An Arbitrary Prohibition--Card Playing and Checker
Playing--Dancing--Treachery of Mr. Johnson--Some Passengers--A
Comical Character, and a Pugnacious Character--A Beautiful
Bird--Closing the Hatches--A Question of Jurisdiction--The Hatches
Re-opened--A Sudden Transformation--Neglected Duties of the
Chaplain--His Influence with the Captain.
I have spoken of the amusement the passengers have had in making wooden
trinkets from the wood taken on board at Talcahuana. The captain and
first mate have been made the recipients of many of these toys; but
to-day they have issued an order prohibiting any further manufacture of
them. The passengers all remonstrated against the arbitrary order, but
were obliged to submit; for the captain has control of the wood.
One of the principal sources of amusement during the voyage has been
card playing. It has helped many, who had no other occupation or
source of amusement, to pass their time pleasantly; and to others it
has proved an agreeable relaxation. Much mischief has doubtless been
prevented by it, and many a quarrel avoided. I have not heard of an
unpleasant dispute or altercation from card playing since we set sail,
though there are seldom less than six or eight companies engaged in it
during the pleasant weather. Several packs of cards were included in my
outfit, but though I have not, in a single instance, had occasion to
use them myself, they have nevertheless, done good service. Captain J.
has often threatened to break up this wicked amusement, but I think he
has not dared to attempt it. Though very strong in his denunciations
of card playing, there are other games which meet his approbation. He
has himself made a checker-board, and spends many a leisure moment in
playing checkers with Mrs. L----t.
Still another source of amusement with many of the passengers is
dancing. We have two fiddlers on board the ship, and are therefore
well supplied with the necessary music. There is a space between the
two houses covering a few square feet, and another space still smaller
between the forward house and the windlass, where a small number of
persons can crowd through a figure in a dance, and these spaces have
been sometimes used for that purpose. I have attempted to take this
kind of exercise, but in such a circumscribed space and such a rolling
ballroom, I have found the amusement any thing but amusing.
From what I have already recorded of Mr. Johnson, it will be seen that
he has been guilty of some indiscretions (to call them by no harsher
name) that are not very creditable to him as a man or a Christian. I
have now to state a fact, which proves him to be destitute of common
honesty. At his particular request I had lent him several sheets of
my journal, in which were some passages reflecting on the conduct of
Captain J. and the first mate. These passages, he gave me his word,
should not be repeated nor revealed. I heard no more about it for
several days and until last night, when the reverend gentleman came
deliberately to me, and said, that considering all the circumstances of
the case, he felt it his duty, notwithstanding his promise, to repeat
those obnoxious passages to the captain and mate. He asked me if I had
any objection. I replied that it could answer no good purpose; that
he very well knew that the captain had repeatedly threatened me with
personal violence, and this would only serve to increase his rage,
and, perhaps, furnish him with a pretext for putting his threats into
execution; and that I would not consent to the disclosure. To all my
remonstrances he only replied that his duty impelled him to the course
he was about to pursue, and that his conscience would no longer permit
him to remain silent. So he left me to perform his duty and quiet his
conscience by breaking his word and violating his promise, and making a
revelation, which could answer no other purpose than to make mischief,
to increase a personal animosity, which was already bitter enough, to
prolong a quarrel which it should have been his duty as a Christian
minister to allay, and to stir up strife when he should have endeavored
to promote conciliation. "Blessed are the peace-makers."
It will be thought that we have a jumble of strange characters in our
company, and so indeed we have. Perhaps I have occupied too much space
with the bad portion of them. Perhaps, too, I have attached too much
importance to the little scrapes and wrangles, of which I have given
so many accounts. One might suppose that I had treasured up every
quarrel that has occurred during the voyage, and that I delighted in
telling them. But it is not so. I would give a correct impression of
the voyage, its pleasures and pains; and the record of a portion of our
disputes is necessary to this end. But I have omitted more than I have
recorded, and I have related others in the fewest words into which I
could condense them.
In addition to the ladies whose names have appeared in the progress of
this narrative, is Mrs. A. G. B., who is going to join her husband in
Stockton. She is a very quiet, and I believe a religious woman. She
passes a great part of her time in her state-room, and keeps entirely
aloof from all the bickerings that are of such frequent occurrence in
the ladies' cabin. She comes on deck after supper to take the air.
I have occasionally passed an hour very agreeably with her, enjoying
a pleasant sunset and twilight, or talking of friends at home. Her
daughter Mary is a pretty girl of seventeen, who reads French, and has
a variety of accomplishments. Mrs. B. has two sons on board, one a boy,
and the other, a married man, whose wife and daughter, a sprightly
little girl of three years, accompany him.
One of the passengers in the main cabin is a deaf-mute, Elisha
Osgood, a cabinet-maker. He gave our chaplain a mild reproof for his
belligerent propensities a few days since. Learning that Mr. J. had a
revolver, he proposed to buy it. Mr. J. refused to sell it; whereupon
Osgood wrote upon his slate, "You had better sell your revolver, and
buy a bible."
Mr. Gardner, the second mate, is a clever fellow, and is endowed with
much more intelligence than the first mate, and is more popular with
the passengers and crew, though far from being a favorite with the
captain.
There is a quiet good-natured fellow among us, by the name of John F.
Dolliff, who loves sport, and is a practical joker. He is possessed
of kind, humane feelings withal, and I am indebted to him for many a
glass of lemonade, given me in the former part of our voyage, at a
time when I was suffering the most tormenting thirst from seasickness.
Dolliff's voice bears a great resemblance to that of Captain J., which
has given rise to some sport among us. He sometimes orders the stewards
to trim the lamp in the binnacle, calls out to the man at the wheel to
tell him how the ship heads, and gives a variety of orders, which are
generally obeyed. One dark night, after the captain had turned in, he
put on his--the captain's--coat and hat, and walked out. He called to
the mate, asked several questions about the wind and weather, which
were all respectfully answered, and then directed him to reef the
top-sails. This order, absurd enough under the circumstances, was not
given in nautical style, and while the perplexed mate hesitated, some
one who was in the secret laughed, and betrayed the joke.
T. W. Dolliff, a cousin of the above-named, is, or rather was, the
most pugnacious man among us, though he exhibited no indications of
his pugnacity on board the bark. He was said to be pretty well covered
with scars, which he had received in numerous combats. At Talcahuana he
fell in with a bully, who was imbued with a great hatred of Yankees,
and who challenged any and all who were present to fight him. Dolliff
had not had a fight for many months, and was really pining for a little
amusement of that sort. This opportunity to indulge in his favorite
recreation was too good to be lost, and he readily accepted the
challenge. A little space in the room was cleared for the combatants.
They took their places, and after a moment's maneuvering, the fellow
made a pass at Dolliff, which he parried, and at the same instant he
dealt him a blow that laid him sprawling on the floor. The bully got up
and prepared for a second encounter, which ended in the same manner.
Unwilling to yield, he made a third attempt, and a third time he
measured his length upon the floor, when he wisely gave up the contest,
acknowledged the superiority of the Yankee, and treated the company.
Within three weeks Dolliff has been attacked with rheumatic pains
attended with fever, which have laid him up. He has been removed from
the main cabin, where he must have died, had he remained there, and a
berth has been provided for him in our room. Every thing that can be,
is done to make him comfortable; but our ship is badly supplied with
necessaries for the sick. He will, in all probability, have a lingering
illness, and he must be taken to a hospital in San Francisco,
California, of which he has a great dread.
_August 14._ One of our passengers, Mr. Gould, has generously treated
us to a rich pound-cake. His wife made it in Bangor. It was put into a
tin box and soldered up, and on being opened, was found as fresh and
sweet as when first baked.
_August 15._ No religious services to-day. There are many conjectures
as to the cause of this omission of his duty by our chaplain, the most
plausible of which is, his consciousness of the strong disgust which
his recent treachery, falsehood, and attempt at mischief-making have
excited.
We occasionally see a beautiful bird making its flight high above us,
but seldom coming near the ship. Its plumage as seen at a distance is
pure white, its head resembles that of a dove, its neck slender and
delicate, and with a tail composed of two long, pointed, and flowing
white feathers, and wings long and slender, it floats through the air
with a gracefulness peculiar to itself, and excelling that of any other
bird I have seen. This is the Tropic Bird, (_Phæton phoenicurus_.)
The long taper tail feathers have given the sailors a hint for a name,
and they call it "The Marlin-spike."
_August 17._ Crossed the Tropic of Cancer in longitude 127° west. The
mate signalized the day by closing the hatches over the main cabin.
The reason assigned for this act was a quarrel at breakfast between an
Irishman and one of the stewards, which disturbed the mate's repose.
Much excitement prevailed in consequence of this act, and the fifty
men shut up in that "black hole" remonstrated against the injustice
of being punished for a little squabble, in which only two of their
number were engaged. Finding their arguments were of no avail with the
mate, they carried their case to the captain. To their remonstrances
he replied that this case was beyond his control; that he commanded
the after-part of the ship, and the mate the forward part; that this
hatchway, being in the mate's room, was under his sole command; and
that he, the captain, had no more authority to order it to be taken
off, than the mate had to command him on the quarter-deck. All this
appeared very much like nonsense to our land lubbers, who doubted if
the maritime law recognized a division of authority, which seemed to
them so utterly absurd and ridiculous. At this point of the discussion,
Mr. Tyler, one of the passengers, remarked that he had hitherto kept
aloof from all the wrangles we had had, but that he should not remain
quiet under this arbitrary act. He assured the captain that if the
hatches were not removed, there would be a greater row than we had ever
witnessed on board this bark. But neither the captain nor mate would
make any concession, and it was determined by the passengers that they
should have no sleep as long as the cause of their disquiet remained.
There was a prospect of a stormy night between decks, and extensive
preparations were made for a musical concert, which would not have been
very conducive to slumber, when our brave officers, thinking they would
find the contest an unequal one, suddenly and wisely resolved to remove
the hatches, the consequence of which was an immediate restoration of
peace.
_August 22._ A sudden and wonderful transformation has been wrought
in our chaplain. From being very reserved in his intercourse with the
passengers, he has all at once become exceedingly familiar. I have been
surprised within two or three days past to see him engaged in high
frolics with the men, scuffling, knocking off hats, throwing ropes over
the men's heads, running and jumping like a boy over the houses and
decks, and playing a hundred capers and pranks, which have attracted
much attention, and excited not a little ridicule throughout the ship.
The cause of this sudden change in the good parson is so palpable,
that very few do not understand it; and the lost popularity he is so
desirous to win back will scarcely be recovered by this means. His
duties as our chaplain, which have never been arduous, are now wholly
neglected; and well they may be, for very few will listen to him. He
began his labors with us after the first two or three stormy weeks,
with a prayer once a week, besides a sermon on Sundays. These were
well attended, a large majority of our company being present. After
a lapse of several weeks, the week-day prayer was omitted. Then the
Sunday service was suspended for a time in consequence of his fight
with Julia S. He attempted to renew his meetings in the main cabin,
but received a hint that his services would not be acceptable to the
occupants of that part of the ship. However, when warm weather returned
he preached on the house-top, though to very small audiences, until the
perpetration of his treachery with me, which has brought such a load of
odium upon him, that he has not dared to attempt to preach since. He
has proved an artful and dishonest man, and has exercised a pernicious
influence over our weak-minded and ignorant captain, and has been his
counsellor, adviser and supporter in nearly all the quarrels in which
he has been engaged with his passengers. That his influence in this
bark is confined to the captain, a single fact will prove. He some time
since got up a certificate for signatures, the purport of which was to
plaster over Mrs. L----t's conduct. Not a passenger would sign it.