water which broke over the bows, from
washing down, we were obliged to keep the scuttle closed,
so that the forecastle was nearly air-tight. In this little,
wet, leaky hole, we were all quartered, in an atmosphere so
bad that our lamp, which swung in the middle from the
beams, sometimes actually burned blue, with a large circle
of foul air about it. Still I was never in better health
than after three weeks of this life. I gained a great deal
of flesh, and we all ate like horses. At every watch, when
we came below, before turning-in, the bread barge and
beef kid were overhauled. Each man drank his quart of
hot tea night and morning: and glad enough we were to
get it, for no nectar and ambrosia were sweeter to the lazy
immortals, than was a pot of hot tea, a hard biscuit, and
a slice of cold salt beef, to us after a watch on deck. To
be sure, we were mere animals and had this life lasted a
year instead of a month we should have been little better
332 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
than the ropes in the ship. Not a razor, nor a brush, nor
a drop of water, except the rain and the spray, had come
near us all the time ; for we were on an allowance of fresh
water; and who would strip and wash himself in salt
water on deck, in the snow and ice, with the thermometer
at zero?
After about eight days of constant easterly gales, the
wind hauled occasionally a little to the southward, and
blew hard, which, as we were well to the southward, al-
lowed us to brace in a little and stand on, under all the
sail we could carry. These turns lasted but a short while,
and sooner or later it set again from the old quarter;
yet at each time we made something, and were gradually
edging along to the eastward. One night, after one of
these shifts of the wind, and when all hands had been up
a great part of the time, our watch was left on deck, with
the mainsail hanging in the buntlines, ready to be set if
necessary. It came on to blow worse and worse, with hail
and snow beating like so many furies upon the ship, it
being as dark and thick as night could make it. The main-
sail was blowing and slatting with a noise like thunder,
when the captain came on deck, and ordered it to be
furled. The mate was about to call all hands, when the
captain stopped him, and said that the men would be
beaten out if they were called up so often ; that as our
watch must stay on deck, it might as well be doing that
as anything else. Accordingly, we went upon the yard;
and never shall I forget that piece of work. Our watch
had been so reduced by sickness, and by some having been
left in California, that, with one man at the wheel, we
had only the third mate and three beside myself to go
aloft; so that, at most, we could only attempt to furl one
yard-arm at a time. We manned the weather yard-arm,
and set to work to make a furl of it. Our lower masts
being short, and our yards very square, the sail had a head
of nearly fifty feet, and a short leach, made still shorter
by the deep reef which was in it, which brought the clew
away out on the quarters of the yard, and made a bunt
nearly as square as the mizen royal-yard. Beside this
difficulty, the yard over which we lay was cased with ice,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 333
the gaskets and rope of the foot and leach of the sail as
stiff and hard as a piece of suction-hose, and the sail
itself about as pliable as though it had been made of sheets
of sheathing copper. It blew a perfect hurricane, with
alternate blasts of snow, hail, and rain. We had to fist
the sail with bare hands. No one could trust himself to
mittens, for if he slipped, he was a gone man. All the
boats were hoisted in on deck, and there was nothing to
be lowered for him. We had need of every finger God
had given us. Several times we got the sail upon the
yard, but it blew away again before we could secure it.
It required men to lie over the yard to pass each turn of
the gaskets, and when they were passed, it was almost
impossible to knot them so that they would hold. Fre-
quently we were obliged to leave off altogether and take
to beating our hands upon the sail, to keep them from
freezing. After some time, — which seemed forever, —
we got the weather side stowed after a fashion, and went
over to leeward for another trial. This was still worse,
for the body of the sail had been blown over to leeward,
and as the yard was a-cock-bill by the lying over of the
vessel, we had to light it all up to windward. When the
yard-arms were furled, the bunt was all adrift again,
which made more work for us. We got all secure at last,
but we had been nearly an hour and a half upon the yard,
and it seemed an age. It just struck five bells when
we went up, and eight were struck soon after we came
down. This may seem slow work, but considering the
state of everything, and that we had only five men to a
sail with just half as many square yards of canvas in
it as the mainsail of the Independence, sixty-gun ship,
which musters seven hundred men at her quarters, it is not
wonderful that we were no quicker about it. We were
glad enough to get on deck, and still more, to go below.
The oldest sailor in the watch said, as he went down, — " I
shall never forget that main yard ; — it beats all my going
a fishing. Fun is fun, but furling one yard-arm of a
course, at a time, off Cape Horn, is no better than man-
killing."
During the greater part of the next two days, the wind
334 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
was pretty steady from the southward. We had evidently
made great progress, and had good hope of being soon up
with the Cape, if we were not there already. We could
put but little confidence in our reckoning, as there had
been no opportunities for an observation, and we had
drifted too much to allow of our dead reckoning being any-
where near the mark. If it would clear off enough to give a
chance for an observation, or if we could make land, we
should know where we were; and upon these, and the
chances of falling in with a sail from the eastward, we
depended almost entirely.
Friday, July 22d. This day we had a steady gale from the
southward, and stood on under close sail, with the yards
eased a little by the weather braces, the clouds lifting a
little, and showing signs of breaking away. In the after-
noon, I was below with Mr. H , the third mate, and two
others, filling the bread locker in the steerage from the casks,
when a bright gleam of sunshine broke out and shone down
the companion-way and through the sky-light, lighting up
everything below, and sending a warm glow through the
heart of every one. It was a sight we had not seen for
weeks, — an omen, a god-send. Even the roughest and hard-
est face acknowledged its influence. Just at that moment we
heard a loud shout from all parts of the deck, and the mate
called out down the companion-way to the captain, who was
sitting in the cabin. What he said, we could not distinguish,
but the captain kicked over his chair, and was on deck at one
jump. We could not tell what it was; and, anxious as we
were to know, the discipline of the ship would not allow of
our leaving our places. Yet, as we were not called, we knew
there was no danger. We hurried to get through with our
job, when, seeing the steward's black face peering out of
the pantry, Mr. H hailed him, to know what was the
matter. " Lan' o, to be sure, sir ! No you hear 'em sing out,
' Lan' o? * De cap'em say 'im Cape Horn ! "
This gave us a new start, and we were soon through our
work, and on deck; and there lay the land, fair upon the
larboard beam, and slowly edging away upon the quarter.
All hands were busy looking at it, — the captain and mates
from the quarter-deck, the cook from his galley, and the
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 335
sailors from the forecastle ; and even Mr. N., the passenger,
who had kept in his shell for nearly a month, and hardly
been seen by anybody, and who we had almost forgotten
was on board, came out like a butterfly, and was hopping
round as bright as a bird.
The land was the island of Staten Land, and, just to the
eastward of Cape Horn ; and a more desolate-looking spot I
never wish to set eyes upon ; — bare, broken, and girt with
rocks and ice, with here and there, between the rocks and
broken hillocks, a little stunted vegetation of shrubs. It was
a place well suited to stand at the junction of the two oceans,
beyond the reach of human cultivation, and encounter the
blasts and snows of a perpetual winter. Yet, dismal as it
was, it was a pleasant sight to us ; not only as being the first
land we had seen, but because it told us that we had passed
the Cape, — were in the Atlantic, — and that, with twenty-four
hours of this breeze, might bid defiance to the Southern
Ocean. It told us, too, our latitude and longitude better than
any observation ; and the captain now knew where we were,
as well as if we were off the end of Long wharf.
In the general joy, Mr. N. said he should like to go ashore
upon the island and examine a spot which probably no
human being had ever set foot upon; but the captain inti-
mated that he would see the island — specimens and all, —
in — another place, before he would get out a boat or delay
the ship one moment for him.
We left the land gradually astern ; and at sundown had
the Atlantic Ocean clear before us.
CHAPTER XXXIir
Cracking on — Progress Homeward — A Pleasant Sunday
— A Fine Sight — By-Play
IT IS usual, in voyages round the Cape from the Pacific,
to keep to the eastward of the Falkland Islands ; but as
it had now set in a strong, steady, and clear south-
wester, with every prospect of its lasting, and we had had
enough of high latitudes, the captain determined to stand im-
mediately to the northward, running inside the Falkland
Islands. Accordingly, when the wheel was relieved at eight
o'clock, the order was given to keep her due north, and all
hands were turned up to square away the yards and make
sail. In a moment, the news ran through the ship that the
captain was keeping her off, with her nose straight for
Boston, and Cape Horn over her taffrail. It was a moment
of enthusiasm. Every one was on the alert, and even the
two sick men turned out to lend a hand at the halyards.
The wind was now due south-west, and blowing a gale to
which a vessel close hauled could have shown no more than
a single close-reefed sail ; but as we were going before it,
we could carry on. Accordingly, hands were sent aloft, and
a reef shaken out of the top-sails, and the reefed foresail set.
When we came to masthead the topsail yards, with all hands
at the halyards, we struck up " Cheerily, men," with a
chorus which might have been heard half-way to Staten
Land. Under her increased sail, the ship drove on through
the water. Yet she could bear it well ; and the captain sang
out from the quarter-deck — " Another reef out of that fore-
topsail, and give it to her ! " Two hands sprang aloft ; the
frozen reef-points and earings were cast adrift, the halyards
manned, and the sail gave out her increased canvas to the
gale. All hands were kept on deck to watch the effect of
the change. It was as much as she could well carry, and
336
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 337
with a heavy sea astern, it took two men at the wheel to
steer her. She flung the foam from her bows; the spray
breaking aft as far as the gangway. She was going at a
prodigious rate. Still, everything held. Preventer braces
were reeved and hauled taught; tackles got upon the back-
stays ; and each thing done to keep all snug and strong. The
captain walked the deck at a rapid stride, looked aloft at the
sails, and then to windward ; the mate stood in the gangway,
rubbing his hands, and talking aloud to the ship — " Hurrah,
old bucket ! the Boston girls have got hold of the tow-rope ! "
and the like ; and we were on the forecastle, looking to see
how the spars stood it, and guessing the rate at which she
was going, — when the captain called out — " Mr. Brown, get
up the topmast studding-sail ! What she can't carry she may
orag ! " The mate looked a moment ; but he would let no
one be before him in daring. He sprang forward — "Hurrah,
men ! rig out the topmast studding-sail boom ! Lay aloft, and
I'll send the rigging up to you ! " — We sprang aloft into the
top; lowered a girt-line down, by which we hauled up the
rigging; rove the tacks and halyards; ran out the boom and
lashed it fast, and sent down the lower halyards, as a pre-
venter. It was a clear starlight night, cold and blowing; but
everybody worked with a will. Some, indeed, looked as
though they thought the " old man " was mad, but no one
said a word. We had had a new topmast studding-sail made
with a reef in it, — a thing hardly ever heard of, and which
the sailors had ridiculed a good deal, saying that when it was
time to reef a studding-sail, it was time to take it in. But
we found a use for it now ; for, there being a reef in the
topsail, the studding-sail could not be set without one in it
also. To be sure, a studding-sail with reefed topsails was
rather a new thing; yet there was some reason in it, for if
we carried that away, we should lose only a sail and a
boom; but a whole topsail might have carried away the
mast and all.
While we were aloft, the sail had been got out, bent to the
yard, reefed, and ready for hoisting. Waiting for a good
opportunity, the halyards were manned and the yard hoisted
fairly up to the block ; but when the mate came to shake the
catspaw out of the downhaul, and we began to boom-end
338 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the sail, it shook the ship to her centre. The boom buckled
up and bent Hke a whip-stick, and we looked every niouieiit
to see something go; but, being of the short, tough upland
spruce, it bent like whalebone, and nothing could break it.
The carpenter said it was the best stick he had ever seen.
The strength of all hands soon brought the tack to the boom-
end, and the sheet was trimmed down, and the preventer and
the weather brace hauled taught to take off the strain.
Every rope-yarn seemed stretched to the utmost, and every
thread of canvas; and with this sail added to her, the ship
sprang through the water like a thing possessed. The sail
being nearly all forward, it lifted her out of the water, and
she seemed actually to jump from, sea to sea. From the time
her keel was laid, she had never been so driven ; and had it
been life or death with every one of us, she could not have
borne another stitch of canvas.
Finding that she would bear the sail, the hands were sent
below, and our watch remained on deck. Two men at the
wheel had as much as they could do to keep her within three
points of her course, for she steered as wild as a young colt.
The mate walked the deck, looking at the sails, and then over
the side to see the foam fly by her, slapping his hands upon
his thighs and talking to the ship — " Hurrah, you jade,
you've got the scent ! — you know where you're going ! " And
when she leaped over the seas, and almost out of the water,
and trembled to her very keel, the spars and masts snapping
and creaking, — " There she goes ! — There she goes, — hand-
somely ! — as long as she cracks she holds ! " — while we
stood with the rigging laid down fair for letting go, and
ready to take in sail and clear away, if anything went. At
four bells we hove the log, and she was going eleven knots
fairly; and had it not been for the sea from aft which sent
the ship home, and threw her continually of¥ her course, the
log would have shown her to have been going much faster.
I went to the wheel with a young fellow from the Kennebec,
who was a good helmsman ; and for two hours we had our
hands full. A few minutes showed us that our monkey-
jackets must come off; and, cold as it was, we stood in our
shirt-sleeves, in a perspiration ; and were glad enough to
have it eight bells, and the wheel relieved. We turned-in
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 339
and slept as well as we could, though the sea made a con-
stant roar under her bows, and washed over the forecastle
like a small cataract.
At four o'clock, we were called again. The same sail was
still on the vessel, and the gale, if there was any change, had
increased a little. No attempt was made to take the stud-
ding-sail in; and, indeed, it was too late now. If we had
started anything toward taking it in, either tack or halyards,
it would have blown to pieces, and carried something away
with it. The only way now was to let everything stand, and
if the gale went down, well and good; if not, something must
go — the weakest stick or rope first — and then we could get
it in. For more than an hour she was driven on at such a
rate that she seemed actually to crowd the sea into a heap
before her; and the water poured over the spritsail yard as
it would over a dam. Toward daybreak the gale abated a
little, and she was just beginning to go more easily along, re-
lieved of the pressure, when Mr. Brown, determined to give
her no respite, and depending upon the wind's subsiding as
the sun rose, told us to get along the lower studding-sail.
This was an immense sail, and held wind enough to last a
Dutchman a week, — hove-to. It was soon ready, the boom
topped up, preventer guys rove, and the idlers called up to
man the halyards; yet such was still the force of the gale,
that we were nearly an hour setting the sail; carried away
the outhaul in doing it, and came very near snapping off the
swinging boom. No sooner was it set than the ship tore on
again like one that was mad, and began to steer as wild as
a hawk. The men at the wheel were puffing and blowing at
their work, and the helm was going hard up and hard down,
constantly. Add to this, the gale did not lessen as the day
came on, but the sun rose in clouds. A sudden lurch threw
the man from the weather wheel across the deck and against
the side. The mate sprang to the wheel, and the man, re-
gaining his feet, seized the spokes, and they hove the wheel
up just in time to save her from broaching to ; though nearly
half the studding-sail went under water; and as she came to,
the boom stood up at an angle of forty-five degrees. She
had evidently more on her than she could bear ; yet it was in
vain to try to take it in — the clewline was not strong enough ;
340 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
and they were thinking of cutting away, when another wide
yaw and a come-to, snapped the guys, and the swinging boom
came in, with a crash, against the lower rigging. The out-
haul block gave way, and the topmast studding-sail boom
bent in a manner which I never before supposed a stick
could bend. I had my eye on it when the guys parted, and it
made one spring and buckled up so as to form nearly a half
circle, and sprang out again to its shape. The clewline
gave way at the first pull; the cleat to which the halyards
were belayed was wrenched off, and the sail blew round the
spritsail yards and head guys, which gave us a bad job to
get it in. A half hour served to clear all away, and she was
suffered to drive on with her topmast studding-sail set, it
being as much as she could stagger under.
During all this day and the next night, we went on under
the same sail, the gale blowing with undiminished force ; two
men at the wheel all the time ; watch and watch, and nothing
to do but to steer and look out for the ship, and be blown
along; — until the noon of the next day —
Sunday, July 24th, when we were in latitude 50° 27' S.,
longitude 62° 13' W., having made four degrees of latitude
in the last twenty-four hours. Being now to northward
of the Falkland Islands, the ship was kept off, north-
east, for the equator; and with her head for the equa-
tor, and Cape Horn over her taffrail, she went glori-
ously on ; every heave of the sea leaving the Cape
astern, and every hour bringing us nearer to home, and to
warm weather. Many a time, when blocked up in the ice,
with everything dismal and discouraging about us, had we
said, — if we were only fairly round, and standing north on
the other side, we should ask for no more: — and now we had
it all, with a clear sea, and as much wind as a sailor could
pray for. If the best part of the voyage is the last part, surely
we had all now that we could v/ish. Every one was in the
highest spirits, and the ship seemed as glad as any of us at
getting out of her confinement. At each change of the
watch, those coming on deck asked those going below —
"How does she go along?'" and got for answer, the rate,
and the customary addition — " Aye I and the Boston girls
have had hold of the tow-rope all the watch, and can't hau)
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 341
half the slack in ! " Each day the sun rose higher in the
horizon, and the nights grew shorter ; and at coming on deck
each morning, there was a sensible change in the tempera-
ture. The ice, too, began to melt from ofif the rigging and
spars, and, except a little which remained in the tops and
round the hounds of the lower masts, was soon gone. As
we left the gale behind us, the reefs were shaken out of the
topsails, and sail made as fast as she could bear it; and
every time all hands were sent to the halyards, a song was
called for, and we hoisted away with a will.
Sail after sail was added, as we drew into fine weather;
and in one week after leaving Cape Horn, the long top-
gallant masts were got up, topgallant and royal yards
crossed, and the ship restored to her fair proportions.
The Southern Cross we saw no more after the first night ;
the Magellan Clouds settled lower and lower in the horizon ;
and so great was our change of latitude each succeeding
night, that we sank some constellation in the south, and
raised another in the northern horizon.
Sunday, July ^ist. At noon we were in lat. 36° 41' S.,
long. 38° 08' W. ; having traversed the distance of two thou-
sand miles, allowing for changes of course, in nine days.
A thousand miles in four days and a half ! — This is equal
to steam.
Soon after eight o'clock, the appearance of the ship gave
evidence that this was the first Sunday we had yet had in
fine weather. As the sun came up clear, with the promise
of a fair, warm day, and, as usual on Sunday, there was no
work going on, all hands turned-to upon clearing out the
forecastle. The wet and soiled clothes which had accumu-
lated there during the past month, were brought up on deck ;
the chests moved ; brooms, buckets of water, swabs, scrub-
bing-brushes, and scrapers carried down, and applied, until
the forecastle floor was as white as chalk, and everything
neat and in order. The bedding from the berths was then
spread on deck, and dried, and aired ; the deck-tub filled with
water ; and a grand washing begun of all the clothes which
were brought up. Shirts, frocks, drawers, trowsers, jackets,
stockings, of every shape and color, wet and dirty — many of
them mouldy from having been lying a long time wet in a foul
342 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
corner — these were all washed and scrubbed out, and -finally
towed overboard for half an hour; and then made fast in
the rigging to dry. Wet boots and shoes were spread out to
dry in sunny places on deck; and the whole ship looked like
a back yard on a washing day. After we had done with our
clothes, we began upon our own persons. A little fresh
water, which we had saved from our allowance, was put in
buckets, and with soap and towels, we had what sailors call
a fresh-water wash. The same bucket, to be sure, had to go
through several hands, and was spoken for by one after an-
other, but as we rinsed off in salt water, pure from the
ocean, and the fresh was used only to start the accumulated
grime and blackness of five weeks, it was held of little con-
sequence. We soaped down and scrubbed one another with
towels and pieces of canvas, stripping to it; and then, getting
into the head, threw buckets of water upon each other. After
this, came shaving, and combing, and brushing; and when,
having spent the first part of the day in this way, we sat
down on the forecastle, in the afternoon, with clean duck
trowsers, and shirts on, washed, shaved, and combed, and
looking a dozen shades lighter for it, reading, sewing, and
talking at our ease, with a clear sky and warm sun over our
heads, a steady breeze over the larboard quarter, studding-
sails out alow and aloft, and all the flying kites aboard; —
we felt that we had got back into the pleasantest part of a
sailor's life. At sundown the clothes were all taken down
from the rigging — clean and dry — and stowed neatly away
in our chests; and our southwesters, thick boots, guernsey
frocks, and other accompaniments of bad weather, put out
of the way, we hoped, for the rest of the voyage, as we ex-
pected to come upon the coast early in the autumn.
Notwithstanding all that has been said about the beauty
of a ship under full sail, there are very few who have ever
seen a ship, literally, under all her sail. A ship coming in or
going out of port, with her ordinary sails, and perhaps two
of three studding-sails, is commonly said to be under full
sail ; but a ship never has all her sail upon her, except when
she has a light, steady breeze, very nearly, but not quite,
dead aft, and so regular that it can be trusted, and is likely
to last for some time. Then, with all her sails, light and
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 343
heavy, and studding-sails, on each side, alow and aloft, she
is the most glorious moving object in the world. Such a
sight, very few, even some who have been at sea a great
deal, have ever beheld; for from the deck of your own vessel
you cannot see her, as you would a separate object.
One night, while we were in these tropics, I went out to
the end of the flying-jib-boom, upon some duty, and, having
finished it, turned round, and lay over the boom for a long
time, admiring the beauty of the sight before me. Being so
far out from the deck, I could look at the ship, as at a
separate vessel; — and there rose up from the water, sup-
ported only by the small black hull, a pyramid of canvas,
spreading out far beyond the hull, and towering up almost,
as it seemed in the indistinct night air, to the clouds. The
sea was as still as an inland lake ; the light trade-wind was
gently and steadily breathing from astern ; the dark blue sky
was studded with the tropical stars ; there was no sound but
the rippling of the water under the stem ; and the sails were
spread out, wide and high ; — the two lower studding-sails
stretching, on each side, far beyond the deck; the topmast
studding-sails, like wings to the topsails ; the top-gallant
studding-sails spreading fearlessly out above them; still
higher, the two royal studding-sails, looking like two kites
flying from the same string; and, highest of all, the little
sky-sail, the apex of the pyramid, seeming actually to touch
the stars, and to be out of reach of human hand. So quiet,
too, was the sea, and so steady the breeze, that if these sails
had been sculptured marble, they could not have been more
motionless. Not a ripple upon the surface of the canvas;
not even a quivering of the extreme edges of the sail — so
perfectly were they distended by the breeze. I was so lost
in the sight, that I forgot the presence of the man who came
out with me, until he said, (for he, too, rough old man-of-
war's-man as he was, had been gazing at the show,) half to
himself, still looking at the marble sails — " How quietly they
do their work ! "
The fine weather brought work with it, as the ship was
to be put in order for coming into port. This may give a
landsman some notion of what is done on board ship. — All
the first part of a passage is spent in getting a ship ready
344 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
for sea, and the last part in getting her ready for port.
She is, as sailors say, like a lady's watch, always out of
repair. The new, strong sails, which we had up off Cape
Horn, were to be sent down, and the old set, which were
still serviceable in fine weather, to be bent in their place ; all
the rigging to be set up, fore and aft; the masts stayed; the
standing rigging to be tarred down ; lower and topmast rig-
ging rattled down, fore and aft ; the ship scraped, inside and
out, and painted; decks varnished; new and neat knots,
seizings and coverings to be fitted; and every part put in
order, to look well to the owner's eye, on coming into
Boston. This, of course, was a long matter; and all hands
were kept on deck at work for the whole of each day, during
the rest of the voyage. Sailors call this hard usage ; but the
ship must be in crack order, and " we're homeward bound "
was the answer to everything.
We went on for several days, employed in this way,
nothing remarkable occurring; and, at the latter part of
the week, fell in with the south-east trades, blowing about
east-south-east, which brought them nearly two points
abaft our beam. These blew strong and steady, so that
we hardly started a rope, until we were beyond their lati-
tude. The first day of " all hands," one of those little in-
cidents occurred, which are nothing in themselves, but
are great matters in the eyes of a ship's company, as they
serve to break the monotony of a voyage, and afford con-
versation to the crew for days afterwards. These small
matters, too, are often interesting, as they show the cus-
toms and state of feeling on shipboard.
In merchant vessels, the captain gives his orders as to
the ship's work, to the mate, in a general way, and leaves
the execution of them, with the particular ordering, to
him. This has become so fixed a custom, that it is like
a law, and is never infringed upon by a wise master, unless
his mate is no seaman; in which case, the captain must
often oversee things for himself. This, however, could
not be said of our chief mate; and he was very jealous of
any encroachment upon the borders of his authority.
On Monday morning, the captain told him to stay the
fore-topmast plumb. He accordingly came forward, turned
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 345
all hands to, with tackles on the stays and back-stays, com-
ing up with the seizings, hauling here, belaying there, and
full of business, standing between the knightheads to sight
the mast, — when the captain came forward, and also began
to give orders. This made confusion, and the mate, finding
that he was all aback, left his place and went aft, saying
to the captain —
"If you come forward, sir, I'll go aft. One is enough
on the forecastle."
This produced a reply, and another fierce answer; and
the words flew, fists were doubled up, and things looked
threateningly.
" I'm master of this ship."
" Yes, sir, and I'm mate of her, and know my place !
My place is forward, and yours is aft ! "
" My place is where I choose ! I command the whole
ship ; and you are mate only so long as I choose ! "
" Say the word, Capt. T., and I'm done ! I can do a
man's work aboard ! I didn't come through the cabin
windows! If I'm not mate, I can be man," etc., etc.
This was all fun for us, who stood by, winking at each
other, and enjoying the contest between the higher powers.
The captain took the mate aft; and they had a long talk,
which ended in the mate's returning to his duty. The
captain had broken through a custom, which is a part of
the common-law of a ship, and without reason; for he
knew that his mate was a sailor, and needed no help from
him; and the mate was excusable for being angry. Yet
he was wrong, and the captain right. Whatever the cap-
tain does is right, ipso facto, and any opposition to it is
wrong, on board ship ; and every officer and man knows
this when he signs the ship's articles. It is a part of the
contract. Yet there has grown up in merchant vessels a
series of custom.s, which have become a well understood
system, and have almost the force of prescriptive law.
To be sure, all power is in the captain, and the officers
hold their authority only during his will; and the men
are liable to be called upon for any service ; yet, by break-
ing in upon these usages, many difficulties have occurred
on board ship, and even come into courts of justice, which
346 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
are perfectly unintelligible to any one not acquainted with
the universal nature and force of these customs. Many
a provocation has been offered, and a system of petty op-
pression pursued towards men, the force and meaning of
which would appear as nothing to strangers, and doubtless
do appear so to many " 'long-shore " juries and judges.
The next little diversion, was a battle on the forecastle
one afternoon, between the mate and the steward. They
had been on bad terms the whole voyage ; and had threatened
a rupture several times. This afternoon, the mate asked
him for a tumbler of water, and he refused to get it
for him, saying that he waited upon nobody but the cap-
tain: and here he had the custom on his side. But in
answering, he left off " the handle to the mate's name."
This enraged the mate, who called him a "black soger;"
and at it they went, clenching, striking, and rolling over
and over; while we stood by, looking on, and enjoying the
fun. The darky tried to butt him, but the mate got him
down, and held him, the steward singing out, * Let me go,
Mr, Brown, or there'll be blood spilt ! " In the midst of
this, the captain came on deck, separated them, took the
steward aft, and gave him half a dozen with a rope's end.
The steward tried to justify himself; but he had been heard
to talk of spilling blood, and that was enough to earn
him his flogging; and the captain did not choose to inquire
any further.
CHAPTER XXXIV
Narrow Escapes — The Equator — Tropical Squalls —
A Thunder Storm
THE same day, I met with one of those narrow escapes,
which are so often happening in a sailor's Hfe. I had
been aloft nearly all the afternoon, at work, standing
for as much as an hour on the fore top-gallant yard, which
was hoisted up, and hung only by the tie ; when, having got
through my work, I balled up my yarns, took my serving-
board in my hand, laid hold deliberately of the top-gallant
rigging, took one foot from the yard, and was just lifting
the other, when the tie parted, and down the yard fell.
I was safe, by my hold upon the rigging, but it made my
heart beat quick. Had the tie parted one instant sooner,
or had I stood an instant longer on the yard, I should inev-
itably have been thrown violently from the height of ninety
or a hundred feet, overboard; or, what is worse, upon the
deck. However, " a miss is as good as a mile ; " a saying
which sailors very often have occasion to use. An escape
is always a joke on board ship. A man would be ridiculed
who should make a serious matter of it. A sailor knows
too well that his life hangs upon a thread, to wish to
be always reminded of it; so, if a man has an escape, he
keeps it to himself, or makes a joke of it. I have often
known a man's life to be saved by an instant of time, or
by the merest chance, — the swinging of a rope, — and
no notice taken of it. One of our boys, when off Cape Horn,
reefing topsails of a dark night, and when there were no
boats to be lowered away, and where, if a man fell over-
board he must be left behind, — lost his hold of the reef-
point, slipped from the foot-rope, and would have been in
the water in a moment, when the man who was next to
him on the yard caught him by the collar of his jacket,
347
348 RICHARD HENRT DANA, JR.
and hauled him up upon the yard, with — " Hold on, another
time, you young monkey, and be d d to you ! " — and that
was all that was heard about it
Sunday, August yth. Lat. 25° 59' S., long. 27° o' VV.
Spoke the English bark Mary-Catherine, from Bahia,
bound to Calcutta. This was the first sail we had fallen
in with, and the first time we had seen a human form or
heard the human voice, except of our own number, for
nearly a hundred days. The very yo-ho-ing of the sailors
at the ropes sounded sociably upon the ear. She was an
old, damaged-looking craft, with a high poop and top-gal-
lant forecastle, and sawed off square, stem and stern, like a
true English " tea-wagon," and with a run like a sugar-box.
She had studding-sails out alow and aloft, with a light but
steady breeze, and her captain said he could not get more
than four knots out of her and thought he should have a
long passage. We were going six on an easy bowline.
The next day, about three P. M., passed a large corvette-
built ship, close upon the wind, with royals and skysails
set fore and aft, under English colors. She was standing
south-by-east, probably bound round Cape Horn. She had
men in her tops, and black mast-heads; heavily sparred,
with sails cut to a t, and other marks of a man-of-war.
She sailed well, and presented a fine appearance; the
proud, aristocratic-looking banner of St. George, the cross
in a blood-red field, waving from the mizen. We prob-
ably were as fine a sight, with our studding-sails spread far
out beyond the ship on either side, and rising in a pyramid
to royal studding-sails and skysails, burying the hull in
canvas, and looking like what the whale-men on the Banks,
under their stump top-gallant masts, call " a Cape Horn-er
under a cloud of sail."
Friday, August 12th. At daylight made the island of
Trinidad, situated in lat. 20° 28' S., long. 29° 08' W. At
twelve M., it bore N. W. J^ N., distant twenty-seven miles.
It was a beautiful day, the sea hardly ruffled by the light
trades, and the island looking like a small blue mound
rising from a field of glass. Such a fair and peaceful-
looking spot is said to have been, for a long time, the resort
of a band of pirates, who ravaged the tropical seas.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 349
Thursday, August i8th. At three P. M., made the island
of Fernando Naronha, lying in lat. 3° 55' S., long. 32° 35'
W. ; and between twelve o'clock Friday night and one
o'clock Saturday morning, crossed the equator, for the
fourth time since leaving Boston, in long. 35° W. ; having
been twenty-seven days from Staten Land — a distance,
by the courses we had made, of more than four thousand
miles.
We were now to the northward of the line, and every day
added to our latitude. The Magellan Clouds, the last sign
of South latitude, were sunk in the horizon, and the north
star, the Great Bear, and the familiar signs of northern
latitudes, were rising in the heavens. Next to seeing
land, there is no sight which makes one realize more that
he is drawing near home, than to see the same heavens,
under which he was born, shining at night over his head.
The weather was extremely hot, with the usual tropical
alternations of a scorching sun and squalls of rain; yet
not a word was said in complaint of the heat, for we all
remembered that only three or four weeks before we would
have given nearly our all to have been where we now were.
We had plenty of water, too, which we caught by spread-
ing an awning, with shot thrown in to make hollows.
These rain squalls came up in the manner usual between
the tropics. — A clear sky ; burning, vertical sun ; work
going lazily on, and men about decks with nothing but
duck trowsers, checked shirts, and straw hats; the ship
moving as lazily through the water ; the man at the helm
resting against the wheel, with his hat drawn over his eyes ;
the captain below, taking an afternoon nap ; the passenger
leaning over the taffrail, watching a dolphin following
slowly in our wake; the sailmaker mending an old top-
sail on the lee side of the quarter-deck; the carpenter
working at his bench, in the waist; the boys making sin-
net; the spun-yarn winch whizzing round and round, and
the men walking slowly fore and aft with their yarns. — A
cloud rises to windward, looking a little black ; the sky-
sails are brailed down ; the captain puts his head out of the
companion-way, looks at the cloud, comes up, and begins
to walk the deck. — The cloud spreads and comes on; —
350 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the tub of yarns, the sail, and other matters, are thrown
below, and the sky-light and booby-hatch put on, and the
slide drawn over the forecastle. — " Stand by the royal hal-
yards;" — the man at the wheel keeps a good weather helm,
so as not to be taken aback. The squall strikes her. If it
is light, the royal yards are clewed down, and the ship keeps
on her way; but if the squall takes strong hold, the royals
are clewed up, fore and aft; light hands lay aloft and furl
them; top-gallant yards clewed down, flying-jib hauled down,
and the ship kept off before it, — the man at the helm laying
out his strength to heave the wheel up to windward. At the
same time a drenching rain, which soaks one through in
an instant. Yet no one puts on a jacket or cap; for if it is
only warm, a sailor does not mind a ducking; and the sun
will soon be out again. As soon as the force of the squall
has passed, though to a common eye the ship would seem
to be in the midst of it, — " Keep her up to her course,
again ! " — " Keep her up, sir," (answer) ; — " Hoist away the
top-gallant yards!" — "Run up the flying-jib!" — "Lay
aloft, you boys, and loose the royals ! " — and all sail is on
her again before she is fairly out of the squall; and she is
going on in her course. The sun comes out once more,
hotter than ever, dries up the decks and the sailors' clothes;
the hatches are taken off; the sail got up and spread on the
quarter-deck; spun-yarn winch set a whirling again; rig-
ging coiled up; captain goes below; and every sign of an
interruption is removed.
These scenes, with occasional dead calms, lasting for
hours, and sometimes for days, are fair specimens of the
Atlantic tropics. The nights were fine; and as we had all
hands all day, the watch were allowed to sleep on deck at
night, except the man at the wheel, and one look-out on
the forecastle. This was not so much expressly allowed,
as winked at. We could do it if we did not ask leave. If
the look-out was caught napping, the whole watch was
kept awake. We made the most of this permission, and
stowed ourselves away upon the rigging, under the weather
rail, on the spars, under the windlass, and in all the snug
corners; and frequently slept out the watch, unless we had
a wheel or a look-out. And we were glad enough to get
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 351
this rest ; for under the " all hands " system, out of every
other thirty-six hours, we had only four below ; and even
an hour's sleep was a gain not to be neglected. One would
have thought so, to have seen our watch, some nights,
sleeping through a heavy rain. And often have we come
on deck, and finding a dead calm and a light, steady rain,
and determined not to lose our sleep, have laid a coil of
rigging down so as to keep us out of the water which was
washing about decks, and stowed ourselves away upon it,
covering a jacket over us, and slept as soundly as a Dutch-
man between two feather beds.
For a week or ten days after crossing the line, we had
the usual variety of calms, squalls, head winds, and fair
winds ; — at one time braced sharp upon the wind, with a
taught bowline, and in an hour after, slipping quietly
along, with a light breeze over the taffrail, and studding-
sails out on both sides ; — until we fell in with the north-
east trade-winds ; which we did on the afternoon of
Sunday, August 28th, in lat. 12° N. The trade-wind
clouds had been in sight for a day or two previously, and
we expected to take them every hour. The light southerly
breeze, which had been blowing languidly during the first
part of the day, died away toward noon, and in its place
came puffs from the north-east, which caused us to take
our studding-sails in and brace up ; and in a couple of
hours more, we were bowling gloriously along, dashing the
spray far ahead and to leeward, with the cool, steady north-
east trades, freshening up the sea, and giving us as much
as we could carry our royals to. These winds blew strong
and steady, keeping us generally upon a bowline, as our
course was about north-north-west ; and sometimes, as they
veered a little to the eastward, giving us a chance at a
main top-gallant studding-sail; and sending us well to
the northward, until —
Sunday, Sept. 4th, when they left us, in lat. 22° N.,
long. 51° W., directly under the tropic of Cancer.
For several days we lay " humbugging about " in the
Horse latitudes, with all sorts of winds and weather, and
occasionally, as we were in the latitude of the West Indies,
— a thunder storm. It was hurricane month, too, and we
352 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
were just in the track of the tremendous hurricane of
1830, which swept the North Atlantic, destroying almost
everything before it. The first night after the trade-
winds left us, while we were in the latitude of the island
of Cuba, we had a specimen of a true tropical thunder
storm. A light breeze had been blowing directly from aft
during the first part of the night which gradually died
away, and before midnight it was dead calm, and a heavy
black cloud had shrouded the whole sky. When our watch
came on deck at twelve o'clock, it was as black as Ere-
bus ; the studding-sails were all taken in, and the royals
furled; not a breath was stirring; the sails hung heavy
and motionless from the yards ; and the perfect stillness,
and the darkness, which was almost palpable, were truly
appalling. Not a word was spoken, but every one stood
as though waiting for something to happen. In a few
minutes the mate came forward, and in a low tone, which
was almost a whisper, told us to haul down the jib. The
fore and mizen top-gallant sails were taken in, in the same
silent manner; and we lay motionless upon the water, with
an uneasy expectation, which, from the long suspense, be-
came actually painful. We could hear the captain walk-
ing the deck, but it was too dark to see anything more
than one's hand before the face. Soon the mate came
forward again, and gave an order, in a low tone, to clew
up the main top-gallant sail ; and so infectious was the
awe and silence, that the clewlines and buntlines were
hauled up without any of the customary singing out at
the ropes. An English lad and myself went up to furl it;
and we had just got the bunt up, when the mate called
out to us, something, we did not hear what, — but suppos-
ing it to be an order to bear-a-hand, we hurried, and made
all fast, and came down, feeling our way among the rig-
ging. When we got down we found all hands looking
aloft, and there, directly over where we had been standing,
upon the main top-gallant-mast-head, was a ball of light,
which the sailors name a corposant (corpus sancti), and
which the mate had called out to us to look at. They were
all watching it carefully, for sailors have a notion that if
the corposant rises in the rigging, it is a sign of fair
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 353
weather, but if it comes lower down, there will be a storm.
Unfortunately, as an omen, it came down, and showed it-
self on the top-gallant yard-arm. We were off the yard in
good season, for it is held a fatal sign to have the pale
light of the corposant thrown upon one's face. As it was,
ihe English lad did not feel comfortably at having had
it so near him, and directly over his head. In a few
minutes it disappeared, and showed itself again on the
fore top-gallant yard; and after playing about for some
time, disappeared again ; when the man on the forecastle
pointed to it upon the flying-jib-boom-end. But our at-
tention was drawn from watching this, by the falling of
some drops of rain and by a perceptible increase of the
darkness, which seemed suddenly to add a new shade of
blackness to the night. In a few minutes, low, grumbling
thunder was heard, and some random flashes of lightning
came from the south-west. Every sail was taken in but
the topsails, still, no squall appeared to be coming. A few
puffs lifted the topsails, but they fell again to the mast,
and all was as still as ever. A moment .more, and a ter-
rific flash and peal broke simultaneously upon us, and a
cloud appeared to open directly over our heads and let
down the water in one body, like a falling ocean. We stood
motionless, and almost stupefied; yet nothing had been
struck. Peal after peal rattled over our heads, with a
sound which seemed actually to stop the breath in the
body, and the " speedy gleams " kept the whole ocean in
a glare of light. The violent fall of rain lasted but a
few minutes, and was succeeded by occasional drops and
showers; but the lightning continued incessant for several
hours, breaking the midnight darkness with irregular and
blinding flashes. During all which time there was not a
breath stirring, and we lay motionless, like a mark to be
shot at, probably the only object on the surface of the
ocean for miles and miles. We stood hour after hour,
until our watch was out, and we were relieved, at four
o'clock. During all this time, hardly a word was spoken ;
no bells were struck, and the wheel was silently relieved.
The rain fell at intervals in heavy showers, and we stood
drenched through and blinded by the flashes, which broke
L — VOL. XXIII HC
354 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the Egyptian darkness with a brightness which seemed
almost malignant; while the thunder rolled in peals, the
concussion of which appeared to shake the very ocean. A
ship is not often injured by lightning, for the electricity
is separated by the great number of points she presents,
and the quantity of iron which she has scattered in various
parts. The electric fluid ran over our anchors, top-sail
sheets and ties; yet no harm was done to us. We went
below at four o'clock, leaving things in the same state. It
is not easy to sleep, when the very next flash may tear
the ship in two, or set her on fire; or where the deathlike
calm may be broken by the blast of a hurricane, taking the
masts out of the ship. But a man is no sailor if he can-
not sleep when he turns-in, and turn out when he's called.
And when, at seven bells, the customary " All the larboard
watch, ahoy ! " brought us on deck, it was a fine, clear,
sunny morning, the ship going leisurely along, with a
good breeze and all sail aet.
CHAPTER XXXV
A Double Reef-top-sail Breeze — Scurvy — A Friend in
Need — Preparing for Port — The Gulf Stream
FROM the latitude of the West Indies, until we got in-
side the Bermudas, where we took the westerly and
south-westerly winds, which blow steadily off the
coast of the United States early in the autumn, we had every
variety of weather, and two or three moderate gales, or, as
sailors call them, double-reef-topsail breezes, which came on
in the usual manner, and of which one is a specimen of all. —
A fine afternoon; all hands at work, some in the rigging,
and others on deck; a stiff breeze, and ship close upon the
wind, and skysails brailed down. — Latter part of the after-
noon, breeze increases, ship lies over to it, and clouds
look windy. Spray begins to fly over the forecastle, and
wets the yarns the boys are knotting ; — ball them up and
put them below. — Mate knocks off work and clears up
decks earlier than usual, and orders a man who has been
employed aloft to send the royal halyards over to wind-
ward, as he comes down. Breast backstays hauled taught,
and tackle got upon the martingale back-rope. — One of the
boys furls the mizen royal. — Cook thinks there is going to
be " nasty work," and has supper ready early. — Mate gives
orders to get supper by the watch, instead of all hands, as
usual. — While eating supper, hear the watch on deck taking
in the royals. — Coming on deck, find it is blowing harder,
and an ugly head sea is running. — Instead of having all
hands on the forecastle in the dog watch, smoking, singing,
and telling yarns, one watch goes below and turns-in, saying
that it's going to be an ugly night, and two hours' sleep is
not to be lost. Clouds look black and wild; wind rising,
and ship working hard against a heavy sea, which
breaks over the forecastle, and washes aft through the
355
356 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
scuppers. Still, no more sail is taken in, for the captain is
a driver, and, like all drivers, very partial to his top-gallant
sails. A top-gallant sail, too, makes the difference between
a breeze and a gale. When a top-gallant sail is on a ship, it
is only a breeze, though I have seen ours set over a reefed
topsail, when half the bowsprit was under water, and it was
up to a man's knees in the scuppers. At eight bells, nothing
is said about reefing the topsails, and the watch go below,
with orders to " stand by for a call." We turn-in, growling
at. the " old man " for not reefing the topsails when the
watch was changed, but putting it off so as to call all hands,
and break up a whole watch below. Turn-in " all stand-
ing," and keep ourselves awake, saying there is no use in
going asleep to be waked up again. — Wind whistles on deck,
and ship works hard, groaning and creaking, and pitching
into a heavy head sea, which strikes against the bows, with
a noise like knocking upon a rock. — The dim lamp in the
forecastle swings to and fro, and things " fetch away " and
go over to leeward. — " Doesn't that booby of a second mate
ever mean to take in his top-gallant sails? — He'll have the
sticks out of her soon," says old Bill, who was always growl-
ing, and, like most old sailors, did not like to see a ship
abused. — By-and-by an order is given — " Aye, aye, sir ! "
from the forecastle ; — rigging is heaved down on deck ; —
the noise of a sail is heard fluttering aloft, and the short,
quick cry which sailors make when hauling upon clewlines.
— " Here comes his fore-top-gallant sail in ! " — We are wide
awake, and know all that's going on as well as if we were
on deck. — A well-known voice is heard from the mast-head
singing out the officer of the watch to haul taught the
weather brace. — " Hallo ! There's S aloft to furl the
sail ! " — Next thing, rigging is heaved down directly over
our heads, and a long-drawn cry and a rattling of hanks
announce that the flying-jib has come in. — The second mate
holds on to the main top-gallant sail until a heavy sea is
shipped, and washes over the forecastle as though the whole
ocean had come aboard ; when a noise further aft shows that
that sail, too, is taking in. After this, the ship is more easy
for a time; two bells are struck, and we try to get a little
sleep. By-and-by, — bang, bang, bang, on the scuttle — " All
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 357
ha-a-ands, a ho-o-y ! " — We spring out of our berths, clap
on a monkey-jacket and south-wester, and tumble up the
ladder. — Mate up before us, and on the forecastle, singing
out like a roaring bull ; the captain singing out on the quarter-
deck, and the second mate yelling, like a hyena, in the waist.
The ship is lying over half upon her beam-ends ; lee scuppers
under water, and forecastle all in a smother of foam. — Rig-
ging all let go, and washing about decks ; topsail yards down
upon the caps, and sails flapping and beating against the
masts; and starboard watch hauling out the reef-tackles of
the main topsail. Our watch haul out the fore, and lay
aloft and put two reefs into it, and reef the foresail, and
race with the starboard watch, to see which will mast-head
its topsail first. All hands tally-on to the main tack, and
while some are furling the jib, and hoisting the staysail, we
mizen-topmen double-reef the mizen topsail and hoist it up.
All being made fast — " Go below, the watch ! " and we
turn-in to sleep out the rest of the time, which is perhaps an
hour and a half. During all the middle, and for the first
part of the morning watch, it blows as hard as ever, but
toward daybreak it moderates considerably, and we shake
a reef out of each topsail, and set the top-gallant sails over
them and when the watch come up, at seven bells, for
breakfast, shake the other reefs out, turn all hands to upon
the halyards, get the watch-tackle upon the top-gallant
sheets and halyards, set the flying-jib, and crack on to her
again.
Our captain had been married only a few weeks before
he left Boston ; and, after an absence of over two years, it
may be supposed he was not slow in carrying sail. The
mate, too, was not to be beaten by anybody ; and the second
mate, though he was afraid to press sail, was afraid as
death of the captain, and being between two fears, some-
times carried on longer than any of them. We snapped ofif
three flying-jib booms in twenty-four hours, as fast as they
could be fitted and rigged out ; sprung the spritsail yard ; and
made nothing of studding-sail booms. Beside the natural
desire to get home, we had another reason for urging the
ship on. The scurvy had begun to show itself on board.
One man had it so badly as to be disabled and off duty, and
358 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the English lad, Ben, was in a dreadful state, and was daily
growing worse. His legs swelled and pained him so that he
could not walk; his flesh lost its elasticity, so that if it was
pressed in, it would not return to its shape ; and his gums
swelled until he could not open his mouth. His breath, too,
became very offensive; he lost all strength and spirit; could
eat nothing; grew worse every day; and, in fact, unless
something was done for him, would be a dead man in a
week, at the rate at which he was sinking. The medicines
were all, or nearly all, gone ; and if we had had a chest-full,
they would have been of no use; for nothing but fresh pro-
visions and terra firma has any effect upon the scurvy. This
disease is not so common now as formerly ; and is attributed
generally to salt provisions, want of cleanliness, the free use
of grease and fat (which is the reason of its prevalence
among whalemen,) and, last of all, to laziness. It never
could have been from the latter cause on board our ship;
nor from the second, for we were a very cleanly crew, kept
our forecastle in neat order, and were more particular about
washing and changing clothes than many better-dressed peo-
ple on shore. It was probably from having none but salt
provisions, and possibly from our having run very rapidly
into hot weather, after having been so long in the extremest
cold.
Depending upon the westerly winds, which prevail off the
coast in the autumn, the captain stood well to the westward,
to run inside of the Bermudas, and in the hope of falling in
with some vessel bound to the West Indies or the Southern
States. The scurvy had spread no farther among the crew,
but there was danger that it might ; and these cases were bad
ones.
Sunday, Sept. nth. Lat. 30" 04' N., long. 63° 23' W.;
the Bermudas bearing north-north-west, distant one hundred
and fifty miles. The next morning, about ten o'clock, " Sail
ho ! " was cried on deck ; and all hands turned up to see the
stranger. As she drew nearer, she proved to be an ordinary-
looking hermaphrodite brig, standing south-south-east; and
probably bound out, from the Northern States, to the West
Indies; and was just the thjng we wished to see. She
hove-to for us, seeing that we wished to speak her; and we
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 359
ran down to her ; boom-ended our studding-sails ; backed our
main topsail, and hailed her — " Brig, ahoy ! " — " Hallo ! " —
" Where are you from, pray ? " — " From New York, bound
to Curaqoa." — " Have you any fresh provisions to spare ? "
— " Aye, aye ! plenty of them ! " We lowered away the
quarter-boat, instantly; and the captain and four hands
sprang in, and were soon dancing over the water, and along-
side the brig. In about half an hour, they returned with half
a boat-load of potatoes and onions, and each vessel filled
away, and kept on her course. She proved to be the brig
Solon, of Plymouth, from the Connecticut river, and last
from New York, bound to the Spanish Main, with a cargo
of fresh provisions, mules, tin bake-pans, and other notions.
The onions were genuine and fresh ; and the mate of the brig
told the men in the boat, as he passed the bunches over the
side, that the girls had strung them on purpose for us the
day he sailed. We had supposed, on board, that a new presi-
dent had been chosen, the last winter, and, just as we filled
away, the captain hailed and asked who was president of the
United States. They answered, Andrew Jackson; but think-
ing that the old Genera] could not have been elected for a
third time, we hailed again, and they answered — Jack Down-
ing; and left us to correct the mistake at our leisure.
It was just dinner-time when we filled away; and the
steward, taking a few bunches of onions for the cabin, gave
the rest to us, with a bottle of vinegar. We carried them
forward, stowed them away in the forecastle, refusing to
have them cooked, and ate them raw, with our beef and
bread. And a glorious treat they were. The freshness and
crispness of the raw onion, with the earthy taste, give it a
great relish to one who has been a long time on salt pro-
visions. We were perfectly ravenous after them. It was
like a scent of blood to a hound. We ate them at every
meal, by the dozen ; and filled our pockets with them, to eat
in our watch on deck ; and the bunches, rising in the form
of a cone, from the largest at the bottom, to the smallest,
no larger than a strawberry, at the top, soon disappeared.
The chief use, however, of the fresh provisions, was for
the men with the scurvy. One of them was able to eat, and
he soon brought himself to, by gnawing upon raw potatoes;
360 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
but the other, by this time, was hardly able to open his
mouth; and the cook took the potatoes raw, pounded them
in a mortar, and gave him the juice to drink. This he
swallowed, by the tea-spoonful at a time, and rinsed it about
his ^ims and throat. The strong earthy taste and smell of
this extract of the raw potato at first produced a shuddering
through his whole frame, and after drinking it, an acute
pain, which ran through all parts of his body ; but knowing,
by this, that it was taking strong hold, he persevered, drink-
ing a spoonful every hour or so, and holding it a long time in
his mouth; until, by the effect of this drink, and of his own
restored hope, (for he had nearly given up, in despair) he
became so well as to be able to move about, and open his
mouth enough to eat the raw potatoes and onions pounded
into a soft pulp. This course soon restored his appetite and
strength ; and in ten days after we spoke the Solon, so rapid
was his recovery, that, from lying helpless and almost hope-
less in his berth, he was at the mast-head, furling a royal.
With a fine south-west wind, we passed inside of the
Bermudas; and notwithstanding the old couplet, which
was quoted again and again by those who thought we
should have one more touch of a storm before our voyage
was up, —
" If the Bermudas let you pass.
You must beware of Hatteras — "
we were to the northward of Hatteras, with good weatner,
and beginning to count, not the days, but the hours, to the
time when we should be at anchor in Boston harbor.
Our ?hip was in fine order, all hands having been hard
at work upon her from daylight to dark, every day but
Sunday, from the time we got into warm weather on this
side the Cape.
It is a common notion with landsmen that a ship is in
her finest condition when she leaves port to enter upon her
voyage; and that she comes home, after a long absence,
" With over-weathered ribs and ragged sails ;
Lean, rent and beggared by the strumpet wind."
But so far from that, unless a ship meets with some ac-
cident, or comes upon the coast in the dead of winter, when
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 361
work cannot be done upon the rigging, she is in her finest
order at the end of the voyage. When she sails from port,
her rigging is generally slack; the masts need staying;
the decks and sides are black and dirty from taking in
cargo ; riggers' seizings and overhand knots in place of nice
seamanlike work; and everything, to a sailor's eye, adrift.
But on the passage home, the fine weather between the
tropics is spent in putting the ship into the neatest order.
No merchant vessel looks better than an Indiaman, or a
Cape Horn-er, after a long voyage ; and many captains
and mates will stake their reputation for seamanship upon
the appearance of their ship when she hauls into the dock.
All our standing rigging, fore and aft, was set up and
tarred; the masts stayed; the lower and top-mast rigging
rattled down, (or up, as the fashion now is;) and so care-
ful were our officers to keep the rattlins taught and straight,
that we were obliged to go aloft upon the ropes and
shearpoles with which the rigging was swifted in ; and
these were used as jury rattlins until we got close upon
the coast. After this, the ship was scraped, inside and
out, decks, masts, booms and all ; a stage being rigged
outside, upon which we scraped her down to the water-
line; pounding the rust off the chains, bolts and fasten-
ings. Then, taking two days of calm under the line, we
painted her on the outside, giving her open ports in her
streak, and finishing off the nice work upon the stern,
where sat Neptune in his car, holding his trident, drawn
by sea-horses ; and re-touched the gilding and coloring o£
the cornucopia which ornamented her billet-head. The in-
side was then painted, from the skysail truck to the water-
ways — the yards black; mast-heads and tops, white;
monkey-rail, black, white, and yellow; bulwarks, green;
plank-shear, white; waterways, lead color, etc., etc. The
anchors and ring-bolts, and other iron work, were black-
ened with coal-tar; and the steward kept at work, polish-
ing the brass of the wheel, bell, capstan, etc. The cabin,
too, was scraped, varnished, and painted; and the fore-
castle scraped and scrubbed; there being no need of paint
and varnish for Jack's quarters. The decks were then
scraped and varnished, and everything useless thrown over-
362 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
board ; among which the empty tar barrels were set on fire
and thrown overboard, on a dark night, and left blazing
astern, lighting up the ocean for miles. Add to all this
labor, the neat work upon the rigging; — the knots, flemish-
eyes, splices, seizings, coverings, pointings, and graffings,
which show a ship in crack order. The last preparation,
and which looked still more like coming into port, was
getting the anchors over the bows, bending the cables,
rowsing the hawsers up from between decks, and overhaul-
ing the deep-sea-lead-line.
Thursday, September 15th. This morning the tempera-
ture and peculiar appearance of the water, the quantities
of gulf-weed floating about, and a bank of clouds lying
directly before us, showed that we were on the border of
the Gulf Stream. This remarkable current, running north-
east, nearly across the ocean, is almost constantly shrouded
in clouds, and is the region of storms and heavy seas.
Vessels often run from a clear sky and light wind, with
all sail, at once into a heavy sea and cloudy sky, with
double-reefed topsails. A sailor told me that on a pas-
sage from Gibraltar to Boston, his vessel neared the Gulf
Stream with a light breeze, clear sky, and studding-sails
out, alow and aloft; while, before it, was a long line of
heavy, black clouds, lying like a bank upon the water, and
a vessel coming out of it, under double-reefed topsails,
and with royal yards sent down. As they drew near, they
began to take in sail after sail, until they were reduced to
the same condition ; and, after twelve or fourteen hours of
rolling and pitching in a heavy sea, before a smart gale,
they ran out of the bank on the other side, and were in
fine weather again, and under their royals and skysails.
As we drew into it, the sky became cloudy, the sea high,
and everything had the appearance of the going ofT, or the
coming on, of a storm. It was blowing no more than a
stiff breeze; yet the wind, being north-east, which is di-
rectly against the course of the current, made an ugly,
chopping sea, which heaved and pitched the vessel about,
so that we were obliged to send down the royal yards, and
to take in our light sails. At noon, the thermometer, which
had been repeatedly lowered into the water, showed the
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 363
temperature to be seventy; which was considerably above
that of the air, — as is always the case in the centre of
the Stream. A lad who had been at work at the royal
mast-head, came down upon the deck, and took a turn round
the long-boat ; and looking very pale, said he was so sick
that he could stay aloft no longer, but was ashamed to
acknowledge it to the officer. He went up again, but soon
gave out and came down, and leaned over the rail, "as
sick as a lady passenger." He had been to sea several
years, and had, he said, never been sick before. He was
made so by the irregular, pitching motion of the vessel,
increased by the height to which he had been above the
hull, which is like the fulcrum of the lever. An old sailor,
who was at work on the top-gallant yard, said he felt dis-
agreeably all the time, and was glad, when his job was
done, to get down into the top, or upon the deck. An-
other hand was sent to the royal mast-head, who staid
nearly an hour, but gave up. The work must be done, and
the mate sent me. I did very well for some time, but be-
gan at length to feel very unpleasantly, though I had never
been sick since the first two days from Boston, and had
been in all sorts of weather and situations. Still, I kept
my place, and did not come down, until I had got through
my work, which was more than two hours. The ship cer-
tainly never acted so badly before. She was pitched
and jerked about in all manner of ways; the sails seem-
ing to have no steadying power over her. The tapering
points of the masts made various curves and angles against
the sky overhead, and sometimes, in one sweep of an in-
stant, described an arc of more than forty-five degrees,
bringing up with a sudden jerk which made it necessary
to hold on with both hands, and then sweeping off, in an-
other long, irregular curve. I was not positively sick, and
came down with a look of indifference, yet was not unwill-
ing to get upon the comparative terra firma of the deck.
A few hours more carried us through, and when we saw the
sun go down, upon our larboard beam, in the direction of
the continent of North America, we had left the bank of
dark, stormy clouds astern, in the twilight.
CHAPTER XXXVI
Soundings — Sights from Home — Boston Harbor — Leav-
ing THE Ship
FRIDAY, Sept. i6th. Lat. 38° N., long. 69° 00' W. A
fine south-west wind ; every hour carrying us nearer
in toward land. All hands on deck at the dog watch,
and nothing talked about, but our getting in ; where we
should make the land; whether we should arrive before Sun-
day; going to church; how Boston would look; friends;
wages paid ; — and the like. Every one was in the best of
spirits ; and, the voyage being nearly at an end, the strict-
ness of discipline was relaxed; for it was not necessary to
order in a cross tone, what every one was ready to do
with a will. The little differences and quarrels which a long
voyage breeds on board a ship, were forgotten, and every
one was friendly; and two men, who had been on the eve of
a battle half the voyage, were laying out a plan together for
a cruise on shore. When the mate came forward, he talked
to the men, and said we should be on George's Bank before
to-morrow noon; and joked with the boys, promising to
go and see them, and to take them down to Marblehead
in a coach.
Saturday, lyth. The wind was light all day, which
kept us back somewhat ; but a fine breeze springing up at
nightfall, we were running fast in toward the land. At
six o'clock we expected to have the ship hove-to for sound-
ings, as a thick fog, coming up showed we were near them;
but no order was given, and we kept on our way. Eight
o'clock came, and the watch went below, and, for the whole
of the first hour, the ship was tearing on, with studding-
sails out, alow and aloft, and the night as dark as a pocket.
At two bells the captain came on deck, and said a word to
the mate, when the studding sails were hauled into the
364
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 365
tops, or boom-ended, the after yards backed, the deep-sea-
lead carried forward, and everything got ready for sound-
ing. A man on the spritsail yard with the lead, another
on the cat-head with a handful of the line coiled up, an-
other in the fore chains, another in the waist, and another
in the main chains, each with a quantity of the line coiled
away in his hand. "All ready there, forward?" — "Aye,
aye, sir !" — "He-e-e-ave !" — "Watch ! ho ! watch !" sings
out the man on the spritsail yard, and the heavy lead
drops into the water. "Watch ! ho ! watch !" bawls the
man on the cat-head, as the last fake of the coil drops from
his hand, and "Watch! ho! watch!" is shouted by each one
as the line falls from his hold; until it comes to the mate,
who tends the lead, and has the line in coils on the quarter-
deck. Eighty fathoms, and no bottom ! A depth as great
as the height of St. Peter's ! the line is snatched in a block
upon the swifter, and three or four men haul it in and
coil it away. The after yards are braced full, the stud-
ding-sails hauled out again, and in a few minutes more
the ship had her whole way upon her. At four bells,
backed again, hove the lead, and — soundings ! at sixty
fathoms ! Hurrah for Yankee land I Hand over hand, we
hauled the lead in, and the captain, taking it to the light,
found black mud on the bottom. Studding-sails taken in ;
after yards filled, and ship kept on under easy sail all night ;
the wind dying away.
The soundings on the American coast are so regular that
a navigator knows as well where he has made land, by the
soundings, as he would by seeing the land. Black mud
is the soundings of Block Island. As you go toward Nan-
tucket, it changes to a dark sand; then, sand and white
shells; and on George's Banks, white sand; and so on.
Being off Block Island, our course was due east, to Nan-
tucket Shoals, and the South Channel ; but the wind died
away and left us becalmed in a thick fog, in which we lay
the whole of Sunday. At noon of
Sunday, i8th, Block Island bore, by calculation, N. W.
1-4 W. fifteen miles; but the fog was so thick all day that we
could see nothing.
Having got through the ship's duty, and washed and
368 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
shaved, we went below, and had a fine time overhauling ouf
chests, laying aside the clothes we meant to go ashore in.
and throwing overboard all that were worn out and good
for nothing. Away went the woollen caps in which we
had carried hides upon our heads, for sixteen months, on
the coast of California; the duck frocks, for tarring down
rigging; and the worn-out and darned mittens and patched
woollen trowsers which had stood the tug of Cape Horn.
We hove them overboard with a good will ; for there is
nothing like being quit of the very last appendages and
remnants of our evil fortune. We got our chests all ready
for going ashore, ate the last "duff" we expected to have on
board the ship Alert; and talked as confidently about mat-
ters on shore as though our anchor were on the bottom.
"Who'll go to church with me a week from to-day ?"
"I will," says Jack; who said aye to everything.
"Go away, salt water !" says Tom. "As soon as I get
both legs ashore, I'm going to shoe my heels, and button
my ears behind me, and start off into the bush, a straight
course, and not stop till I'm out of the sight of salt water ! "
"Oh ! belay that ! Spin that yarn where nobody knows
your filling ! If you get once moored, stem and stern, in
old B 's grog-shop, with a coal fire ahead and the bar
under your lee, you won't see daylight for three weeks !"
"No !" says Tom, "I'm going to knock off grog, and
go and board at the Home, and see if they won't ship me
for a deacon !"
"And I," says Bill, "am going to buy a quadrant and
ship for navigator of a Hingham packet !"
These and the like jokes served to pass the time while
we were lying waiting for a breeze to clear up the fog and
send us on our way.
Toward night a moderate breeze sprang up ; the fog
however continuing as thick as before ; and we kept on
to the eastward. About the middle of the first watch, a
man on the forecastle sang out, in a tone which showed
that there was not a moment to be lost, — "Hard up the
helm !" and a great ship loomed up out of the fog, coming
directly down upon us. She luffed at the same moment,
and we just passed one another; our spanker boom grazing
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 367
over her quarter. The officer of the deck had only time
to hail, and she answered, as she went into the fog again,
something about Bristol — Probably, a whaleman from
Bristol, Rhode Island, bound out. The fog continued
through the night, with a very light breeze, before which
we ran to the eastward, literally feeling our way along.
The lead was heaved every two hours, and the gradual
change from black mud to sand, showed that we were ap-
proaching Nantucket South Shoals. On Monday morning,
the increased depth and deep blue color of the water, and
the mixture of shells and white sand which we brought up,
upon sounding, showed that we were in the channel, and
nearing George's ; accordingly, the ship's head was put
directly to the northward, and we stood on, with perfect
confidence in the soundings, though we had not taken an
observation for two days, nor seen land; and the differ-
ence of an eighth of a mile out of the way might put us
ashore. Throughout the day a provokingly light wind pre-
vailed, and at eight o'clock, a small fishing schooner, which
we passed, told us we were nearly abreast of Chat-
ham lights. Just before midnight, a light land-breeze
sprang up, which carried us well along; and at four
o'clock, thinking ourselves to the northward of Race Point,
we hauled upon the wind and stood into the bay, west-
north-west, for Boston light, and commenced firing guns
for a pilot. Our watch went below at four o'clock, but
could not sleep, for the watch on deck were banging away
at the guns every few minutes. And, indeed, we cared
very little about it, for we were in Boston Bay ; and if
fortune favored us, we could all "sleep in" the next night,
with nobody to call the watch every four hours.
We turned out, of our own will, at daybreak, to get a
sight of land. In the grey of the morning, one or two
small fishing smacks peered out of the mist ; and when the
broad day broke upon us, there lay the low sand-hills of
Cape Cod, over our larboard quarter, and before us, the
wide waters of Massachusetts Bay, with here and there a
sail gliding over its smooth surface. As we drew in to-
ward the mouth of the harbor, as toward a focus, the ves-
sels began to multiply, until the bay seemed actually alive
368 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
with sails gliding about in every direction ; some on the
wind, and others before it, as they were bound to or from
the emporium of trade and centre of the bay. It was a
stirring sight for us, who had been months on the ocean
without seeing anything but two solitary sails; and over
two years without seeing more than the three or four
traders on an almost desolate coast. There were the little
coasters, bound to and from the various towns along the
south shore, down in the bight of the bay, and to the east-
ward ; here and there a square-rigged vessel standing out
to seaward ; and, far in the distance, beyond Cape Ann,
was the smoke of a steamer, stretching along in a narrow,
black cloud upon the water. Every sight was full of
beauty and interest. We were coming back to our homes;
and the signs of civilization, and prosperity, and happi-
ness, from which we had been so long banished, were mul-
tiplying about us. The high land of Cape Ann and the
rocks and shore of Cohasset were full in sight, the light-
houses, standing like sentries in white before the harbors,
and even the smoke from the chimney on the plains of
Hingham was seen rising slowly in the morning air. One
of our boys was the son of a bucket-maker; and his face
lighted up as he saw the tops of the well-known hills which
surround his native place. About ten o'clock a little boat
came bobbing over the water, and put a pilot on board,
and sheered off in pursuit of other vessels bound in. Being
now within the scope of the telegraph stations, our signals
were run up at the fore, and in half an hour afterwards,
the owner on 'change, or in his counting-room, knew that
his ship was below ; and the landlords, runners, and sharks
in Ann street learned that there was a rich prize for them
down in the bay: a ship from round the Horn, with a crew
to be paid off with two years' wages.
The wind continuing very light, all hands were sent
aloft to strip off the chafing gear ; and battens, parcellings,
roundings, hoops, mats, and leathers, came flying from
aloft, and left the rigging neat and clean, stripped of all
its sea bandaging. The last touch was put to the vessel by
painting the skysail poles ; and I was sent up to the fore,
with a bucket of white paint and a brush, and touched her
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 369
off, from the truck to the eyes of the royal rigging. At
noon, we lay becalmed off the lower light-house ; and it
being about slack water, we made little progress. A firing
was heard in the direction of Hingham, and the pilot said
there was a review there. The Hingham boy got wind of
this, and said if the ship had been twelve hours sooner,
he should have been down among the soldiers, and in the
booths, and having a grand time. As it was, we had little
prospect of getting in before night. About two o'clock a
breeze sprang up ahead, from the westward, and we began
beating up against it. A full-rigged brig was beating in
at the same time, and we passed one another, in our tacks,
sometimes one and sometimes the other, working to wind-
ward, as the wind and tide favored or opposed. It was my
trick at the wheel from two till four ; and I stood my last
helm, making between nine hundred and a thousand hours
which I had spent at the helms of our two vessels. The
tide beginning to set against us, we made slow work ; and
the afternoon was nearly spent, before we got abreast of
the inner light. In the meantime, several vessels were
coming down, outward bound ; among which, a fine, large
ship, with yards squared, fair wind and fair tide, passed us
like a race-horse, the men running out upon her yards to
rig out the studding-sail booms. Toward sundown the
wind came off in flaws, sometimes blowing very stiff, so
that the pilot took in the royals, and then it died away ;
when, in order to get us in before the tide became too
strong, the royals were set again. As this kept us run-
ning up and down the rigging all the time, one hand was sent
aloft at each mast-head, to stand-by to loose and furl the
sails, at the moment of the order. I took my place at the
fore, and loosed and furled the royal five times between
Rainsford Island and the Castle. At one tack we ran so
near to Rainsford Island, that, looking down from the
royal yard, the island, with its hospital buildings, nice
gravelled walks, and green plats, seemed to lie directly
under our yard-arms. So close is the channel to some of
these islands, that we ran the end of our flying-jib-boom
over one of the out-works of the fortifications on George's
Island; and had an opportunity of seeing the advantages
370 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
of that point as a fortified place; for, in working up the
channel, we presented a fair stem and stern, for raking,
from the batteries, three or four times. One gun might
have knocked us to pieces.
We had all set our hearts upon getting up to town be-
fore night and going ashore, but the tide beginning to run
strong against us, and the wind, what there was of it,
being ahead, we made but little by weather-bowing the tide,
and the pilot gave orders to cock-bill the anchor and over-
haul the chain. Making two long stretches, which brought
us into the roads, under the lee of the Castle, he clewed up
the topsails, and let go the anchor ; and for the first time
since leaving San Diego, — one hundred and thirty-five
days — our anchor was upon bottom. In half an hour more,
we were lying snugly, with all sails furled, safe in Boston
harbor ; our long voyage ended ; the well-known scene about
us; the dome of the State House fading in the western sky;
the lights of the city starting into sight, as the darkness
came on ; and at nine o'clock the clangor of the bells, ringing
their accustomed peals ; among which the Boston boys tried
to distinguish the well-known tone of the Old South.
We had just done furling the sails, when a beautiful
little pleasure-boat luffed up into the wind, under our
quarter, and the junior partner of the firm to which our
ship belonged, jumped on board. I saw him from the
mizen topsail yard, and knew him well. He shook the
captain by the hand, and went down into the cabin, and in
a few moments came up and inquired of the mate for me.
The last time I had seen him, I was in the uniform of an
under-graduate of Harvard College, and now, to his as-
tonishment, there came down from aloft a "rough alley"
looking fellow, with duck trowsers and red shirt, long hair,
and face burnt as black as an Indian's. He shook me by
the hand, congratulated me upon my return and my ap-
pearance of health and strength, and said my friends were
all well. I thanked him for telling me what I should not
have dared to ask; and if —
" the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office ; and his tongue
Sounds ever after like a sullen bell — "
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 371
certainly I shall ever remember this man and his words with
pleasure.
The captain went up to town in the boat with Mr. H ,
and left us to pass another night on board ship, and to come
up with the morning's tide under command of the pilot.
So much did we feel ourselves to be already at home,
in anticipation, that our plain supper of hard bread and
salt beef was barely touched; and many on board, to whom
this was the first voyage, could scarcely sleep. As for my-
self, by one of those anomalous changes of feeling of which
we are all the subjects, I found that I was in a state of
indifference, for which I could by no means account. A
year before, while carrying hides on the coast, the assur-
ance that in a twelvemonth we should see Boston, made
me half wild; but now that I was actually there, and in
sight of home, the emotions which I had so long antici-
pated feeling, I did not find, and in their place was a
state of very nearly entire apathy. Something of the same
experience was related to me by a sailor whose first voyage
was one of five years upon the North-west Coast. He had
left home, a lad, and after several years of very hard and
trying experience, found himself homeward bound; and
such was the excitement of his feelings that, during the
whole passage, he could talk and think of nothing else but
his arrival, and how and when he should jump from the
vessel and take his way directly home. Yet when the ves-
sel was made fast to the wharf and the crew dismissed, he
seemed suddenly to lose all feeling about the matter. He
told me that he went below and changed his dress ; took
some water from the scuttle-butt and washed himself
leisurely; overhauled his chest, and put his clothes all in
order; took his pipe from its place, filled it, and sitting
down upon his chest, smoked it slowly for the last time.
Here he looked round upon the forecastle in which he had
spent so many years, and being alone and his shipmates
scattered, he began to feel actually unhappy. Home be-
came almost a dream; and it was not until his brother (who
had heard of the ship's arrival) came down into the fore-
castle and told him of things at home, and who were wait-
ing there to see him, that he could realize where he was.
372 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
and feel interest enough to put him in motion toward that
place for which he had longed, and of which he had
dreamed, for years. There is probably so much of excite-
ment in prolonged expectation, that the quiet realizing
of it produces a momentary stagnation of feeling as well
as of effort. It was a good deal so with me. The activity
of preparation, the rapid progress of the ship, the first
making land, the coming up the harbor, and old scenes
breaking upon the view, produced a mental as well as
bodily activity, from which the change to a perfect still-
ness, when both expectation and the necessity of labor
failed, left a calmness, almost of indifference, from which
I must be roused by some new excitement. And the next
morning, when all hands were called, and we were busily
at work, clearing the decks, and getting everything in
readiness for going up to the wharves, — loading the guns
for a salute, loosing the sails, and manning the windlass —
mind and body seemed to wake together.
About ten o'clock, a sea-breeze sprang up, and the pilot
gave orders to get the ship under weigh. All hands
manned the windlass, and the long-drawn " Yo, heave,
ho ! " which we had last heard dying away among the deso-
late hills of San Diego, soon brought the anchor to the
bows; and, with a fair wind and tide, a bright sunny
morning, royals and sky-sails set, ensign, streamer, sig-
nals, and pennant, flying, and with our guns firing, we
came swiftly and handsomely up to the city. Off the end
of the wharf, we rounded-to and let go our anchor ; and no
sooner was it on the bottom, than the decks were filled
with people : custom-house officers ; Topliff's agent, to in-
quire for news; others, inquiring for friends on board, or
left upon the coast; dealers in grease, besieging the galley
to make a bargain with the cook for his slush ; " loafers "
in general ; and last and chief, boarding-house runners, to
secure their men. Nothing can exceed the obliging dis-
position of these runners, and the interest they take in a
sailor returned from a long voyage with a plenty of money.
Two or three of them, at different times, took me by the
hand; remembered me perfectly; were quite sure I had
boarded with them before I sailed; were delighted to see
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 373
me back; gave me their cards; had a hand-cart waiting
on the wharf, on purpose to take my things up: would
lend me a hand to get my chest ashore; bring a bottle of
grog on board if we did not haul in immediately, — and
the like. In fact, we could hardly get clear of them, to go
aloft and furl the sails. Sail after sail, for the hundredth
time, in fair weather and in foul, we furled now for the
last time together, and came down and took the warp
ashore, manned the capstan, and with a chorus which
waked up half the North End, and rang among the build-
ings in the dock, we hauled her in to the wharf. Here,
too, the landlords and runners were active and ready, tak-
ing a bar to the capstan, lending a hand at the ropes,
laughing and talking and telling the news. The city
bells were just ringing one when the last turn was made
fast, and the crew dismissed; and in five minutes more,
not a soul was left on board the good ship Alert, but the
old ship-keeper, who had come down from the counting-
house to take charge of her.
CONCLUDING CHAPTER
I TRUST that they who have followed me to the end of
my narrative, will not refuse to carry their attention a
little farther, to the concluding remarks which I here
present to them.
This chapter is written after the lapse of a considerable
time since the end of my voyage, and after a return to
my former pursuits ; and in it I design to offer those views
of what may be done for seamen, and of what is already
doing, which I have deduced from my experiences, and
from the attention which I have since gladly given to the
subject.
The romantic interest which many take in the sea, and
in those who live upon it, may be of use in exciting their
attention to this subject, though I cannot but feel sure
that all who have followed me in my narrative must be
convinced that the sailor has no romance in his every-day
life to sustain him, but that it is very much the same
plain, matter-of-fact drudgery and hardship, which would
be experienced on shore. If I have not produced this
conviction, I have failed in persuading others of what my
own experience has most fully impressed upon myself.
There is a witchery in the sea, its songs and stories, and
in the mere sight of a ship, and the sailor's dress, especially
to a young mind, which has done more to man navies, and
fill merchantmen, than all the press-gangs of Europe. I
have known a young man with such a passion for the sea,
that the very creaking of a block stirred up his imagina-
tion so that he could hardly keep his feet on dry ground;
and many are the boys, in every seaport, who are drawn
away, as by an almost irresistible attraction, from their
work and schools, and hang about the decks and yards of
vessels, with a fondness which, it is plain, will have its
way. No sooner, however, has the yotmg sailor begun his
374
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 975
new life in earnest, than all this fine drapery falls off, and
he learns that it is but work and hardship, after all. This
is the true light in which a sailor's life is to be viewed ; and
if in our books, and anniversary speeches, we would leave
out much that is said about "blue water," "blue jackets,"
" open hearts," " seeing God's hand on the deep," and so
forth, and take this up like any other practical subject,
I am quite sure we should do full as much for those we
wish to benefit. The question is, what can be done for
sailors, as they are, — men to be fed, and clothed, and
lodged, for whom laws must be made and executed, and
who are to be instructed in useful knowledge, and, above
all, to be brought under religious influence and restraint?
It is upon these topics that I wish to make a few observa-
tions.
In the first place, I have no fancies about equality on
board ship. It is a thing out of the question, and certainly,
in the present state of mankind, not to be desired. I
never knew a sailor who found fault with the orders and
ranks of the service; and if I expected to pass the rest
of my life before the mast, I would not wish to have the
power of the captain diminished an iota. It is absolutely
necessary that there should be one head and one voice, to
control everything, and be responsible for everything.
There are emergencies which require the instant exercise
of extreme power. These emergencies do not allow of
consultation; and they who would be the captain's con-
stituted advisers might be the very men over whom he
would be called upon to exert his authority. It has been
found necessary to vest in every government, even the most
democratic, some extraordinary, and, at first sight, alarm-
ing powers; trusting in public opinion, and subsequent
accountability to modify the exercise of them. These
are provided to meet exigencies, which all hope may never
occur, but which yet by possibility may occur, and if they
should, and there were no power to meet them instantly,
there would be an end put to the government at once. So
it is with the authority of the shipmaster. It will not
answer to say that he shall never do this and that thing, be-
cause it does not seem always necessary and advisable that
376 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
it should be done. He has great cares and responsibili-
ties; is answerable for everything; and is subject to emer-
gencies which perhaps no other man exercising authority
among civilized people is subject to. Let him, then, have
powers commensurate with his utmost possible need; only
let him be held strictly responsible for the exercise of
them. Any other course would be injustice, as well as
bad policy.
In the treatment of those under his authority, the cap-
tain is amenable to the common law, like any other person.
He is liable at common law for murder, assault and bat-
tery, and other offences ; and in addition to this, there is
a special statute of the United States which makes a cap-
tain or other officer liable to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding five years, and to a fine not exceeding a thousand
dollars, for inflicting any cruel punishment upon, with-
holding food from, or in any other way maltreating a sea-
man. This is the state of the law on the subject; while
the relation in which the parties stand, and the peculiar
necessities, excuses, and provocations arising from that
relation, are merely circumstances to be considered in
each case. As to the restraints upon the master's exer-
cise of power, the laws themselves seem, on the whole, to be
sufficient. I do not see that we are in need, at present,
of more legislation on the subject. The difficulty lies
rather in the administration of the laws ; and this is
certainly a matter that deserves great consideration, and
one of no little embarrassment.
In the first place, the courts have said that public policy
requires the power of the master and officers should be sus-
tained. Many lives and a great amount of property are
constantly in their hands, for which they are strictly re-
sponsible. To preserve these, and to deal justly by the
captain, and not lay upon him a really fearful responsi-
bility, and then tie up his hands, it is essential that dis-
cipline should be supported. In the second place, there
is always great allowance to be made for false swearing
and exaggeration by seamen, and for combinations among
them against their officers; and it is to be remembered that
the latter have often no one to testify on their side. These
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 377
are weighty and true statements, and should not be lost
sight of by the friends of seamen. On the other hand,
sailors make many complaints, some of which are well
founded.
On the subject of testimony, seamen labor under a diffi-
culty full as great as that of the captain. It is a well-
known fact, that they are usually much better treated
when there are passengers on board. The presence of
passengers is a restraint upon the captain, not only from
his regard to their feelings and to the estimation in which
they may hold him, but because he knows they will be in-
fluential witnesses against him if he is brought to trial.
Though officers may sometimes be inclined to show them-
selves off before passengers, by freaks of office and authori-
ty, yet cruelty they would hardly dare to be guilty of.
It is on long and distant voyages, where there is no re-
straint upon the captain, and none but the crew to testify
against him, that sailors need most the protection of the
law. On such voyages as these, there are many cases of
outrageous cruelty on record, enough to make one heart-
sick, and almost disgusted with the sight of man ; and
many, many more, which have never come to light, and
never will be known, until the sea shall give up its dead.
Many of these have led to mutiny and piracy, — stripe for
stripe, and blood for blood. If on voyages of this descrip-
tion the testimony of seamen is not to be received in favor
of one another, or too great a deduction is made on ac-
count of their being seamen, their case is without remedy;
and the captain, knowing this, will be strengthened in
that disposition to tyrannize which the possession of abso-
lute power, without the restraints of friends and public
opinion, is too apt to engender.
It is to be considered, also, that the sailor comes into
court under very different circumstances from the master.
He is thrown among landlords, and sharks of all descrip-
tions; is often led to drink freely; and comes upon the
stand unaided, and under a certain cloud of suspicion as
to his character and veracity. The captain, on the other
hand, is backed by the owners and insurers, and has an air
of greater respectability; though, after all, he may have
978 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
but a little better education than the sailor, and sometimes,
(especially among those engaged in certain voyages that I
could mention) a very hackneyed conscience.
These are the considerations most commonly brought
up on the subject of seamen's evidence; and I think it
cannot but be obvious to every one that here, positive
legislation would be of no manner of use. There can be
no rule of law regulating the weight to be given to sea-
men's evidence. It must rest in the mind of the judge
and jury; and no enactment or positive rule of court could
vary the result a hair, in any one case. The effect of a
sailor's testimony in deciding a case must depend alto-
gether upon the reputation of the class to which he belongs,
and upon the impression he himself produces in court by
his deportment, and by those infallible marks of character
which always tell upon a jury. In fine, after all the well-
meant and specious projects that have been brought for-
ward, we seem driven back to the belief, that the best
means of securing a fair administration of the laws made
for the protection of seamen, and certainly the only means
which can create any important change for the better, is
the gradual one of raising the intellectual and religious
character of the sailor, so that as an individual and as one
of a class, he may, in the first instance, command the
respect of his officers, and if any difficulty should happen,
may upon the stand carry that weight which an intelli-
gent and respectable man of the lower class almost always
does with a jury. I know there are many men who, when
a few cases of great hardship occur, and it is evident that
there is an evil somewhere, think that some arrangement
must be made, some law passed, or some society got up, to
set all right at once. On this subject there can be no call
for any such movement ; on the contrary, I fully believe
that any public and strong action would do harm, and that
we must be satisfied to labor in the less easy and less
exciting task of gradual improvement, and abide the issue
of things working slowly together for good.
Equally injudicious would be any interference with the
economy of the ship. The lodging, food, hours of sleep,
etc., are all matters which, though capable of many changes
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 379
for the better, must yet be left to regulate themselves.
And I am confident that there will be, and that there is
now a gradual improvement in all such particulars. The
forecastles of most of our ships are small, black, and wet
holes, which few landsmen would believe held a crew of
ten or twelve men on a voyage of months or years; and
often, indeed in most cases, the provisions are not good
enough to make a meal anything more than a necessary
part of a day's duty;^ and on the score of sleep, I fully
believe that the lives of merchant seamen are shortened
by the want of it. I do not refer to those occasions when
it is necessarily broken in upon ; but, for months, during
fine weather, in many merchantmen, all hands are kept,
throughout the day, and, then, there are eight hours on
deck for one watch each night. Thus it is usually the
case that at the end of a voyage, where there has been the
finest weather, and no disaster, the crew have a wearied
and worn-out appearance. They never sleep longer than
four hours at a time, and are seldom called without being
really in need of more rest. There is no one thing that
a sailor thinks more of as a luxury of life on shore, than
a whole night's sleep. Still, all these things must be left
to be gradually modified by circumstances. Whenever
hard cases occur, they should be made known, and masters
and owners should be held answerable, and will, no doubt,
in time, be influenced in their arrangements and disci-
pline by the increased consideration in which sailors are
held by the public. It is perfectly proper that the men
^ I am not sure that I have stated, in the course of my narrative, the man-
ner in which sailors eat, on board ship. There are neither tables, knives,
forks, nor plates, in a forecastle; but the kid (a wooden tub, with iron hoops)
is placed on the floor, and the crew sit round it, and each man cuts for him-
self with the common jack-knife or sheath-knife, that he carries about him.
They drink their tea out of tin pots, holding little less than a quart each.
These particulars are not looked upon_ as hardships, and, indeed, may be
considered matters of choice. Sailors, in our merchantmen, furnish their
own eating utensils, as they do many of the instruments which they use in the
ship's work, such as knives, palms and needles, marline-spikes, rubbers, etc.
And considering their mode of life in other respects, the little time they
would have for laying and clearing away a table with its apparatus, and the
room it would take up in a forecastle, as well as the simple character of
their meals, consisting generally of only one piece of meat, — it is certainly
a convenient method, and, as the kid and pans are usually kept perfectly
clean, a neat and simple one. 1 had supposed these things to be generally
known, until I heard, a few months ago, a lawyer of repute, who has had
a good deal to do with marine cases, ask a sailor upon the stand whether
the crew had " got up from table " when a certain thing happened.
380 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
should live in a different part of the vessel from the of-
ficers; and if the forecastle is made large and comfortable,
there is no reason why the crew should not live there as
well as in any other part. In fact, sailors prefer the fore-
castle. It is their accustomed place, and in it they are
out of the sight and hearing of their officers.
As to their food and sleep, there are laws, with heavy
penalties, requiring a certain amount of stores to be on
board, and safely stowed; and, for depriving the crew
unnecessarily of food or sleep, the captain is liable at
common law, as well as under the statute before referred
to. Farther than this, it would not be safe to go. The
captain must be the judge when it is necessary to keep
his crew from their sleep; and sometimes a retrenching,
not of the necessaries, but of some of the little niceties
of their meals, as, for instance, dnjf on Sunday, may be
a mode of punishment, though I think generally an in-
judicious one.
I could not do justice to this subject without noticing
one part of the discipline of a ship, which has been very
much discussed of late, and has brought out strong ex-
pressions of indignation from many, — I mean the inflic-
tion of corporal punishment. Those who have followed me
in my narrative will remember that I was witness to an act
of great cruelty inflicted upon my own shipmates; and
indeed I can sincerely say that the simple mention of the
word flogging, brings up in me feelings which I can hardly
control. Yet, when the proposition is made to abolish it
entirely and at once; to prohibit the captain from ever,
under any circumstances, inflicting corporal punishment;
I am obliged to pause, and, I must say, to doubt exceed-
ingly the expediency of making any positive enactment
which shall have that effect. If the design of those who are
writing on this subject is merely to draw public attention
to it, and to discourage the practice of flogging, and bring
it into disrepute, it is well; and, indeed, whatever may be
the end they have in view, the mere agitation of the ques-
tion will have that effect, and, so far, must do good. Yet I
should not wish to take the command of a ship to-morrow,
running my chance of a crew, as most masters must, and
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 381
know, and have my crew know, that I could not, under
any circumstances, inflict even moderate chastisement.
I should trust that I might never have to resort to it; and,
indeed, I scarcely know what risk I would not run, and to
what inconvenience I would not subject myself, rather
than do so. Yet not to have the power of holding it up
in terrorem, and indeed of protecting myself, and all un-
der my charge, by it, if some extreme case should arise,
would be a situation I should not wish to be placed in
myself, or to take the responsibility of placing another in.
Indeed, the difficulties into which masters and officers
are liable to be thrown, are not sufficiently considered by
many whose sympathies are easily excited by stories, fre-
quent enough, and true enough of outrageous abuse of this
power. It is to be remembered that more than three-
fourths of the seamen in our merchant vessels are for-
eigners. They are from all parts of the world. A great
many from the north of Europe, beside Frenchmen, Span-
iards, Portuguese, Italians, men from all parts of the
Mediterranean, together with Lascars, Negroes, and, per-
haps worst of all, the off-casts of British men-of-war, and
men from our own country who have gone to sea because
they could not be permitted to live on land.
As things now are, many masters are obliged to sail
without knowing anything of their crews, until they get
out at sea. There may be pirates or mutineers among
them; and one bad man will often infect all the rest; and
it is almost certain that some of them will be ignorant
foreigners, hardly understanding a word of our language,
accustomed all their lives to no influence but force, and
perhaps nearly as familiar with the use of the knife as
with that of the marline-spike. No prudent master, how-
ever peaceably inclined, would go to sea without his pistols
and handcuffs. Even with such a crew as I have sup-
posed, kindness and moderation would be the best policy,
and the duty of every conscientious man ; and the admin-
istering of corporal punishment might be dangerous, and
of doubtful use. But the question is not, what a captain
ought generally to do, but whether it shall be put out of
the power of every captain, under any circumstances, to
382 RICHARD HENRY DANA, TR.
make use of, even moderate, chastisement. As the law
now stands, a parent may correct moderately his child,
and the master his apprentice; and the case of the ship-
master has been placed upon the same principle. The
statutes, and the common law as expounded in the deci^
sions of courts, and in the books of commentators, are ex-
press and unanimous to this point, that the captain may
inflict moderate corporal chastisement, for a reasonable
cause. If the punishment is excessive, or the cause not
sufficient to justify it, he is answerable; and the jury are
to determine, by their verdict in each case, whether, under
all the circumstances, the punishment was moderate, and
for a justifiable cause.
This seems to me to be as good a position as the whole
subject can be left in. I mean to say, that no positive
enactment, going beyond this, is needed, or would be a
benefit either to masters or men, in the present state of
things. This again would seem to be a case which should
be left to the gradual working of its own cure. As sea-
men improve, punishment will become less necessary; and
as the character of officers is raised, they will be less
ready to inflict it; and, still more, the infliction of it upon
intelligent and respectable men, will be an enormity which
will not be tolerated by public opinion, and by juries, who
are the pulse of the body politic. No one can have a
greater abhorrence of the infliction of such punishment
than I have, and a stronger conviction that severity is bad
policy with a crew; yet I would ask every reasonable man
whether he had not better trust to the practice becoming
unnecessary and disreputable ; to the measure of moderate
chastisement and a justifiable cause being better under-
stood, and thus, the act becoming dangerous, and in course
of time to be regarded as an unheard-of barbarity — than to
take the responsibility of prohibiting it, at once, in all
cases, and in what ever degree, by positive enactment?
There is, however, one point connected with the adminis-
tration of justice to seamen, to which I wish seriously to
call the attention of those interested in their behalf, and, if
possible, also of some of those concerned in that administra-
tion. This is, the practice which prevails of making strong
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 383
appeals to the jury in mitigation of damages, or to the judge,
after a verdict has been rendered against a captain or officer,
for a lenient sentence, on the grounds of their previous
good character, and of their being poor, and having friends
and families depending upon them for support. These ap-
peals have been allowed a weight which is almost incredible,
and which, I think, works a greater hardship upon seamen
than any one other thing in the laws, or the execution of
them. Notwithstanding every advantage the captain has
over the seaman in point of evidence, friends, money, and
able counsel, it becomes apparent that he must fail in his
defence. An appeal is then made to the jury, if it is a civil
action, or to the judge for a mitigated sentence, if it is a
criminal prosecution, on the two grounds I have mentioned.
The same form is usually gone through in every case. In
the first place, as to the previous good character of the
party. Witnesses are brought from the town in which he
resides, to testify to his good character, and to his unex-
ceptionable conduct when on shore. They say that he is a
good father, or husband, or son, or neighbor, and that they
never saw in him any signs of a cruel or tyrannical dis-
position. I have even known evidence admitted to show the
character he bore when a boy at school. The owners of the
vessel, and other merchants, and perhaps the president of
the insurance company, are then introduced ; and they tes-
tify to his correct deportment, express their confidence in
his honesty, and say that they have never seen anything in
his conduct to justify a suspicion of his being capable of
cruelty or tyranny. This evidence is then put together, and
great stress is laid upon the extreme respectability of those
who give it. They are the companions and neighbors of the
captain, it is said, — men who know him in his business and
domestic relations, and who knew him in his early youth.
They are also men of the highest standing in the community,
and who, as the captain's employers, must be supposed to
know his character. This testimony is then contrasted with
that of some half dozen obscure sailors, who, the counsel
will not forget to add, are exasperated against the captain
because he has found it necessary to punish them mod-
erately, and who have combined against him, and if they
3g4 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
have not fabricated a story entirely, have at least so ex-
aggerated it, that little confidence can be placed in it.
The next thing to be done is to show to the court and
jury that the captain is a poor man, and has a wife and
family, or other friends, depending upon him for support;
that if he is fined, it will only be taking bread from the
mouths of the innocent and helpless, and laying a burden
upon them which their whole lives will not be able to work
off; and that if he is imprisoned, the confinement, to be
sure, he will have to bear, but the distress consequent upon
the cutting him off from his labor and means of earning his
wages, will fall upon a poor wife and helpless children, or
upon an infirm parent. These two topics, well put, and
urged home earnestly, seldom fail of their effect.
In deprecation of this mode of proceeding, and in behalf
of men who I believe are every day wronged by it, I would
urge a few considerations which seem to me to be con-
clusive.
First, as to the evidence of the good character the captain
sustains on shore. It is to be remembered that masters of
vessels have usually been brought up in a forecastle ; and
upon all men, and especially upon those taken from lower
situations, the conferring of absolute power is too apt to
work a great change. There are many captains whom I
know to be cruel and tyrannical men at sea, who yet, among
their friends, and in their families, have never lost the
reputation they bore in childhood. In fact, the sea-captain
is seldom at home, and when he is, his stay is short, and
during the continuance of it he is surrounded by friends
who treat him with kindness and consideration, and he has
everything to please, and at the same time to restrain him.
He would be a brute indeed, if, after an absence of months
or years, during his short stay, so short that the novelty
and excitement of it has hardly time to wear off, and the
attentions he receives as a visitor and stranger hardly time
to slacken, — if, under such circumstances, a townsman or
neighbor would be justified in testifying against his correct
and peaceable deportment. With the owners of the vessel,
also, to which he is attached, and among merchants and
insurers generally, he is a very different man from what he
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 385
may be at sea, when his own master, and the master of
everybody and everything about him. He knows that upon
such men, and their good opinion of him, he depends
for his bread. So far from their testimony being of any
value in determining what his conduct would be at sea, one
would expect that the master who would abuse and impose
upon a man under his power, would be the most compliant and
deferential to his employers at home.
As to the appeal made in the captain's behalf on the
ground of his being poor and having persons depending
upon his labor for support, the main and fatal objection
to it is, that it will cover every case of the kind, and exempt
nearly the whole body of masters and ofificers from the
punishment the law has provided for them. There are
very few, if any masters or other officers of merchantmen
in our country, who are not poor men, and having either
parents, wives, children, or other relatives, depending mainly
or wholly upon their exertions for support in life. Few
others follow the sea for subsistence. Now if this appeal
is to have weight with courts in diminishing the penalty
the law would otherwise inflict, is not the whole class under
a privilege which will, in a degree, protect it in wrong-
doing? It is not a thing that happens now and then. It is
the invariable appeal, the last resort, of counsel, when every-
thing else has failed. I have known cases of the most flag-
rant nature, where after every effort has been made for the
captain, and yet a verdict rendered against him, and all
other hope failed, this appeal has been urged, and with such
success that the punishment has been reduced to something
little more than nominal, the court not seeming to consider
that it might be made in almost every such case that could
come before them. It is a little singular, too, that it seems
to be confined to cases of shipmasters and officers. No one
ever heard of a sentence, for an offence committed on shore,
being reduced by the court on the ground of the prisoner's
poverty, and the relation in which he may stand to third
persons. On the contrary, it had been thought tliat the cer-
tainty that disgrace and suffering will be brought upon
others as well as himself, is one of the chief restraints upon
the criminally disposed. Besides, this course works a pecu-
M — VOL. XXIII HC
386 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
liar hardship in the case of the sailor. For if poverty is the
point in question, the sailor is the poorer of the two; and
if there is a man on earth who depends upon whole limbs
and an unbroken spirit for support, it is the sailor. He,
too, has friends to whom his hard earnings may be a relief,
and whose hearts will bleed at any cruelty or indignity prac-
tised upon him. Yet I never knew this side of the case to be
once adverted to in these arguments addressed to the
leniency of the court, which are now so much in vogue ; and
certainly they are never allowed a moment's consideration
when a sailor is on trial for revolt, or for an injury done
to an officer. Notwithstanding the many difficulties which
lie in a seaman's way in a court of justice, presuming that
they will be modified in time, there would be little to com-
plain of, were it not for these two appeals.
It is no cause of complaint that the testimony of seamen
against their officers is viewed with suspicion, and that
great allowance is made for combinations and exaggeration.
On the contrary, it is the judge's duty to charge the jury
on these points strongly. But there is reason for objec-
tion, when, after a strict cross-examination of witnesses,
after the arguments of counsel, and the judge's charge, a
verdict is found against the master, that the court should
allow the practice of hearing appeals to its lenity, supported
solely by evidence of the captain's good conduct when on
shore, (especially where the case is one in which no evidence
but that of sailors could have been brought against the ac-
cused,) and then, on this ground, and on the invariable
claims of the wife and family, be induced to cut down essen-
tially the penalty imposed by a statute made expressly for
masters and officers of merchantmen, and for no one else.
There are many particulars connected with the manning
of vessels, the provisions given to crews, and the treatment
of them while at sea, upon which there might be a good
deal said; but as I have, for the most part, remarked upon
them as they came up in the course of my narrative, I will
offer nothing further now, except on the single point of
the manner of shipping men. This, it is well known, is
usually left entirely to shipping-masters, and is a cause of a
great deal of difficulty, which might be remedied by the
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 387
captain, or owner, if he has any knowledge of seamen, at-
tending to it personally. One of the members of the firm
to which our ship belonged, Mr. S , had been himself a
master of a vessel, and generally selected the crew from a
number sent down to him from the shipping-office. In this
way he almost always had healthy, serviceable, and respect-
able men ; for any one who has seen much of sailors can tell
pretty well at first sight, by a man's dress, countenance, and
deportment, what he would be on board ship. This same
gentleman was also in the habit of seeing the crew together,
and speaking to them previously to their sailing. On the
day before our ship sailed, while the crew were getting
their chests and clothes on board, he went down into the
forecastle and spoke to them about the voyage, the clothing
they would need, the provision he had made for them, and
saw that they had a lamp and a few other conveniences.
If owners or masters would more generally take the same
pains, they would often save their crews a good deal of
inconvenience, beside creating a sense of satisfaction and
gratitude, which makes a voyage begin under good auspices,
and goes far toward keeping up a better state of feeling
throughout its continuance.
It only remains for me now to speak of the associated
public efforts which have been making of late years for the
good of seamen: a far more agreeable task than that of
finding fault, even where fault there is. The exertions of
the general association, called the American Seamen's
Friend Society, and of the other smaller societies through-
out the Union, have been a true blessing to the seaman;
and bid fair, in course of time, to change the whole nature
of the circumstances in which he is placed, and give him a
new name, as well as a new character. These associations
have taken hold in the right way, and aimed both at making
the sailor's life more comfortable and creditable, and at
giving him spiritual instruction. Connected with these
efforts, the spread of temperance among seamen, by means
of societies, called, in their own nautical language, Wind-
ward-Anchor Societies, and the distribution of books; the
establishment of Sailors' Homes, where they can be com-
fortably and cheaply boarded, live quietly and decently, and
388 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
be in the way of religious services, reading and conversa-
tion ; also the institution of Savings Banks for Seamen ; the
distribution of tracts and Bibles ; — are all means which are
silently doing a great work for this class of men. These
societies make the religious instruction of seamen their
prominent object. If this is gained, there is no fear but that
all other things necessary will be added unto them. A sailor
never becomes interested in religion, without immediately
learning to read, if he did not know how before; and regu-
lar habits, forehandedness (if I may use the word) in
worldly affairs, and hours reclaimed from indolence and
vice, which follow in the wake of the converted man, make
it sure that he will instruct himself in the knowledge neces-
sary and suitable to his calling. The religious change is
the great object. If this is secured, there is no fear but that
knowledge of things of the world will come in fast enough.
With the sailor, as with all other men in fact, the cultivation
of the intellect, and the spread of what is commonly called
useful knowledge, while religious instruction is neglected, is
little else than changing an ignorant sinner into an intelli-
gent and powerful one. That sailor upon whom, of all
others, the preaching of the Cross is least likely to have
effect, is the one whose understanding has been cultivated,
while his heart has been left to its own devices. I fully
believe that those efforts which have their end in the intel-
lectual cultivation of the sailor; in giving him scientific
knowledge ; putting it in his power to read everything, with-
out securing, first of all, a right heart which shall guide him
in judgment; in giving him political information, and inter-
esting him in newspapers ; — an end in the furtherance of
which he is exhibited at ladies' fairs and public meetings,
and complimented for his gallantry and generosity, — are
all doing a harm which the labors of many faithful men
cannot undo.
The establishment of Bethels in most of our own seaports,
and in many foreign ports frequented by our vessels, where
the gospel is regularly preached and the opening of " Sail-
ors' Homes," which I have before mentioned, where there
are usually religious services and other good influences, are
doing a vast deal in this cause. But it is to be remembered
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 389
that the sailor's home is on the deep. Nearly all his life
must be spent on board ship; and to secure a religious in-
fluence there, should be the great object. The distribution
of Bibles and tracts into cabins and forecastles, will do
much toward this. There is nothing which will gain a sail-
or's attention sooner, and interest him more deeply, than a
tract, especially one which contains a story. It is difficult
to engage their attention in mere essays and arguments, but
the simplest and shortest story, in which home is spoken of,
kind friends, a praying mother or sister, a sudden death,
and the like, often touches the heart of the roughest and
most abandoned. The Bible is to the sailor a sacred book.
It may lie in the bottom of his chest, voyage after voyage;
but he never treats it with positive disrespect. I never
knew but one sailor who doubted its being the inspired word
of God; and he was one who had received an uncommonly
good education, except that he had been brought up without
any early religious influence. The most abandoned man of
our crew, one Sunday morning, asked one of the boys to
lend him his Bible. The boy said he would, but was afraid
he would make sport of it. " No ! " said the man, " I don't
make sport of God Almighty." This is a feeling general
among sailors, and is a good foundation for religious
influence.
A still greater gain is made whenever, by means of a
captain who is interested in the eternal welfare of those
under his command, there can be secured the performance
of regular religious exercises, and the exertion, on the side
of religion, of that mighty influence which a captain pos-
sesses for good, or for evil. There are occurrences at sea
which he may turn to great account, — a sudden death, the
apprehension of danger, or the escape from it, and the like ;
and all the calls for gratitude and faith. Besides, this state
of thing alters the whole current of feeling between the
crew and their commander. His authority assumes more of
the parental character; and kinder feelings exist. Godwin,
though an infidel, in one of his novels, describing the relation
in which a tutor stood to his pupil, says that the conviction
the tutor was under, that he and his ward were both alike
awaiting a state of eternal happiness or misery, and that
390 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
they must appear together before the same judgment-seat,
operated so upon his naturally morose disposition, as to pro-
duce a feeling of kindness and tenderness toward his ward,
which nothing else could have caused. Such must be the
effect upon the relation of master and common seaman.
There are now many vessels sailing under such auspices,
in which great good is done. Yet I never happened to fall
in with one of them. I did not hear a prayer made, a chap-
ter read in public, nor see anything approaching to a re-
ligious service, for two years and a quarter. There were,
in the course of the voyage, many incidents which made, for
the time, serious impressions upon our minds, and which
might have been turned to our good ; but there being no one
to use the opportunity, and no services, the regular return
of which might have kept something of the feeling alive in
us, the advantage of them was lost, to some, perhaps,
forever.
The good which a single religious captain may do can
hardly be calculated. In the first place, as I have said, a
kinder state of feeling exists on board the ship. There is
no profanity allowed; and the men are not called by any
opprobrious names, which is a great thing with sailors.
The Sabbath is observed. This gives the men a day of rest,
even if they pass it in no other way. Such a captain, too,
will not allow a sailor on board his ship to remain unable to
read his Bible and the books given to him; and will usually
instruct those who need it, in writing, arithmetic, and navi-
gation ; since he has a good deal of time on his hands, which
he can easily employ in such a manner. He will also have
regular religious services ; and, in fact, by the power of his
example, and, where it can judiciously be done, by the ex-
ercise of his authority, will give a character to the ship and
all on board. In foreign ports, a ship is known by her
captain ; for, there being no general rules in the merchant
service, each master may adopt a plan of his own. It is to
be remembered, too, that there are, in most ships, boys of a
tender age, whose characters for life are forming, as well
as old men, whose lives must be drawing toward a close.
The greater part of sailors die at sea; and when they find
their end approaching, if it does not, as is often the case,
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 391
come without warning, they cannot, as on shore, send for a
clergyman, or some religious friend, to speak to them of that
hope in a Saviour, which they have neglected, if not de-
spised, through life; but if the little hull does not contain
such an one within its compass, they must be left without
human aid in their great extremity. When such commanders
and such ships, as I have just described, shall become more
numerous, the hope of the friends of seamen will be greatly
strengthened; and it is encouraging to remember that the
efforts among common sailors will soon raise up such a
class; for those of them who are brought under these in-
fluences will inevitably be the ones to succeed to the places
of trust and authority. If there is on earth an instance
where a little leaven may leaven the whole lump, it is that
of the religious shipmaster.
It is to the progress of this work among seamen that we
must look with the greatest confidence for the remedying of
those numerous minor evils and abuses that we so often
hear of. It will raise the character of sailors, both as indi-
viduals and as a class. It will give weight to their testi-
mony in courts of justice, secure better usage to them on
board ship, and add comforts to their lives on shore and at
sea. There are some laws that can be passed to remove
temptation from their way and to help them in their prog-
ress; and some changes in the jurisdiction of the lower
courts, to prevent delays, may, and probably will, be made.
But, generally speaking, more especially in things which
concern the discipline of ships, we had better labor in this
great work, and view with caution the proposal of new laws
and arbitrary regulations, remembering that most of those
concerned in the making of them must necessarily be little
qualified to judge of their operation.
Without any formal dedication of my narrative to that
body of men, of whose common life it is intended to be a
picture, I have yet borne them constantly in mind during
its preparation. I cannot but trust that those of them, into
whose hands it may chance to fall, will find in it that which
shall render any professions of sympathy and good wishes on
my part unnecessary. And I will take the liberty, on part-
ing with my reader, who has gone down with us to the
392 TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST
ocean, and "laid his hand upon its mane," to commend to
his kind wishes, and to the benefit of his efforts, that class
of men with whom, for a time, my lot was cast. I wish the
rather to do this, since I feel that whatever attention this
book may gain, and whatever favor it may find, I shall owe
almost entirely to that interest in the sea, and those who
follow it, which is so easily excited in us all.
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER
IT WAS in the winter of 1835-6 that the ship Alert, in
the prosecution of her voyage for hides on the remote
and almost unknown coast of California, floated
into the vast solitude of the Bay of San Francisco. All
around was the stillness of nature. One vessel, a Rus-
sian, lay at anchor there, but during our whole stay not a
sail came or went. Our trade was with remote Missions,
which sent hides to us in launches manned by their In-
dians. Our anchorage was between a small island, called
Yerba Buena, and a gravel beach in a little bight or cove
of the same name, formed by two small projecting points.
Beyond, to the westward of the landing-place, were dreary
sand-hills, with little grass to be seen, and few trees, and
beyond them higher hills, steep and barren, their sides gullied
by the rains. Some five or six miles beyond the landing-
place, to the right, was a ruinous Presidio, and some three
or four miles to the left was the Mission of Dolores, as
ruinous as the Presidio, almost deserted, with but few In-
dians attached to it, and but little property in cattle. Over a
region far beyond our sight there were no other human
habitations, except that an enterprising Yankee, years in ad-
vance of his time, had put up, on the rising ground above
the landing, a shanty of rough boards, where he carried on
a very small retail trade between the hide ships and the
Indians. Vast banks of fog, invading us from the Nort.i
Pacific, drove in through the entrance, and covered the
whole bay ; and when they disappeared, we saw a few
well-wooded islands, the sand-hills on the west, the grassy
and wooded slopes on the east, and the vast stretch of the
bay to the southward, where we were told lay the Missions
of Santa Clara and San Jose, and still longer stretches
to the northward and northeastward, where we understood
393
394 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
smaller bays spread out, and large rivers poured in theif
tributes of waters. There were no settlements on these bays
or rivers, and the few ranchos and Missions were remote
and widely separated. Not only the neighborhood of our
anchorage, but the entire region of the great bay, was
a solitude. On the whole coast of California there was
not a lighthouse, a beacon, or a buoy, and the charts were
made up from old and disconnected surveys by British,
Russian, and Mexican voyagers. Birds of prey and pas-
sage swooped and dived about us, wild beasts ranged
through the oak groves, and as we slowly floated out of
the harbor with the tide, herds of deer came to the water's
edge, on the northerly side of the entrance, to gaze at the
strange spectacle.
On the evening of Saturday, the 13th of August, 1859, the
superb steamship Golden Gate, gay with crowds of passen-
gers, and lighting the sea for miles around with the glare
of her signal lights of red, green, and white, and brilliant
with lighted saloons and staterooms, bound up from the
Isthmus of Panama, neared the entrance to San Francisco,
the great centre of a world-wide commerce. Miles out at
sea, on the desolate rocks of the Farallones, gleamed the
powerful rays of one of the most costly and effective light-
houses in the world. As we drew in through the Golden
Gate, another light-house met our eyes, and in the clear
moonlight of the unbroken California summer we saw, on
the right, a large fortification protecting the narrow en-
trance, and just before us the little island of Alcatraz con-
fronted us, — one entire fortress. We bore round the point
toward the old anchoring-ground of the hide ships, and there,
covering the sand-hills and the valleys, stretching from the
water's edge to the base of the great hills, and from the
old Presidio to the Mission, flickering all over with the
lamps of its streets and houses, lay a city of one hundred
thousand inhabitants. Clocks tolled the hour of midnight
from its steeples, but the city was alive from the salute of
our guns, spreading the news that the fortnightly steamer
had come, bringing mails and passengers from the Atlantic
world. Clipper ships of the largest size lay at anchor in
the stream, or were girt to the wharves ; and capacious high-
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 395
pressure steamers, as large and showy as those of the
Hudson or Mississippi, bodies of dazzling light, awaited the
delivery of our mails to take their courses up the Bay, stop-
ping at Benicia and the United States Naval Station, and
then up the great tributaries — the Sacramento, San Joaquin,
and Feather Rivers — to the far inland cities of Sacramento,
Stockton, and Marysville.
The dock into which we drew, and the streets about it,
were densely crowded with express wagons and hand-carts
to take luggage, coaches and cabs for passengers, and with
men, — some looking out for friends among our hundreds
of passengers, — agents of the press, and a greater multitude
eager for newspapers and verbal intelligence from the great
Atlantic and European world. Through this crowd I made
my way, along the well-built and well-lighted streets, as
alive as by day, where boys in high-keyed voices were al-
ready crying the latest New York papers ; and between one
and two o'clock in the morning found myself comfortably
abed in a commodious room, in the Oriental Hotel, which
stood, as well as I could learn, on the filled-up cove, and
not far from the spot where we used to beach our boats from
the Alert.
Sunday, August 14th. When I awoke in the morning, and
looked from my windows over the city of San Francisco,
with its storehouses, towers, and steeples; its court-houses,
theatres, and hospitals; its daily journals; its well-filled
learned professions; its fortresses and light-houses; its
wharves and harbor, with their thousand-ton clipper ships,
more in number than London or Liverpool sheltered that
day, itself one of the capitals of the American Republic, and
the sole emporium of a new world, the awakened Pacific;
when I looked across the bay to the eastward, and beheld
a beautiful town on the fertile, wooded shores of the Contra
Costa, and steamers, large and small, the ferryboats to the
Contra Costa, and capacious freighters and passenger-car-
riers to all parts of the great bay and its tributaries, with
lines of their smoke in the horizon, — when I saw all these
things, and reflected on what I once was and saw here,
and what now surrounded me, I could scarcely keep my
hold on reality at all, or the genuineness of anything, and
396 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
seemed to myself like one who had moved in " worlds not
realized."
I could not complain that I had not a choice of places
of worship. The Roman Catholics have an archbishop, a
cathedral, and five or six smaller churches, French, German,
Spanish, and English; and the Episcopalians a bishop, a
cathedral, and three other churches; the Methodists and
Presbyterians have three or four each, and there are Con-
gregationalists. Baptists, a Unitarian, and other societies.
On my way to church, I met two classmates of mine at
Harvard standing in a door-way, one a lawyer and the other
a teacher, and made appointments for a future meeting. A
little farther on I came upon another Harvard man, a fine
scholar and wit, and full of cleverness and good-humor, who
invited me to go to breakfast with him at the French house,
— he was a bachelor, and a late riser on Sundays. I asked
him to show me the way to Bishop Kip's church. He hesi-
tated, looked a little confused, and admitted that he was not
as well up in certain classes of knowledge as in others, but,
by a desperate guess, pointed out a wooden building at
the foot of the street, which any one might have seen could
not be right, and which turned out to be an African Baptist
meeting-house. But my friend had many capital points of
character, and I owed much of the pleasure of my visit to
his attentions.
The congregation at the Bishop's church was precisely
like one you would meet in New York, Philadelphia, or
Boston. To be sure, the identity of the service makes one
feel at once at home, but the people were alike, nearly all
of the English race, though from all parts of the Union.
The latest French bonnets were at the head of the chief
pews, and business men at the foot. The music was without
character, but there was an instructive sermon, and the
church was full.
I found that there were no services at any of the Prot-
estant churches in the afternoon. They have two services
on Sunday; at ii A. M., and after dark. The afternoon is
spent at home, or in friendly visiting, or teaching of Sunday
Schools, or other humane and social duties.
This is as much the practice with what at home are called
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 397
the strictest denominations as with any others. Indeed, I
found individuals, as well as public bodies, affected in a
marked degree by a change of oceans and by California life.
One Sunday afternoon I was surprised at receiving the
card of a man whom I had last known, some fifteen years
ago, as a strict and formal deacon of a Congregational So-
ciety in New England. He was a deacon still, in San Fran-
cisco, a leader in all pious works, devoted to his denomina-
tion and to total abstinence, — the same internally, but ex-
ternally — what a change ! Gone was the downcast eye, the
bated breath, the solemn, non-natural voice, the watchful
gait, stepping as if he felt responsible for the balance of the
moral universe ! He walked with a stride, an uplifted open
countenance, his face covered with beard, whiskers, and
mustache, his voice strong and natural, — and, in short, he
had put off the New England deacon and become a human
being. In a visit of an hour I learned much from him about
the religious societies, the moral reforms, the " Dashaways,"
— total abstinence societies, which had taken strong hold on
the young and wilder parts of society, — and then of the
Vigilance Committee, of which he was a member, and of
more secular points of interest.
In one of the parlors of the hotel, I saw a man of about
sixty years of age, with his feet bandaged and resting in a
chair, whom somebody addressed by the name of Lies.^
Lies ! thought I, that must be the man who came across the
country from Kentucky to Monterey while we lay there in
the Pilgrim in 1835, and made a passage in the Alert, when
he used to shoot with his rifle bottles hung from the top-
gallant studding-sail-boom-ends. He married the beautiful
Doiia Rosalia Vallejo, sister of Don Guadalupe. There
were the old high features and sandy hair. I put my chair
beside him, and began conversation, as any one may do in
California. Yes, he was the Mr. Lies; and when I gave
my name he professed at once to remember me, and spoke
of my book. I found that almost — I might perhaps say quite
— every American in California had read it; for when Cali-
fornia "broke out," as the phrase is, in 1848, and so large
a portion of the Anglo-Saxon race flocked to it, there v^^as
^Pronounced Leese.
398 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
no book upon California but mine. Many who were on
the coast at the time the book refers to, and afterwards read
it, and remembered the Pilgrim and Alert, thought they also
remembered me. But perliaps more did remember me than
I was inclined at first to believe, for the novelty of a col-
legian coming out before the mast had drawn more attention
to me than I was aware of at the time.
Late in the afternoon, as there were vespers at the Roman
Catholic churches, I went to that of Notre Dame des Vic-
toires. The congregation was French, and a sermon in
French was preached by an Abbe; the music was excellent,
all things airy and tasteful, and making one feel as if in one
of the chapels in Paris. The Cathedral of St. Mary, which
I afterwards visited, where the Irish attend, was a contrast
indeed, and more like one of our stifling Irish Catholic
churches in Boston or New York, with intelligence in so
small a proportion to the number of faces. During the three
Sundays I was in San Francisco, I visited three of the Epis-
copal churches, and the Congregational, a Chinese Mission
Chapel, and on the Sabbath (Saturday) a Jewish synagogue.
The Jews are a wealthy and powerful class here. The Chi-
nese, too, are numerous, and do a great part of the manual
labor and small shop-keeping, and have some wealthy mer-
cantile houses.
It is noticeable that European Continental fashions prevail
generally in this city, — French cooking, lunch at noon, and
dinner at the end of the day, with cafe noir after meals, and
to a great extent the European Sunday, — to all which emi-
grants from the United States and Great Britain seem to
adapt themselves. Some dinners which were given to me
at French restaurants were, it seemed to me, — a poor judge
of such matters, to be sure, — as sumptuous and as good, in
dishes and wines, as I have found in Paris. But I had a
relish-maker which my friends at table did not suspect, —
the remembrance of the forecastle dinners I ate here twenty-
four years before.
August 17th. The customs of California are free; and
any person who knows about my book speaks to me.
The newspapers have announced the arrival of the veteran
pioneer of all. I hardly walk out without meeting or
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 399
making acquaintances. I have already been invited to de-
liver the anniversary oration before the Pioneer Society,
to celebrate the settlement of San Francisco. Any man is
qualified for election into the society who came to California
before 1853. What moderns they are ! I tell them of the
time when Richardson's shanty of 1835 — not his adobe house
of 1836 — was the only human habitation between the Mis-
sion and the Presidio, and when the vast bay, with all its
tributaries and recesses, was a solitude, — and yet I am but
little past forty years of age. They point out the place
where Richardson's adobe house stood, and tell me that the
first court and first town council were convened in it,
the first Protestant worship performed in it, and in it the
first capital trial by the Vigilance Committee held. I am
taken down to the wharves, by antiquaries of a ten or
twelve years' range, to identify the two points, now known
as Clark's and Rincon, which formed the little cove of
Yerba Buena, where we used to beach our boats, — now
filled up and built upon. The island we called " Wood
Island," where we spent the cold days and nights of
December, in our launch, getting wood for our year's sup-
ply, is clean shorn of trees ; and the bare rocks of Alcatraz
Island, an entire fortress. I have looked at the city from the
water and islands from the city, but I can see nothing that
recalls the times gone by, except the venerable Mission, the
ruinous Presidio, the high hills in the rear of the town,
and the great stretches of the bay in all directions.
To-day I took a California horse of the old style, — the
run, the loping gait, — and visited the Presidio. The walls
stand as they did, with some changes made to accom-
modate a small garrison of United States troops. It has
a noble situation, and I saw from it a clipper ship of the
very largest class, coming through the Gate, under her fore-
and-aft sails. Thence I rode to the Fort, now nearly finished,
on the southern shore of the Gate, and made an inspection
of it. It is very expensive and of the latest style. One
of the engineers here is Custis Lee, who has just left West
Point at the head of his class, — a son of Colonel Robert
E. Lee, who distinguished himself in the Mexican War.
Another morning I ride to the Mission Dolores. It has
400 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
a strangely solitary aspect, enhanced by its surroundings
of the most uncongenial, rapidly growing modernisms; the
hoar of ages surrounded by the brightest, slightest, and
rapidest of modern growths. Its old belfries still clanged
with the discordant bells, and Mass was saying within, for it
is used as a place of worship for the extreme south part of
the city.
In one of my walks about the wharves, I found a pile
of dry hides lying by the side of a vessel. Here was some-
thing to feelingly persuade me what I had been, to recall
a past scarce credible to myself. I stood lost in reflection.
What were these hides — what were they not? — to us, to
me, a boy, twenty-four years ago? These were our con-
stant labor, our chief object, our almost habitual thought.
They brought us out here, they kept us here, and it was
only by getting them that we could escape from the coast
and return to home and civilized life. If it had not been
that I might be seen, I should have seized one, slung it
over my head, walked off with it, and thrown it by the old
toss — I do not believe yet a lost art — to the ground. How
they called up to my mind the months of curing at San
Diego, the year and more of beach and surf work, and the
steering of the ship for home ! I was in a dream of San
Diego, San Pedro, — with its hills so steep for taking up
goods, and its stones so hard to our bare feet, — and the
cliffs of San Juan ! . All this, too, is no more ! The entire
hide-business is of the past, and to the present inhabitants
of California a dim tradition. The gold discoveries drew off
all men from the gathering or cure of hides, the inflowing
population made an end of the great droves of cattle; and
now not a vessel pursues the — I was about to say dear — the
dreary once hated business of gathering hides upon the
coast, and the beach of San Diego is abandoned and its
hide-houses have disappeared. Meeting a respectable-look-
ing citizen on the wharf, I inquired of him how the hide-
trade was carried on. " O," said he, " there is very little
of it, and that is all here. The few that are brought in are
placed under sheds in winter, or left out on the wharf in
summer, and are loaded from the wharves into the ves-
sels alongside. They form parts of cargoes of other mate
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 401
rials." I really felt too much, at the instant, to express to
him the cause of my interest in the subject, and only
added, "Then the old business of trading up and down the
coast and curing hides for cargoes is all over?" "O yes,
sir," said he, " those old times of the Pilgrim and Alert and
California, that we read about, are gone by."
Saturday, August 20th. The steamer Senator makes reg-
ular trips up and down the coast, between San Fran-
cisco and San Diego, calling at intermediate ports. This
is my opportunity to revisit the old scenes. She sails to-
day, and I am off, steaming among the great clippers an-
chored in the harbor, and gliding rapidly round the point,
past Alcatraz Island, the light-house, and through the forti-
fied Golden Gate, and bending to the southward, — all done
in two or three hours, which, in the Alert, under canvas,
with head tides, variable winds, and sweeping currents to
deal with, took us full two days.
Among the passengers I noticed an elderly gentleman,
thin, with sandy hair and face that seemed familiar. He
took off his glove and showed one shrivelled hand. It must
be he I I went to him and said, " Captain Wilson, I believe."
Yes, that was his name. " I knew you, sir, when you com-
manded the Ayacucho on this coast, in old hide-droghing
times, in 1835-6." He was quickened by this, and at once
inquiries were made on each side, and we were in full talk
about the Pilgrim and Alert, Ayacucho and Loriotte, the
California and Lagoda. I found he had been very much
flattered by the praise I had bestowed in my book on his
seamanship, especially in bringing the Pilgrim to her berth
in San Diego harbor, after she had drifted successively
into the Lagoda and Loriotte, and was coming into him.
I had made a pet of his brig, the Ayacucho, which pleased
him almost as much as my remembrance of his bride and
their wedding, which I saw at Santa Barbara in 1836.
Dona Ramona was now the mother of a large family, and
Wilson assured me that if I would visit him at his rancho,
near San Luis Obispo, I should find her still a handsome
woman, and very glad to see me. How we walked the deck
together, hour after hour, talking over the old times, — the
ships, the captains, the crews, the traders on shore, the
402 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
ladies, the Missions, the south-easters ! indeed, where could
we stop? He had sold the Ayacucho in Chili for a vessel of
war, and had given up the sea, and had been for years a
ranchero. (I learned from others that he had become one of
the most wealthy and respectable farmers in the State, and
that his rancho was well worth visiting.) Thompson, he
said, hadn't the sailor in him ; and he never could laugh
enough at his fiasco in San Diego, and his reception by
Bradshaw. Faucon was a sailor and a navigator. He did
not know what had become of George Marsh {ante, pp.
209-212, 263), except that he left him in Callao; nor could he
tell me anything of handsome Bill Jackson {ante, p. 90),
nor of Captain Nye of the Loriotte. I told him all I then
knew of the ships, the masters, and the officers. I found
he had kept some run of my history, and needed little in-
formation. Old Sefior Noriego of Santa Barbara, he told
me, was dead, and Don Carlos and Don Santiago, but I
should find their children there, now in middle life. Dona
Augustia, he said, I had made famous by my praises of her
beauty and dancing, and I should have from her a royal re-
ception. She had been a widow, and remarried since, and
had a daughter as handsome as herself. The descendants of
Noriego had taken the ancestral name of De la Guerra, as
they were nobles of Old Spain by birth; and the boy Pablo,
who used to make passages in the Alert, was now Don Pablo
de la Guerra, a Senator in the State Legislature for Santa
Barbara County.
The points in the country, too, he noticed, as he passed
them, — Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, Point Ano Nuevo,
the opening to Monterey, which to my disappointment we
did not visit. No; Monterey, the prettiest town on the
coast, and its capital and seat of customs, had got no ad-
vantage from the great changes, was out of the way of
commerce and of the travel to the mines and great rivers,
and was not worth stopping at. Point Conception we
passed in the night, a cheery light gleaming over the waters
from its tall light-house, standing on its outermost peak.
Point Conception ! That word was enough to recall all our
experiences and dreads of gales, swept decks, topmast car-
ried away, and the hardships of a coast service in the
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 403
winter. But Captain Wilson tells me that the climate has
altered; that the southeasters are no longer the bane of
the coast they once were, and that vessels now anchor
inside the kelp at Santa Barbara and San Pedro all the year
round. I should have thought this owing to his spend-
ing his winters on a rancho instead of the deck of the Aya-
cucho, had not the same thing been told me by others.
Passing round Point Conception, and steering easterly,
we opened the islands that form, with the main-land, the
canal of Santa Barbara. There they are, Santa Cruz and
Santa Rosa; and there is the beautiful point, Santa Buen-
aventura ; and there lies Santa Barbara on its plain, with
its amphitheatre of high hills and distant mountains. There
is the old white Mission with its belfries, and there the
town, with its one-story adobe houses, with here and there
a two-story wooden house of later build; yet little is it
altered, — the same repose in the golden sunlight and glorious
climate, sheltered by its hills; and then, more remindful
than anything else, there roars and tumbles upon the beach
the same grand surf of the great Pacific as on the beauti-
ful day when the Pilgrim, after her five months' voyage,
dropped her weary anchors here ; the same bright blue ocean,
and the surf making just the same monotonous, melancholy
roar, and the same dreamy town, and gleaming white
Mission, as when we beached our boats for the first time,
riding over the breakers with shouting Kanakas, the three
small hide-traders lying at anchor in the offing. But now
we are the only vessel, and that an unromantic, sail-less,
spar-less, engine-driven hulk !
I landed in the surf, in the old style, but it was not
high enough to excite us, the only change being that I
was somehow unaccountably a passenger, and did not have
to jump overboard and steady the boat, and run her up
by the gunwales.
Santa Barbara has gained but little. I should not know,
from anything I saw, that she was now a seaport of the
United States, a part of the enterprising Yankee nation,
and not still a lifeless Mexican town. At the same old house,
where Senor Noriego lived, on the piazza in front of the
court-yard, where was the gay scene of the marriage of
404 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
our agent, Mr. Robinson, to Dona Anita, where Don Juan
Bandini and Doiia Augustia danced, Don Pablo de la Guerra
received me in a courtly fashion. I passed the day with the
family, and in walking about the place ; and ate the old
dinner with its accompaniments of frijoles, native olives
and grapes, and native wines. In due time I paid my
respects to Dona Augustia, and notwithstanding what Wilson
told me, I could hardly believe that after twenty-four years
there would still be so much of the enchanting woman about
her.
She thanked me for the kind and, as she called them,
greatly exaggerated compliments I had paid her; and her
daughter told me that all travellers who came to Santa
Barbara called to see her mother, and that she herself
never expected to live long enough to be a belle.
Mr. Alfred Robinson, our agent in 1835-6, was here,
with a part of his family. I did not know how he would
receive me, remembering what I had printed to the world
about him at a time when I took little thought that the
world was going to read it; but there was no sign of of-
fence, only cordiality which gave him, as between us,
rather the advantage in status.
The people of this region are giving attention to sheep-
raising, wine-making, and the raising of olives, just enough
to keep the town from going backwards.
But evening is drawing on, and our boat sails to-night.
So, refusing a horse or carriage, I walk down, not unwill-
ing to be a little early, that I may pace up and down the
beach, looking ofif to the islands and the points, and watch-
ing the roaring, tumbling billows. How softening is the
effect of time ! It touches us through the afifections. I almost
feel as if I were lamenting the passing away of something
loved and dear, — the boats, the Kanakas, the hides, my
old shipmates. Death, change, distance, lend them a character
which makes them quite another thing from the vulgar,
wearisome toil of uninteresting, forced manual labour.
The breeze freshened as we stood out to sea, and the
wild waves rolled over the red sun, on the broad horizon
of the Pacific ; but it is summer, and in summer there can
be no bad weather in California. Every day is pleasant.
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 405
Nature forbids a drop of rain to fall by day or night, or a
wind to excite itself beyond a fresh summer breeze.
The next morning we found ourselves at anchor in the
Bay of San Pedro. Here was this hated, this thoroughly
detested spot. Although we lay near, I could scarce recog-
nize the hill up which we rolled and dragged and pushed
and carried our heavy loads, and down which we pitched the
hides, to carry them barefooted over the rocks to the floating
long-boat. It was no longer the landing-place. One had
been made at the head of the creek, and boats discharged
and took off cargoes from a mole or wharf, in a quiet place,
safe from southeasters. A tug ran to take off passengers
from the steamer to the wharf, — for the trade of Los An-
geles is sufficient to support such a vessel. I got the captain
to land me privately, in a small boat, at the old place by
the hill. I dismissed the boat, and, alone, found my way to
the high ground. I say found my way, for neglect and wea-
ther had left but few traces of the steep road the hide-vessels
had built to the top. The cliff off which we used to throw
the hides, and where I spent nights watching them, was
more easily found. The population was doubled, that is
to say, there were two houses, instead of one, on the
hill. I stood on the brow and looked out toward the offing,
the Santa Catalina Island, and, nearer, the melancholy Dead
Man's Island, with its painful tradition, and recalled the
gloomy days that followed the flogging, and fancied the
Pilgrim at anchor in the offing. But the tug is going toward
our steamer, and I must awake and be off. I walked along
the shore to the new landing-place, where were two or
three store-houses and other buildings, forming a small
depot; and a stage-coach, I found, went daily between this
place and the Pueblo. I got a seat on the top of the coach,
to which were tackled six little less than wild California
horses. Each horse had a man at his head, and when
the driver had got his reins in hand he gave the word, all
the horses were let go at once, and away they went on a
spring, tearing over the ground, the driver only keeping them
from going the wrong way, for they had a wide, level pampa
to run over the whole thirty miles to the Pueblo. This
plain is almost treeless, with no grass, at least none now in
406 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the drought of mid-summer, and is filled with squirrel-
holes, and alive with squirrels. As we changed horses twice,
we did not slacken our speed until we turned into the streets
of the Pueblo.
The Pueblo de los Angeles I found a large and flour-
ishing town of about twenty thousand inhabitants, with
brick sidewalks, and blocks of stone or brick houses. The
three principal traders when we were here for hides in
the Pilgrim and Alert are still among the chief traders of
the place, — Stearns, Temple, and Warner, the two former
being reputed very rich. I dined with Mr. Stearns, now
a very old man, and met there Don Juan Bandini, to
whom I had given a good deal of notice in my book. From
him, as indeed from every one in this town, I met with
the kindest attentions. The wife of Don Juan, who was
a beautiful young girl when we were on the coast. Dona
Refugio, daughter of Don Santiago Argiiello, the com-
mandante of San Diego, was with him, and still handsome.
This is one of several instances I have noticed of the
preserving quality of the California climate. Here, too, was
Henry Melius, who came out with me before the mast
in the Pilgrim, and left the brig to be agent's clerk on shore.
He had experienced varying fortunes here, and was now
married to a Mexican lady, and had a family. I dined with
him, and in the afternoon he drove me round to see the vine-
yards, the chief objects in this region. The vintage of last
year was estimated at half a million of gallons. Every
year new square miles of ground are laid down to vine-
yards, and the Pueblo promises to be the centre of one
of the largest wine-producing regions in the world. Grapes
are a drug here, and I found a great abundance of figs,
olives, peaches, pears, and melons. The climate is well
suited to these fruits, but is too hot and dry for successful
wheat crops.
Towards evening, we started off in the stage coach, with
again our relays of six mad horses, and reached the creek
before dark, though it was late at night before we got on
board the steamer, which was slowly moving her wheels,
under way for San Diego.
As we skirted along the coast, Wilson and I recog-
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 407
nized, or thought we did, in the clear moonlight, the rude
white Mission of San Juan Capistrano, and its cliff, from
which I had swung down by a pair of halyards to save a few
hides, — a boy who could not be prudential, and who caught at
every chance for adventure.
As we made the high point off San Diego, Point Loma,
we were greeted by the cheering presence of a light-house.
As we swept round it in the early morning, there, before
us, lay the little harbor of San Diego, its low spit of sand,
where the water runs so deep ; the opposite flats, where the
Alert grounded in starting for home; the low hills, with-
out trees, and almost without brush ; the quiet little beach ; —
but the chief objects, the hide-houses, my eye looked for in
vain. They were gone, all, and left no mark behind.
I wished to be alone, so I let the other passengers go
up to the town, and was quietly pulled ashore in a boat,
and left to myself. The recollections and the emotions all
were sad, and only sad.
Fugit, interea fugit irreparabile tempus.
The past was real. The present, all about me, was un-
real, unnatural, repellant. I saw the big ships lying in
the stream, the Alert, the California, the Rosa, with her
Italians ; then the handsome Ayacucho, my favorite ; the
poor, dear old Pilgrim, the home of hardship and hopeless-
ness; the boats passing to and fro; the cries of the sailors at
the capstan or falls ; the peopled beach ; the large hide-
houses with their gangs of men ; and the Kanakas inter-
spersed everywhere. All, all were gone ! not a vestige to mark
where one hide-house stood. The oven, too, was gone.
I searched for its site, and found, where I thought it should
be, a few broken bricks and bits of mortar. I alone was
left of all, and how strangely was I here! What changes
to me ! Where were they all ? Why should I care for
them, — poor Kanakas and sailors, the refuse of civilization,
the outlaws and beach-combers of the Pacific ! Time and
death seemed to transfigure them. Doubtless nearly all were
dead; but how had they died, and where? In hospitals, in
fever-climes, in dens of vice, or falling from the mast, or
dropping exhausted from the wreck, —
408 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
•• When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncofi&ned, and unknown."
The light-hearted boys are now hardened middle-aged men,
if the seas, rocks, fevers, and the deadlier enemies that
beset a sailor's life on shore have spared them ; and the then
strong men have bowed themselves, and the earth or sea has
covered them.
Even the animals are gone, — the colony of dogs, the
broods of poultry, the useful horses; but the coyotes bark
still in the woods, for they belong not to man, and are not
touched by his changes,
I walked slowly up the hill, finding my way among the few
bushes, for the path was long grown over, and sat down
where we used to rest in carrying our burdens of wood, and
to look out for vessels that might, though so seldom, be
coming down from the windward.
To rally myself by calling to mind my own better fortune
and nobler lot, and cherished surroundings at home, was
impossible. Borne down by depression, the day being yet at
its noon, and the sun over the old point, — it is four miles to
the town, the Presidio, — I have walked it often, and can do
it once more, — I passed the familiar objects, and it seemed
to me that I remembered them better than those of any other
place I had ever been in ; — the opening to the little cave ; the
low hills where we cut wood and killed rattlesnakes, and
where our dogs chased the coyotes ; and the black ground
where so many of the ship's crew and beach-combers used
to bring up on their return at the end of a liberty day, and
spend the night sub Jove.
The little town of San Diego has undergone no change
whatever that I can see. It certainly has not grown. It is
still, like Santa Barbara, a Mexican town. The four princi-
pal houses of the gente de razon — of the Bandinis, Estudillos,
Argijellos, and Picos — are the chief houses now; but all the
gentlemen — and their families, too, I believe — are gone.
The big vulgar shop-keeper and trader, Fitch, is long since
dead ; Tom Wrightington, who kept the rival pulperia, fell
from his horse when drunk, and was found nearly eaten
up by coyotes; and I can scarce find a person whom I re-
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 409
member. I went into a familiar one-story adobe house,
with its piazza and earthen floor, inhabited by a respectable
lower-class family by the name of Muchado, and inquired
if any of the family remained, when a bright-eyed middle-
aged woman recognized me, for she had heard I was on
board the steamer, and told me she had married a shipmate
of mine. Jack Stewart, who went out as second mate the
next voyage, but left the ship and married and settled here.
She said he wished very much to see me. In a few minutes
he came in, and his sincere pleasure in meeting me was
extremely grateful. We talked over old times as long as I
could afford to. I was glad to hear that he was sober and
doing well. Doiia Tomasa Pico I found and talked with.
She was the only person of the old upper class that re-
mained on the spot, if I rightly recollect. I found an Ameri-
can family here, with whom I dined, — Doyle and his wife,
nice young people, Doyle agent for the great line of coaches
to run to the frontier of the old States.
I must complete my acts of pious remembrance, so I take
a horse and make a run out to the old Mission, where Ben
Stimson and I went the first liberty day we had after we
left Boston (ante, p. 121). All has gone to decay. The
buildings are unused and ruinous, and the large gardens
show now only wild cactuses, willows, and a few olive-trees.
A fast run brings me back in time to take leave of the few
I knew and who knew me, and to reach the steamer before
she sails. A last look — yes, last for life — to the beach, the
hills, the low point, the distant town, as we round Point
Loma and the first beams of the light-house strike out
towards the setting sun.
Wednesday, August 24th. At anchor at San Pedro by
daylight. But instead of being roused out of the fore-
castle to row the long-boat ashore and bring off a load
of hides before breakfast, we were served with breakfast
in the cabin, and again took our drive with the wild
horses to the Pueblo and spent the day; seeing nearly the
same persons as before, and again getting back by dark.
We steamed again for Santa Barbara, where we only lay
an hour, and passed through its canal and round Point Con-
ception, stopping at San Luis Obispo to land my friend.
410 RICHARD HENRY DAXA, JR.
as I may trul)' call him after this long passage together,
Captain Wilson, whose most earnest invitation to stop here
and visit him at his rancho I was obliged to decline.
Friday evening, 26th August, we entered the Golden
Gate, passed the light-houses and forts, and clipper ships
at anchor, and came to our dock, with this great city, on
its high hills and rising surfaces, brilliant before us, and
full of eager life.
Making San Francisco my head-quarters, I paid visits to
various parts of the State,— down the Bay to Santa Clara,
with its live oaks and sycamores, and its Jesuit College for
boys ; and San Jose, where is the best girls' school in the
State, kept by the Sisters of Notre Dame, — a town now
famous for a year's session of " The legislature of a thou-
sand drinks," — and thence to the rich Almaden quicksilver
mines, returning on the Contra Costa side through the rich
agricultural country, with its ranches and the vast grants of
the Castro and Soto families, where farming and fruit-raising
are done on so large a scale. Another excursion was up
the San Joaquin to Stockton, a town of some ten thousand in-
habitants, a hundred miles from San Francisco, and cross-
ing the Tuolumne and Stanislaus and Merced, by the little
Spanish town of Hornitos, and Snelling's Tavern, at the
ford of the Merced, where so many fatal fights are had.
Thence I went to Mariposa County, and Colonel Fremont's
mines, and made an interesting visit to "the Colonel," as
he is called all over the country, and -Mrs. Fremont, a heroine
equal to either fortune, the salons of Paris and the drawing-
rooms of New York and Washington, or the roughest life
of the remote and wild mining regions of Mariposa, —
with their fine family of spirited, clever children. After a
rest there, we went on to Clark's Camp and the Big Trees,
where I measured one tree ninety-seven feet in circumfer-
ence without its bark, and the bark is usually eighteen inches
thick ; and rode through another which lay on the ground,
a shell, with all the insides out, — rode through it mounted,
and sitting at full height in the saddle; then to the wonderful
Yo Semite Valley, — itself a stupendous miracle of nature,
with its Dome, its Capitan, its walls of three thousand feet
of perpendicular height, — but a valley of streams, of water-
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 411
falls from the torrent to the mere shimmer of a bridal veil,
only enough to reflect a rainbow, with their plunges of
twenty-five hundred feet, or their smaller falls of eight
hundred, with nothing at the base but thick mists, which
form and trickle, and then run and at last plunge into the
blue Merced that flows through the centre of the valley.
Back by the Coulterville trail, the peaks of Sierra Nevada
in sight, across the North Fork of the Merced, by Gentry's
Gulch, over hills and through canons, to Fremont's again,
and thence to Stockton and San Francisco, — all this at the
end of August, when there has been no rain for four months,
and the air is clear and very hot, and the ground perfectly
dry ; windmills, to raise water for artificial irrigation of
small patches, seen all over the landscape, while we travel
through square miles of hot dust, where they tell us, and
truly that in winter and early spring we should be up to
our knees in flowers; a country, too, where surface gold-
digging is so common and unnoticed that the large, six-
horse stage-coach, in w'hich I travelled from Stockton to
Hornitos, turned off in the high road for a Chinaman, who,
with his pan and washer, was working up a hole which an
American had abandoned, but where the minute and patient
industry of the Chinaman averaged a few dollars a day.
These visits were so full of interest, with grandeurs and
humors of all sorts, that I am strongly tempted to describe
them. But I remember that I am not to write a journal of a
visit over the new California, but to sketch briefly the con-
trasts with the old spots of 1835-6, and I forbear.
How strange and eventful has been the brief history
of this marvellous city, San Francisco ! In 1835 there was
one board shanty. In 1836, one adobe house on the same
spot. In 1847, a population of four hundred and fifty per-
sons, who organized a town government. Then came the
auri sacra fames, the flocking together of many of the worst
spirits of Christendom ; a sudden birth of a city of canvas
and boards, entirely destroyed by fire five times in eighteen
months, with a loss of sixteen millions of dollars, and as
often rebuilt, until it became a solid city of brick and stone,
of nearly one hundred thousand inhabitants, with all the
accompaniments of wealth and culture, and now (in 1859)
412 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
the most quiet and well-governed city of its size in the
United States. But it has been through its season of
Heaven-defying crime, violence, and blood, from v^hich it
was rescued and handed back to soberness, morality, and
good government, by that peculiar invention of Anglo-Saxon
Republican America, the solemn, awe-inspiring Vigilance
Committee of the most grave and responsible citizens, the
last resort of the thinking and the good, taken to only when
vice, fraud, and ruffianism have intrenched themselves behind
the forms of law, suffrage, and ballot, and there is no hope
but in organized force, whose action must be instant and
thorough, or its state will be worse than before. A history
of the passage of this city through those ordeals, and through
its almost incredible financial extremes, should be written
by a pen which not only accuracy shall govern, but imagina-
tion shall inspire.
I cannot pause for the civility of referring to the many
kind attentions I received, and the society of educated men
and women from all parts of the Union I met with; where
New England, the Carolinas, Virginia, and the new West
sat side by side with English, French, and German civiliza-
tion.
My stay in California was interrupted by an absence of
nearly four months, when I sailed for the Sandwich Islands
in the noble Boston clipper ship Mastiff, which was burned
at sea to the water's edge ; we escaping in boats, and carried
by a friendly British bark into Honolulu, whence, after 3
deeply interesting visit of three months in that most fas»
cinating group of islands, with its natural and its moral
wonders, I returned to San Francisco in an American
whaler, and found myself again in my quarters on the morn-
ing of Sunday, December nth, 1859.
My first visit after my return was to Sacramento, a city
of about forty thousand inhabitants, more than a hundred
miles inland from San Francisco, on the Sacramento, where
was the capital of the State, and where were fleets of river
steamers, and a large inland commerce. Here I saw the
inauguration of a Governor, Mr. Latham, a young man
from Massachusetts, much my junior; and met a member
of the State Senate, a man who, as a carpenter, repaired
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 413
my father's house at home some ten years before; and two
more Senators from southern California, relics of another
age, — Don Andres Pico, from San Diego; and Don Pablo
de la Guerra, whom I have mentioned as meeting at Santa
Barbara. I had a good deal of conversation with these
gentlemen, who stood alone in an assembly of Americans,
who had conquered their country, spared pillars of the past.
Don Andres had fought us at San Pazqual and Sepulveda's
rancho, in 1846, and as he fought bravely, not a common
thing among the Mexicans, and, indeed, repulsed Kearney,
is always treated with respect. He had the satisfaction,
dear to the proud Spanish heart, of making a speech before
a Senate of Americans, in favor of the retention in office
of an officer of our army who was wounded at San Pazqual
and whom some wretched caucus was going to displace to
carry out a political job. Don Andres's magnanimity and
indignation carried the day.
My last visit in this part of the country was to a new
and rich farming region, the Napa Valley, the United States
Navy Yard at Mare Island, the river gold workings, and the
Geysers, and old Mr. John Yount's rancho. On board the
steamer, found Mr. Edward Stanley, formerly member of
Congress from North Carolina, who became my companion
for the greater part of my trip. I also met — a revival on
the spot of an acquaintance of twenty years ago — Don
Guadalupe Vallejo; I may say acquaintance, for although I
was then before the mast, he knew my story, and, as he
spoke English well, used to hold many conversations with
me, when in the boat or on shore. He received me with true
earnestness, and would not hear of my passing his estate
without visiting him. He reminded me of a remark I made
to him once, when pulling him ashore in the boat, when he
was commandante at the Presidio. I learned that the two
Vallejos, Guadalupe and Salvador, owned, at an early time,
nearly all Napa and Sonoma, having princely estates. But
they have not much left. They were nearly ruined by their
bargain with the State, that they would put up the public
buildings if the Capital should be placed at Vallejo, then a
town of some promise. They spent $100,000, the Capital
was moved there, and in two years removed to San Jose
414 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
on another contract. The town fell to pieces, and the houses,
chiefly wooden, were taken down and removed. I accepted
the old gentleman's invitation so far as to stop at Vallejo to
breakfast.
The United States Navy Yard, at Mare Island, near
Vallejo, is large and well placed, with deep fresh water.
The old Independence, and the sloop Decatur, and two
steamers were there, and they were experimenting on
building a despatch boat, the Saginaw, of California
timber.
I have no excuse for attempting to describe my visit
through the fertile and beautiful Napa Valley, nor even,
what exceeded that in interest, my visit to old John Yount
at his rancho, where I heard from his own lips some of his
most interesting stories of hunting and trapping and Indian
fighting, during an adventurous life of forty years of such
work, between our back settlements in Missouri and Ar-
kansas, and the mountains of California, trapping in Colo-
rado and Gila, — and his celebrated dream, thrice repeated,
which led him to organize a party to go out over the moun-
tains, that did actually rescue from death by starvation the
wretched remnants of the Donner Party.
I must not pause for the dreary country of the Geysers,
the screaming escapes of steam, the sulphur, the boiling
caldrons of black and yellow and green, and the region of
Gehenna, through which runs a quiet stream of pure water;
nor for the park scenery, and captivating ranchos of the
Napa Valley, where farming is done on so grand a scale, —
where I have seen a man plough a furrow by little red flags
on sticks, to keep his range by, until nearly out of sight, and
where, the wits tell us, he returns the next day on the back
furrow; a region where, at Christmas time, I have seen old
strawberries still on the vines, by the side of vines in full
blossom for the next crop, and grapes in the same stages,
and open windows, and yet a grateful wood fire on the
hearth in early morning; nor for the titanic operations of
hydraulic surface mining, where large mountain streams are
diverted from their ancient beds, and made to do the work,
beyond the reach of all other agents, of washing out valleys
and carrying away hills, and changing the whole surface
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 415
of the country, to expose the stores of gold hidden for cen-
turies in the darkness of their earthly depths.
January loth, i860. I am again in San Francisco, and
my revisit to CaHfornia is closed. I have touched too lightly
and rapidly for much impression upon the reader on my last
visit into the interior; but, as I have said, in a mere contin-
uation to a narrative of a sea-faring life on the coast, I am
only to carry the reader with me on a visit to those scenes
in which the public has long manifested so gratifying an
interest. But it seemed to me that slight notices of these
entirely new parts of the country would not be out of place,
for they serve to put in strong contrast with the solitudes
of 1835-6 the developed interior, with its mines, and agri-
cultural wealth, and rapidly filling population, and its large
cities, so far from the coast, with their education, religion,
arts, and trade.
On the morning of the nth January, i860, I passed, for
the eighth time, through the Golden Gate, on my way across
the delightful Pacific to the Oriental world, with its civiliza-
tion three thousand years older than that I was leaving be-
hind. As the shores of California faded in the distance,
and the summits of the Coast Range sank under the blue
horizon, I bade farewell — yes, I do not doubt, forever — to
those scenes which, however changed or unchanged, must
always possess an ineffable interest for me.
It is time my fellow-travellers and I should part com-
pany. But I have been requested by a great many persons
to give some account of the subsequent history of the vessels
and their crews, with which I had made them acquainted. I
attempt the following sketches in deference to these sug-
gestions, and not, I trust, with any undue estimate of the
general interest my narrative may have created.
Something less than a year after my return in the Alert,
and when, my eyes having recovered, I was again in college
life, I found one morning in the newspapers, among the ar-
rivals of the day before, " The brig Pilgrim, Faucon, from
San Diego, California." In a few hours I was down in
416 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
Ann Street, and on my way to Hackstadt's boarding-house,
where I knew Tom Harris and others would lodge. Enter-
ing the front room, I heard my name called from amid a
group of blue-jackets, and several sunburned, tar-colored
men came forward to speak to me. They were, at first, a
little embarrassed by the dress and style in which they had
never seen me, and one of them was calling me Mr. Dana;
but I soon stopped that, and we were shipmates once more.
First, there was Tom Harris, in a characteristic occupation.
I had made him promise to come and see me when we parted
in San Diego; he had got a directory of Boston, found the
street and number of my father's house, and, by a study of
the plan of the city, had laid out his course, and was com-
mitting it to memory. He said he could go straight to the
house without asking a question. And so he could, for I
took the book from him, and he gave his course, naming
each street and turn to right or left, directly to the door.
Tom had been second mate of the Pilgrim, and had laid
up no mean sum of money. True to his resolution, he was
going to England to find his mother, and he entered into
the comparative advantages of taking his money home in
gold or in bills, — a matter of some moment, as this was in
the disastrous financial year of 1837. He seemed to have
his ideas well arranged, but I took him to a leading banker,
whose advice he followed; and, declining my invitation to
go up and show himself to my friends, he was off for New
York that afternoon, to sail the next day for Liverpool. The
last I ever saw of Tom Harris was as he passed down Tre-
mont Street on the sidewalk, a man dragging a hand-cart
in the street by his side, on which were his voyage-worn
chest, his mattress, and a box of nautical instruments.
Sam seemed to have got funny again, and he and John
the Swede learned that Captain Thompson had several
months before sailed in command of a ship for the coast of
Sumatra, and that their chance of proceedings against him
at law was hopeless. Sam was afterwards lost in a brig
off the coast of Brazil, when all hands went down. Of John
and the rest of the men I have never heard. The Marble-
head boy, Sam, turned out badly; and, although he had
influential friends, never allowed them to improve his con-
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 417
dition. The old carpenter, the Fin, of whom the cook stood
in such awe (ante p. 43), had fallen sick and died in Santa
Barbara, and was buried ashore. Jim Hall, from the Kenne-
bec, who sailed with us before the mast, and was made sec-
ond mate in Foster's place, came home chief mate of the
Pilgrim. I have often seen him since. His lot has been
prosperous, as he well deserved it should be. He has com-
manded the largest ships, and when I last saw him, was
going to the Pacific coast of South America, to take charge
of a line of mail steamers. Poor, luckless Foster I have
twice seen. He came into my rooms in Boston, after I had
become a barrister and my narrative had been published, and
told me he was chief mate of a big ship ; that he had heard
I had said some things unfavorable of him in my book; that
he had just bought it, and was going to read it that night,
and if I had said anything unfair of him, he would punish me
if he found me in State Street. I surveyed him from head
to foot, and said to him, " Foster, you were not a formidable
man when I last knew you, and I don't believe you are now."
Either he was of my opinion, or thought I had spoken of him
well enough, for the next (and last) time I met him he was
civil and pleasant.
I believe I omitted to state that Mr. Andrew B. Amerzene,
the chief mate of the Pilgrim, an estimable, kind, and trust-
worthy man, had a difificulty with Captain Faucon, who
thought him slack, was turned off duty, and sent home with
us in the Alert. Captain Thompson, instead of giving him
the place of a mate off duty, put him into the narrow be-
tween-decks, where a space, not over four feet high, had
been left out among the hides, and there compelled him to
live the whole wearisome voyage, through trades and tropics,
and round Cape Horn, with nothing to do, — not allowed to
converse or walk with the officers, and obliged to get his
grub himself from the galley, in the tin pot and kid of a
common sailor. I used to talk with him as much as I had
opportunity to, but his lot was wretched, and in every way
wounding to his feelings. After our arrival, Captain Thomp-
son was obliged to make him compensation for this treat-
ment. It happens that I have never heard of him since.
Henry Melius, who had been in a counting-house in Bos-
N — VOL. XXIH HC
418 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
ton, and left the forecastle, on the coast, to be agent's clerk,
and whom I met, a married man, at Los Angeles in 1859,
died at that place a few years ago, not having been success-
ful in commercial life. Ben Stimson left the sea for the
fresh water and prairies, and settled in Detroit as a mer-
chant, and when I visited that city, in 1863, I was rejoiced
to find him a prosperous and respected man, and the same
generous-hearted shipmate as ever.
This ends the catalogue of the Pilgrim's original crew,
except her first master. Captain Thompson. He was not
employed by the same firm again, and got up a voyage to
the coast of Sumatra for pepper. A cousin and classmate of
mine, Mr. Channing, went as supercargo, not having con-
sulted me as to the captain. First, Captain Thompson got
into difficulties with another American vessel on the coast,
which charged him with having taken some advantage of her
in getting pepper; and then with the natives, who accused
him of having obtained too much pepper for his weights.
The natives seized him, one afternoon, as he landed in his
boat, and demanded of him to sign an order on the super-
cargo for the Spanish dollars that they said were due them,
on pain of being imprisoned on shore. He never failed in
pluck, and now ordered his boat aboard, leaving him ashore,
the officer to tell the supercargo to obey no direction except
under his hand. For several successive days and nights, his
ship, the Alciope, lay in the burning sun, with rain-squalls
and thunder-clouds coming over the high mountains, waiting
for a word from him. Toward evening of the fourth or
fifth day he was seen on the beach, hailing for the boat.
The natives, finding they could not force more money from
him, were afraid to hold him longer, and had let him go. He
sprang into the boat, urged her off with the utmost eager-
ness, leaped on board the ship like a tiger, his eyes flashing
and his face full of blood, ordered the anchor aweigh, and
the topsails set, the four guns, two on a side, loaded with all
sorts of devilish stuff, and wore her round, and, keeping as
close into the bamboo village as he could, gave them both
broadsides, slam-bang into the midst of the houses and peo-
ple, and stood out to sea ! As his excitement passed off,
headache, languor, fever, set in, — the deadly coast-fever,
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 419
contracted from the water and night-dews on shore and his
maddened temper. He ordered the ship to Penang, and
never saw the deck again. He died on the passage, and
was buried at sea. Mr. Channing, who took care of him in
his sickness and delirium, caught the fever from him, but, as
we gratefully remember, did not die until the ship made port,
and he was under the kindly roof of a hospitable family in
Penang. The chief mate, also, took the fever, and the sec-
ond mate and crew deserted; and although the chief mate
recovered and took the ship to Europe and home, the voyage
was a melancholy disaster. In a tour I made round the
world in 1859-1860, of which my revisit to California was
the beginning, I went to Penang. In that fairy-like scene
of sea and sky and shore, as beautiful as material earth can
be, with its fruits and flowers of a perpetual summer, —
somewhere in which still lurks the deadly fever, — I found
the tomb of my kinsman, classmate, and friend. Standing
beside his grave, I tried not to think that his life had been
sacrificed to the faults and violence of another; I tried not
to think too hardly of that other, who at least had suffered
in death.
The dear old Pilgrim herself ! She was sold, at the end
of this voyage, to a merchant in New Hampshire, who em-
ployed her on short voyages, and, after a few years, I read of
her total loss at sea, by fire, off the coast of North Carolina.
Captain Faucon, who took out the Alert, and brought
home the Pilgrim, spent many years in command of vessels
in the Indian and Chinese seas, and was in our volunteer
navy during the late war, commanding several large vessels
in succession, on the blockade of the Carolinas, with the
rank of lieutenant. He has now given up the sea, but still
keeps it under his eye, from the piazza of his house on the
most beautiful hill in the environs of Boston. I have the
pleasure of meeting him often. Once, in speaking of the
Alert's crew, in a company of gentlemen, I heard him say
that that crew was exceptional : that he had passed all his
life at sea, but whether before the mast or abaft, whether
officer or master, he had never met such a crew, and never
should expect to ; and that the two officers of the Alert, long
ago shipmasters, agreed with him that, for intelligence,
420 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
knowledge of duty and willingness to perform it, pride in
the ship, her appearance and sailing, and in absolute re-
liableness, they never had seen their equal. Especially he
spoke of his favorite seaman, French John. John, after a
few more years at sea, became a boatman, and kept his neat
boat at the end of Granite Wharf, and was ready to take all,
but delighted to take any of us of the old Alert's crew, to
sail down the harbor. One day Captain Faucon went to the
end of the wharf to board a vessel in the stream, and hailed
for John. There was no response, and his boat was not
there. He inquired of a boatman near, where John was.
The time had come that comes to all ! There was no loyal
voice to respond to the familiar call, the hatches had closed
over him, his boat was sold to another, and he had left not
a trace behind. We could not find out even where he was
buried.
Mr. Richard Brown, of Marblehead, our chief mate in the
Alert, commanded many of our noblest ships in the Euro-
pean trade, a general favorite. A few years ago, while step-
ping on board his ship from the wharf, he fell from the
plank into the hold and was killed. If he did not actually
die at sea, at least he died as a sailor, — he died on board
ship.
Our second mate, Evans, no one liked or cared for, and I
know nothing of him, except that I once saw him in court,
on trial for some alleged petty tyranny towards his men, —
still a subaltern officer.
The third mate, Mr. Hatch, a nephew of one of the own-
ers, though only a lad on board the ship, went out chief
mate the next voyage, and rose soon to comm.and some of
the finest clippers in the California and India trade, under
the new order of things, — a man of character, good judg-
ment, and no little cultivation.
Of the other men before the mast in the Alert, I know
nothing of peculiar interest. When visiting, with a party of
ladies and gentlemen, one of our largest line-of-battle ships,
we were escorted about the decks by a midshipman, who was
explaining various matters on board, when one of the party
came to me and told me that there was an old sailor there
with a whistle round his neck, who looked at me and said
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 421
of the officer, "he can't show him anything aboard a ship."
I found him out, and, looking into his sunburnt face, covered
with hair, and his Httle eyes drawn up into the smallest
passages for light, — like a man who had peered into hun-
dreds of northeasters, — there was old " Sails " of the Alert,
clothed in all the honors of boatswain's-mate. We stood
aside, out of the cim of the officers, and had a good talk
over old times. I remember the contempt with which he
turned on his heel to conceal his face, when the midship-
man (who was a grown youth) could not tell the ladies the
length of a fathom, and said it depended on circumstances.
Notwithstanding his advice and consolation to " Chips," in
the steerage of the Alert, and his story of his runaway wife
and the flag-bottomed chairs (ante, p. 261), he confessed to
me that he had tried marriage again, and had a little tene-
ment just outside the gate of the yard.
Harry Bennett, the man who had the palsy, and was
unfeelingly left on shore when the Alert sailed, came home
in the Pilgrim, and I had the pleasure of helping to get him
into the Massachusetts General Hospital. When he had
been there about a week, I went to see him in his ward, and
asked him how he got along. " Oh ! first-rate usage, sir ;
not a hand's turn to do, and all your grub brought to you,
sir." This is a sailor's paradise, — not a hand's turn to do,
and all your grub brought to you. But an earthly paradise
may pall. Bennett got tired of in-doors and stillness, and
was soon out again, and set up a stall, covered with canvas,
at the end of one of the bridges, where he could see all the
passers-by, and turn a penny by cakes and ale. The stall in
time disappeared, and I could learn nothing of his last end,
if it has come.
Of the lads who, beside myself, composed the gig's crew,
I know something of all but one. Our bright-eyed, quick-
witted little cockswain, from the Boston public schools,
Harry May, or Harry Bluff, as he was called, with all his
songs and gibes, went the road to ruin as fast as the usual
means could carry him. Nat, the " bucket-maker," grave and
sober, left the seas, and, I believe, is a hack-driver in his
native town, although I have not had the luck to see him
since the Alert hauled into her berth at the North End.
422 RICHARD HENRY DANA, JR.
One cold winter evening, a pull at the bell, and a woman
in distress wished to see me. Her poor son George, — George
Somerby, — " you remember him, sir ; he was a boy in the
Alert ; he always talks of you, — he is dying in my poor house."
I went with her, and in a small room, with the most scanty
furniture, upon a mattress on the floor, — emaciated, ashy
pale, with hollow voice and sunken eyes, — lay the boy
George, whom we took out a small, bright boy of fourteen
from a Boston public school, who fought himself into a
position on board ship (ante, p. 242), and whom we brought
home a tall, athletic youth, that might have been the pride
and support of his widowed mother. There he lay, not over
nineteen years of age, ruined by every vice a sailor's life
absorbs. He took my hand in his wasted feeble fingers, and
talked a little with his hollow, death-smitten voice. I was
to leave town the next day for a fortnight's absence, and
whom had they to see to them? The mother named her
landlord, — she knew no one else able to do much for them.
It was the name of a physician of wealth and high social
position, well known in the city as the owner of many small
tenements, and of whom hard things had been said as to his
strictness in collecting what he thought his dues. Be that
as it may, my memory associates him only with ready and
active beneficence. His name has since been known the
civilized world over, from his having been the victim of one
of the most painful tragedies in the records of the criminal
law. I tried the experiment of calling upon him ; and, having
drawn him away from the cheerful fire, sofa, and curtains
of a luxurious parlor, I told him the simple tale of woe,
of one of his tenants, unknown to him even by name. He
did not hesitate; and I well remember how, in that biting,
eager air, at a late hour, he drew his cloak about his thin
and bent form, and walked off with me across the Common,
and to the South End, nearly two miles of an exposed walk,
to the scene of misery. He gave his full share, and more, of
kindness and material aid ; and, as George's mother told me,
on my return, had with medical aid and stores, and a clergy-
man, made the boy's end as comfortable and hopeful as
possible.
The Alert made two more voyages to the coast of Cali-
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER 423
fornia, successful, and without a mishap, as usual, and was
sold by Messrs. Bryant and Sturgis, in 1843, to Mr. Thomas
W. Williams, a merchant of New London, Connecticut, who
employed her in the whale-trade in the Pacific. She was as
lucky and prosperous there as in the merchant service.
When I was at the Sandwich Islands in i860, a man was in-
troduced to me as having commanded the Alert on two
cruises, and his friends told me that he was as proud of it
as if he had commanded a frigate.
I am permitted to publish the following letter from the
owner of the Alert, giving her later record and her historic
end, — captured and burned by the rebel Alabama: —
New London, March 17, 1868.
Richard H. Dana, Esq. :
Dear Sir, — I am happy to acknowledge the receipt of
your favor of the 14th inst., and to answer your inquiries
about the good ship Alert. I bought her of Messrs. Bryant
and Sturgis, in the year 1843, for my firm of Williams and
Haven, for a whaler, in which business she was successful
until captured by the rebel steamer Alabama, September,
1862, making a period of more than nineteen years, during
which she took and delivered at New London upwards of
twenty-five thousand barrels of whale and sperm oil. She
sailed last from this port, August 30, 1862, for Kurd's Island
(the newly discovered land south of Kerguelen's), com-
manded by Edwin Church, and was captured and burned
on the 9th of September following, only ten days out, near
or close to the Azores, with thirty barrels of sperm oil on
board, and while her boats were off in pursuit of whales.
The Alert was a favorite ship with all owners, officers,
and men who had anything to do with her; and I may add
almost all who heard her name asked if that was the ship
the man went in who wrote the book called " Two Years
before the Mast"; and thus we feel, with you, no doubt, a
sort of sympathy at her loss, and that, too, in such a man-
ner, and by wicked acts of our own countrymen.
My partner, Mr. Haven, sends me a note from the office
this P. M., saying that he had just found the last log-book,
and would send up this evening a copy of the last entry on
424 TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AFTER
it; and if there should be anything of importance I will
enclose it to you, and if you have any further inquiries to
put, I will, with great pleasure, endeavor to answer them.
Remaining very respectfully and truly yours,
Thomas W. Williams.
P. S. — Since writing the above I have received the extract
from the log-book, and enclose the same.
The last Entry in the Log-Book of the Alert.
" September 9, 1862.
" Shortly after the ship came to the wind, with the main
yard aback, we went alongside and were hoisted up, when
we found we were prisoners of war, and our ship a prize to
the Confederate steamer Alabama. We were then ordered
to give up all nautical instruments and letters appertaining
to any of us. Afterwards we were offered the privilege, as
they called it, of joining the steamer or signing a parole of
honor not to serve in the army or navy of the United States.
Thank God no one accepted the former of these offers. We
were all then ordered to get our things ready in haste, to go
on shore, — the ship running off shore all the time. We
were allowed four boats to go on shore in, and when we had
got what things we could take in them, were ordered to get
into the boats and pull for the shore, — the nearest land
being about fourteen miles off, — which we reached in safety,
and, shortly after, saw the ship in flames.
" So end all our bright prospects, blasted by a gang of
miscreants, who certainly can have no regard for humanity
so long as they continue to foster their so-called peculiar in-
stitution, which is now destroying our country."
I love to think that our noble ship, with her long record
of good service and uniform success, attractive and beloved
in her life, should have passed, at her death, into the lofty
regions of international jurisprudence and debate, forming
a part of the body of the " Alabama Claims " ; that, like a
true ship, committed to her element once for all at her
launching, she perished at sea, and, without an extreme use
of language, we may say, a victim in the cause of her
country. R. H. D., Jr.
Boston, May 6, 1869.
^ -- y'-^^^^
•^■' f-i ^V\
