Weigh Anchor--Civility of People of Rio--Temperance--An
Altercation--Cold Weather--Cape Pigeons--Large Bird--Our Kitchen
Establishment--Stewards and Cooks--Scouse--Inspection of Cooks'
Galley--A Joke--A Squall--An Altercation--Captain J. and Mrs.
L----t--Cape Pigeons--Oranges.
We did not weigh anchor until 2 P.M. As we were beating out
of the harbor, we met the Portuguese brig, which we had spoken on
the fourteenth instant, coming in. After getting out and passing the
lighthouse and the islands, we squared away and stood on our course
with a fair and moderate breeze.
We were now much improved in health, and all the hardships, privations,
annoyances, and disappointments of the former part of our voyage were
forgotten. We were now supplied with a rich fund of new and interesting
subjects for conversation, we looked forward to a speedy and prosperous
passage round Cape Horn, and we were in the very best of spirits. We
had seen Rio Janeiro.
I had, as the reader may well suppose, but slight opportunity to
acquire a knowledge of the institutions of the country, or the
manners and customs of its inhabitants during my very short stay in
Rio, and will not insult the reader with a long essay on subjects of
which I know nothing. But I noticed a few traits in their character,
with which I was much pleased. I found them very kind, polite and
hospitable. In all my walks through the city, which I generally took
alone, I did not meet with an instance of rudeness or incivility. It
was the same whether I was crowding through the market or other public
places, which were thronged by multitudes of people of all classes
and complexions, white, brown and black, or threading the solitary
and narrow streets and crooked by-lanes which, in many cities, would
seem to offer every facility and inducement for the safe perpetration
of deeds of violence. I one day passed some barracks, where several
companies of soldiers were drilling. The gate was open, but guarded by
a soldier. I stopped and looked in. "Passé," said the sentinel, and
I walked in, saw the evolutions of the soldiers on drill, and passed
through several groups of others off duty. Every thing was conducted
without disorder, and I was as secure from any insult or annoyance as
I should have been in the midst of a party of friends at home. There
were many dark complexions among them, and I thought that quite half of
them, officers as well as privates, were black.
There are a great many restaurants, cafés, and other drinking
establishments in Rio, and one would expect to see a great amount
of intemperance among the people; and yet the only instances of
drunkenness I saw there were those which occurred among the passengers
and crew of our bark.
_May 25._ Our latitude to-day is 24° 45' south, longitude 44° west. We
have passed the Tropic of Capricorn, and are sailing in the southern
temperate zone.
_May 28._ I have had an unpleasant altercation with Capt. Jackson
to-day. The occasion was this: Some pretty birds--Cape Pigeons--have
been flying round the ship, and as I was desirous of preserving one
or two specimens of their skins, one of the passengers caught one
with a hook and line for me. As Mr. Johnson was desirous of showing
it to the ladies in the cabin, I let him take it. When he returned
it, he brought an order to me from the captain, who was then in the
cabin, to throw the bird overboard. I resisted the order. The parson
pleaded for the life of the bird as though it was a matter of the
utmost consequence. I told him I had procured the bird for the purpose
of preserving the skin, and I knew of no reason why I should not do
it. In a few minutes the direful deed was done, and the body of the
murdered bird lay stretched upon the deck skinless. The captain came up
in great wrath, and a warm discussion ensued, during which he declared
his fixed determination to protect the birds, and forbade the killing
of another one during the voyage. I told him I was aware that he had
the power to enforce his order, and that I should be obliged to submit,
but I protested against it as an infringement of my rights, and an
unjustifiable exercise of arbitrary power. I hinted to him that he had
better bestow a little of his compassion upon his passengers, and told
him that I had already suffered more from bad food, filthy water and
want of proper nourishment during my sickness on this voyage, than all
the birds I wished to kill would suffer by their deaths. So we parted,
and in less than an hour my friends caught me another bird, which I
skinned and preserved.
_June 1._ Winter is upon us. At least it is fast approaching, this
being the first winter month in this hemisphere. It is not to be
expected that we shall find very cold weather in this low latitude--34°
28'--but for some time past the cold has been sensibly increasing.
We have left the sun far to the north, that is, in our position on
the globe, we see it at the north instead of the south, as it appears
to us on the other side of the equator. He has thrown down his rays
vertically upon us as he passed, drawing the melting pitch from the
seams of the ship, and filling the cabins with an insupportable heat.
The North Star has long since disappeared, and the Great Bear and
other constellations with which we are, or ought to be, familiar, have
settled down in the north, and new constellations have taken their
places. The awning, which we had placed over our house, as a protection
from the heat, has been removed. The passengers no longer lodge
there, and their beds have been returned to their berths. A fair wind
is driving us onward, and a few days will find us in the regions of
storms, snows, and perhaps of icebergs. May our second winter in 1852
prove a short and fortunate one. A week has elapsed since we left Rio,
our company are generally in good health, and our fears of an attack of
yellow fever have vanished.
We are attended by multitudes of Cape Pigeons, which are so gentle and
unsuspicious of danger, that they alight on the water directly under
our stern. There are other birds with them, but none so tame. A large
bird about the size of a goose was caught with a baited hook by a
passenger, who obtained permission from our humane captain to hook up
the bird on condition that he should set it at liberty again. To-day
for the first time I have seen an albatross.
_June 2._ There have been some important changes made in our cooking
department. I have already hinted that we have suffered severely
from the wretched preparation of our food. The cooks are filthy in
the extreme, and exceedingly careless. But before I proceed, let me
describe our kitchen establishment. The duty of the first steward is to
keep the ship's stores, and deal them out to the cooks. He also kneads
up the bread, or "soft-tack," as it is called in contradistinction
to the ship-bread, which is called "hard-tack." We have three other
stewards or waiters, two for the main cabin, and one for our room in
the after house. Our stewards also take their meals to the mates, who
have a small room in the forward house. There is also a stewardess for
the ladies' cabin. Two cooks prepare the food and deliver it to the
stewards, who have charge of the tables in their respective cabins.
One day the chief steward, while kneading his bread saw a dirty
hen escape from her cage; and leaving his dough, he caught the
hen, restored her to the cage, and returned to his dough with an
accumulation of material upon his hands, which it was far from
agreeable to witness, and which diminished the demand for soft tack
very essentially. Little things of this sort were of every day
occurrence. Messes of filthy trash were often set before us, which the
most hungry among us could not swallow. We had a mess called "scouse,"
made up of a mixture of all the scraps of the salt beef and pork left
of our dinner, and broken pieces of ship-bread boiled together. This
was served up repeatedly; but the pans of scouse were so often sent
back full to the cooks' galley, that they desisted for several weeks
from forcing it upon us. But this morning they made another attempt,
doubtless by the captain's order, and added to the mess by way of
improvement several condiments, which we had not before discovered,
such as bits of orange peel and cheese and _mirabile dictu!_ of
tobacco. We called the captain, and requested him to inspect the pan of
scouse. He looked at it and passed on without any remark. He was met at
the door by a deputation from the main cabin, bearing another pan of
the delectable mixture. The captain by this time began to think that
the matter was assuming rather a serious aspect, and he condescended
to order an inspection of the cooks' galley, when the mischief was
traced to an old fellow by the name of Draper, who was in the habit
of drying his quids on a shelf directly over the boiler. Mr. Draper
was accordingly degraded from the post of cook, and another gentleman
appointed in his place. The passengers testified their satisfaction at
this arrangement by three hearty cheers.
Some of our wags played off a joke on the chief steward by tapping the
heels of his boots in the night with some very heavy cakes which he had
made. He complained of the indignity to the second mate, who advised
him to give his taps a fair trial, for in his opinion the bread would
prove an excellent substitute for leather.
_June 3._ Last night we had a smart gale, which drove us forward at the
rate of twelve knots; and this morning we were threatened with one of
those squalls that often occur in the vicinity of the mouth of the Rio
de la Plata, which we have just passed. The sky was overcast with dark
clouds that were often illuminated with brilliant flashes of lightning.
All hands were called and most of the sails furled. The squall burst
upon us in a fine shower of rain, but the wind proved only a pleasant
breeze, that helped up to make up a good day's reckoning.
_June 6._ There has been an unpleasant altercation on this holy Sabbath
between our worthy captain, (who, by the way, is a religious man and
a member of a church,) and some of his lady passengers. The quarrel
originated at the time of our visit at Rio. For several weeks prior to
this visit, he had been very lavish of his attentions to Mrs. L----t,
who had been ill during the voyage to Rio, and seemed to require a
great deal of brandy and bitters, wine and gruel, and herb drinks.
The captain was very assiduous in supplying the wants of Mrs. L----t,
and his assiduities certainly entitled him to her warmest gratitude.
But his intercourse with Mrs. L----t did not consist solely in
administering drinks and doses. Among other little manifestations of
friendliness, they united their fortunes in the purchase of a ticket in
a lottery, which one of the passengers made of an article of jewelry.
They drew the prize, and the captain became sole owner of the bauble
by purchasing Mrs. L----t's share. Matters continued in this friendly
way between them, till we arrived at Rio. Here, after inquiring into
the health of the city, he cautioned his passengers against stopping on
shore at night where they would be liable to take the yellow fever. The
next morning he accompanied Mrs. L----t on shore, where they tarried
day and night until the afternoon previous to our sailing. As a matter
of course this, together with their previous intimacy, was a subject of
much remark and some sport among the passengers. Their jokes reached
Captain Jackson's ears and enraged him. He declared that there should
be a stop put to the talk. The passengers thought otherwise. A smart
little quarrel grew out of it, the women took it in hand, and nourished
it, and to-day a discussion remarkable for its warmth and length, took
place between Capt. J. and Mrs. L----t on one side, and Miss Julia
S----g on the other. The battle raged till the middle of the afternoon,
when the captain left in a very wrathful frame of mind to join in a
religious service on deck, and to worship the God of peace and purity.
Capt J. has a wife in Maine and Mrs. L----t a husband in San Francisco.
_June 8._ Latitude 47° 6', longitude 59° 8'. We have cold weather,
strong winds, squalls, snow, hail and rain. Great numbers of sea birds,
chiefly Cape Pigeons, follow the ship. They bite very readily at a hook
baited with pork, and are easily caught. They are pretty birds, and fly
with great ease and gracefulness, and their wings seem never to tire.
They alight on the water, on which they swim with great agility, and I
have seen them dive several feet into the water in pursuit of food that
had been thrown to them from the ship. There is considerable difference
both in the size and color of these birds, and perhaps a skillful
ornithologist might determine them to consist of several species,
though I am inclined to consider them as varieties of the same
species. One of the passengers caught two of them for me, but owing to
cold weather and a slight seasickness at this time, I lost them.
_June 10._ Caught two more Cape Pigeons, and it being cold on deck, I
was glad to accept the invitation from some of the passengers in the
main cabin to skin the birds there. Their beaks were of a delicate
light ash or lead color, and their breasts white. There were some dark
spots on the wings. They were seventeen inches long, and forty-two and
a half inches in the stretch of their wings. Two spotted ones, whose
skins I have preserved, are smaller, being only thirty-four inches in
alar extent.
Our oranges have nearly disappeared. Having been kept in close boxes
and chests, they have decayed very rapidly. I have found them very
beneficial to my health, and should be glad to keep them till we arrive
at the next port, but they will be used up before we reach Cape Horn.
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