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pending/1314: Let the government fund your dreams Friend ! (pending)
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pending/1314: Let the government fund your dreams Friend ! (pending) |
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Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:16:02 -0600 (CST) |
>Number: 1314
>Category: pending
>Synopsis: Let the government fund your dreams Friend !
>Confidential: no
>Severity: serious
>Priority: medium
>Responsible: unassigned
>State: open
>Class: sw-bug
>Submitter-Id: net
>Arrival-Date: Sat Jan 10 23:16:02 -0600 2009
>Originator: "GrantsAdmin" <address@hidden>
>Release:
>Description:
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<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 dubbed together, and I went up to the town on horseback with a great
salt-bag behind the saddle, and a few reáls 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 br
e
akfast was ready. I employed several days in overhauling my chest, and
mending up all my old clothes, until I had got everything in orderpatch upon
patch, like a sand-barges mainsail. Then I took hold of Bowditchs 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 childs story-book, or the half of a shipping calendar, appeared like a
treasure. I actually read a jest-book through, from beginning to end, 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 Schmidts
chest, Mandeville, a Romance, by Godwin, in five volumes. This I had
n
ever read, but Godwins name was enough, and after the wretched trash I had
devoured, anything bearing the name of a distinguished 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 ridiculousso with me, from Mandeville to hide-curing,
was but a step; for
Wednesday, July 18th, brought us the brig Pilgrim from the windward. As she
came in, we found that she was a good deal altered in her appearance. Her short
top-gallant masts were up; her bowlines all unrove (except to the courses); the
quarter boom-irons off her lower yards; her jack-cross-trees sent down; several
blocks got rid of; running-rigging rove in new places; and numberless other
changes of the same character. Then, too, there was a new voice giving orders,
and a new face on the quarter-deck,a short, dark-complexioned man, in a green
jacket and a high leather cap. These changes, of course, set the whole beach on
the qui-vive, and we were all waiting for the boat to come ashore, that we
might have things explained. At length, after the sails were furled and the
anchor carried out, 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 P
i
lgrim, 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 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 RosaBig enough to carry off all the hides in
CaliforniaRail as high as a mans headA crack shipA regular dandy, etc.,
etc. Captain T- took command of her, and she went directly up
t
o 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 Pilgrims crew found
old ship-mates aboard of her, and spent an hour or two in her forecastle, the
evening before she sailed. They said her decks were as white as snowholystoned
every morning, like a man-of-wars; everything on board shipshape and Bristol
fashion; a fine crew, three mates, a sailmaker and carpenter, and all complete.
Theyve 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 wont 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 reasonable 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 carefully 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 California, 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 delight that they give one. I read every
part of them the houses to let; things lost or stolen; auction sales, and all.
Nothing carries you so entirely to a place, and makes you feel so perfectly at
home, as a newspaper. The very name of Boston Daily A
d
vertiser 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 hideswet hidescleaningbeating, 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
repeatedTityre, 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 11th. The Pilgrim set sail for the windward, and left us to go
on in our old way. Having laid in such a supply of wood, and the days being now
long, and invariably pleasant, we had a good deal of time to ourselves. 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,
having 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 sometimes 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, an
d
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, 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,
a
nd in a few moments heard a great shouting between two Kanakas who were
fishing on the rock opposite to us: E hana hana make i ka ia nui! E pii mai
Aikane! 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, turning
his head under his body, and, showing his teeth in the vicinity of the Kanakas
hand, made him let go and spring out of the way. The shark now turned tail and
made the best of his way, by flapping and floundering, 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, h
o
wever, 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 liner and not a few severe bruises.>
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<After we had been a few weeks on shore, and had begun to feel broken into the
regularity of our life, its monotony was interrupted by the arrival of two
vessels from the 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
expecting; 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
Ayacuchos, 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 oven, where they had
a long pow-wow, and a smoke. Two Frenchmen, who belonged to the Rosas 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 coas
t
. Several of the Italians slept on shore at their hide-house; and there, and
at the tent in which the Fazios crew lived, we had some very good singing
almost every evening. The Italians sang a variety of songsbarcarollas,
provincial airs, etc.; in several of which I recognized parts of our favorite
operas and sentimental 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 languages. The Spanish was the common ground upon which we all met;
for every one knew more or less of that. We had now, out of forty or fifty,
representatives from almost every nation under the sun: two Englishmen, three
Yankees, two Scotchmen, two Welshmen, one Irishman, three Frenchmen (two of
whom were Normans, and the third from Gascony,) one Dutchman, one Austrian, two
or three Spaniards, (from old Spain,) half a dozen Spanish-Americans and
half-breeds, two native Indians from Chili and the Island of Chiloe, one Negro,
one Mulatto, about twenty Italians, from all parts of Italy, as many 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 Rosas hide-house, and we had songs of every nation
and tongue. A German gave us Och! mein lieber Augustin! the three Frenchmen
roared through the Marseilles Hymn; the English and Scotchmen gave us Rule
Britannia, and Whall be King but Charlie? the Italians and Spaniards screamed
through some national affairs, for which I was none the wiser; and we three
Yankees made an attempt at the Star-spangled Banner. After these national
tributes had been paid, the Austrian gave us a 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 Catalinas house, was an old Scotchman, who, like most of his
countrymen, had a pretty good education, and, like many of them, was rather
pragmatical, and had a ludicrously solemn conceit. He employed his time in
taking care of his pigs, chickens, turkeys, dogs, etc., and in smoking his long
pipe. Everything was as neat as a pin in the house, and he was as regular in
his hours as a chronometer, but as he kept very much by himself, was not a
great addition to our society. He hardly spent 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 Rosas house
was an Austrian by birth, but spoke, read, and wrote four languages with ease
and correctness. German was his native tongue, but being born near the borders
of Italy, and having sailed out of Genoa, the Italian was almost as familiar to
him as his own language. He was six years on board of an English man-of-war,
where he learned to speak our language 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-wars-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 in the wind. One holyday, he and old Robert (the
Scotchman from the Catalina) went up to the town, and got so cozy, talking over
old stories and giving one another good advice, that they cam
e
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 Rosas house, I saw old Schmidt, (that was the Austrians name) standing up
by a hogshead, holding on by both hands, and calling out to himselfHold on,
Schmidt! hold on, my good fellow, or youll be on your back! Still, he was an
intelligent, good-natured old fellow, and had a chest-full of books, which he
willingly lent me to read. In the same house with him 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 managed 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 doz
e
n 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 nothing more to
do until she should come down again, but to supply ourselves with wood. Instead
of going twice a week for this purpose, we determined to give one whole week to
getting wood, and then we should have enough to last us half through the
summer. Accordingly, we started off every morning, after an early breakfast,
with our hatchets in hand, and cut wood until the sun was over the point,which
was our only mark of time, as there was not a watch on the beachand 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
weekswhen we knocked off altogether, much to my joy; for, tho
u
gh I liked straying 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.>
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