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
11th 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.
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