The constant wading in the
water, in all weathers, to take off hides, together with the other
labors, is too much for old men, and for any who have not good
constitutions. Beside these two men of ours, the second officer of the
California and the carpenter of the Pilgrim broke down under the work,
and the latter died at Santa Barbara. The young man, too, who came out
with us from Boston in the Pilgrim, had to be taken from his berth
before the mast and made clerk, on account of a fit of rheumatism
which attacked him soon after he came upon the coast. By the loss of
the sailmaker, our watch was reduced to five, of whom two were boys,
who never steered but in fine weather, so that the other two and
myself had to stand at the wheel four hours apiece out of every
twenty-four; and the other watch had only four helmsmen. "Never
mind- we're homeward bound!" was the answer to everything; and we
should not have minded this, were it not for the thought that we
should be off Cape Horn in the very dead of winter. It was now the
first part of May; and two months would bring us off the cape in July,
which is the worst month in the year there; when the sun rises at nine
and sets at three, giving eighteen hours night, and there is snow
and rain, gales and high seas, in abundance.
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