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 the hill with the gilt 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.
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