All the hides that had been
collected since the California left the coast, (a little more than two
years,) amounting to about forty thousand, were cured, dried, and
stowed away in the house, waiting for our good ship to take them to
Boston.
Now began the operation of taking in our cargo, which kept us hard
at work, from the grey of the morning till star-light, for six
weeks, with the exception of Sundays, and of just time to swallow
our meals. To carry the work on quicker, a division of labor was made.
Two men threw the hides down from the piles in the house, two more
picked them up and put them on a long horizontal pole, raised a few
feet from the ground, where they were beaten, by two more, with
flails, somewhat like those used in threshing wheat. When beaten, they
were taken from this pole by two more, and placed upon a platform of
boards; and ten or a dozen men, with their trowsers rolled up, were
constantly going, back and forth, from the platform to the boat, which
was kept off where she would just float, with the hides upon their
heads. The throwing the hides upon the pole was the most difficult
work, and required a sleight of hand which was only to be got by
long practice.
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