They, of course, brought us
no news, and we were doubly disappointed, for we had thought, at
first, it might be the ship which we were expecting from Boston.
After lying here about a fortnight, and collecting all the hides the
place afforded, we set sail again for San Pedro. There we found the
brig which we had assisted in getting off lying at anchor, with a
mixed crew of Americans, English, Sandwich Islanders, Spaniards, and
Spanish Indians; and, though much smaller than we, yet she had three
times the number of men; and she needed them, for her officers were
Californians. No vessels in the world go so poorly manned as
American and English; and none do so well. A Yankee brig of that
size would have had a crew of four men, and would have worked round
and round her. The Italian ship had a crew of 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.
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