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 before. We looked over, and
thought it would not be a welcome task, especially for a few paltry
hides; but no one knows what he 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 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, Ayacucho, 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.
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