THE SANDWICH ISLANDERS--HIDE-CURING--WOOD-CUTTING--RATTLE-
SNAKES--NEW-COMERS
Here was a change in my life as complete as it had been sudden. In the
twinkling of an eye, I was transformed from a sailor into a
"beach-comber" and a hide-curer; yet the novelty and the comparative
independence of the life were not unpleasant. Our hide-house was a
large building, made of rough boards, and intended to hold forty
thousand hides. In one corner of it, a small room was parted off, in
which four berths were made, where we were to live, with mother earth
for our floor. It contained a table, a small locker for pots, spoons,
plates, etc., and a small hole cut to let in the light. Here we put our
chests, threw our bedding into the berths, and took up our quarters.
Over our head was another small room, in which Mr. Russell lived, who
had charge of the hide-house; the same man who was for a time an
officer of the Pilgrim. There he lived in solitary grandeur; eating
and sleeping alone, (and these were his principal occupations,) and
communing with his own dignity. The boy was to act as cook; while
myself, a giant of a Frenchman named Nicholas, and four Sandwich
Islanders, were to cure the hides. Sam, the Frenchman, and myself,
lived together in the room, and the four Sandwich Islanders worked and
ate with us, but generally slept at the oven. My new messmate,
Nicholas, was the most immense man that I had ever seen in my life. He
came on the coast in a vessel which was afterwards wrecked, and now let
himself out to the different houses to cure hides. He was considerably
over six feet, and of a frame so large that he might have been shown
for a curiosity. But the most remarkable thing about him was his feet.
They were so large that he could not find a pair of shoes in California
to fit him, and was obliged to send to Oahu for a pair; and when he got
them, he was compelled to wear them down at the heel. He told me once,
himself, that he was wrecked in an American brig on the Goodwin Sands,
and was sent up to London, to the charge of the American consul,
without clothing to his back or shoes to his feet, and was obliged to
go about London streets in his stocking feet three or four days, in the
month of January, until the consul could have a pair of shoes made for
him. His strength was in proportion to his size, and his ignorance to
his strength--"strong as an ox, and ignorant as strong." He neither
knew how to read nor write. He had been to sea from a boy, and had
seen all kinds of service, and been in every kind of vessel:
merchantmen, men-of-war, privateers, and slavers; and from what I could
gather from his accounts of himself, and from what he once told me, in
confidence, after we had become better acquainted, he had even been in
worse business than slave-trading. He was once tried for his life in
Charleston, South Carolina, and though acquitted, yet he was so
frightened that he never would show himself in the United States again;
and I could not persuade him that he could never be tried a second time
for the same offence. He said he had got safe off from the breakers,
and was too good a sailor to risk his timbers again.
Though I knew what his life had been, yet I never had the slightest
fear of him. We always got along very well together, and, though so
much stronger and larger than I, he showed a respect for my education,
and for what he had heard of my situation before coming to sea. "I'll
be good friends with you," he used to say, "for by-and-by you'll come
out here captain, and then you'll haze me well!" By holding well
together, we kept the officer in good order, for he was evidently
afraid of Nicholas, and never ordered us, except when employed upon the
hides. My other companions, the Sandwich Islanders, deserve particular
notice.
A considerable trade has been carried on for several years between
California and the Sandwich Islands, and most of the vessels are manned
with Islanders; who, as they, for the most part, sign no articles,
leave whenever they choose, and let themselves out to cure hides at San
Diego, and to supply the places of the men of the American vessels
while on the coast. In this way, quite a colony of them had become
settled at San Diego, as their headquarters. Some of these had recently
gone off in the Ayacucho and Loriotte, and the Pilgrim had taken Mr.
Mannini and three others, so that there were not more than twenty left.
Of these, four were on pay at the Ayacucho's house, four more working
with us, and the rest were living at the oven in a quiet way; for their
money was nearly gone, and they must make it last until some other
vessel came down to employ them.
During the four months that I lived here, I got well acquainted with
all of them, and took the greatest pains to become familiar with their
language, habits, and characters. Their language, I could only learn,
orally, for they had not any books among them, though many of them had
been taught to read and write by the missionaries at home. They spoke
a little English, and by a sort of compromise, a mixed language was
used on the beach, which could be understood by all. The long name of
Sandwich Islanders is dropped, and they are called by the whites, all
over the Pacific ocean, "Kanákas," from a word in their own language
which they apply to themselves, and to all South Sea Islanders, in
distinction from whites, whom they call "Haole." This name, "Kanaka,"
they answer to, both collectively and individually. Their proper
names, in their own language, being difficult to pronounce and
remember, they are called by any names which the captains or crews may
choose to give them. Some are called after the vessel they are in;
others by common names, as Jack, Tom, Bill; and some have fancy names,
as Ban-yan, Fore-top, Rope-yarn, Pelican, etc., etc. Of the four who
worked at our house one was named "Mr. Bingham," after the missionary
at Oahu; another, Hope, after a vessel that he had been in; a third,
Tom Davis, the name of his first captain; and the fourth, Pelican, from
his fancied resemblance to that bird. Then there was Lagoda-Jack,
California-Bill, etc., etc. But by whatever names they might be
called, they were the most interesting, intelligent, and kind-hearted
people that I ever fell in with. I felt a positive attachment for
almost all of them; and many of them I have, to this time, a feeling
for, which would lead me to go a great way for the mere pleasure of
seeing them, and which will always make me feel a strong interest in
the mere name of a Sandwich Islander.
Tom Davis knew how to read, write, and cipher in common arithmetic; had
been to the United States, and spoke English quite well. His education
was as good as that of three-quarters of the Yankees in California, and
his manners and principles a good deal better, and he was so quick of
apprehension that he might have been taught navigation, and the
elements of many of the sciences, with the most perfect ease. Old "Mr.
Bingham" spoke very little English--almost none, and neither knew how
to read nor write; but he was the best-hearted old fellow in the world.
He must have been over fifty years of age, and had two of his front
teeth knocked out, which was done by his parents as a sign of grief at
the death of Kamehameha, the great king of the Sandwich Islands. We
used to tell him that he ate Captain Cook, and lost his teeth in that
way. That was the only thing that ever made him angry. He would
always be quite excited at that; and say--"Aole!" (no.) "Me no eat
Captain Cook! Me pikinini--small--so high--no more! My father see
Captain Cook! Me--no!" None of them liked to have anything said about
Captain Cook, for the sailors all believe that he was eaten, and that,
they cannot endure to be taunted with.--"New Zealand Kanaka eat white
man;--Sandwich Island Kanaka--no. Sandwich Island Kanaka ua like pu na
haole--all 'e same a' you!"
Mr. Bingham was a sort of patriarch among them, and was always treated
with great respect, though he had not the education and energy which
gave Mr. Mannini his power over them. I have spent hours in talking
with this old fellow about Kamehameha, the Charlemagne of the Sandwich
Islands; his son and successor Riho Riho, who died in England, and was
brought to Oahu in the frigate Blonde, Captain Lord Byron, and whose
funeral he remembered perfectly; and also about the customs of his
country in his boyhood, and the changes which had been made by the
missionaries. He never would allow that human beings had been eaten
there; and, indeed, it always seemed like an insult to tell so
affectionate, intelligent, and civilized a class of men, that such
barbarities had been practised in their own country within the
recollection of many of them. Certainly, the history of no people on
the globe can show anything like so rapid an advance. I would have
trusted my life and my fortune in the hands of any one of these people;
and certainly had I wished for a favor or act of sacrifice, I would
have gone to them all, in turn, before I should have applied to one of
my own countrymen on the coast, and should have expected to have seen
it done, before my own countrymen had got half through counting the
cost. Their costumes, and manner of treating one another, show a
simple, primitive generosity, which is truly delightful; and which is
often a reproach to our own people. Whatever one has, they all have.
Money, food, clothes, they share with one another; even to the last
piece of tobacco to put in their pipes. I once heard old Mr. Bingham
say, with the highest indignation, to a Yankee trader who was trying to
persuade him to keep his money to himself--"No! We no all 'e same a'
you!--Suppose one got money, all got money. You;--suppose one got
money--lock him up in chest.--No good!"--"Kanaka all 'e same a' one!"
This principle they carry so far, that none of them will eat anything
in the sight of others without offering it all round. I have seen one
of them break a biscuit, which had been given him, into five parts, at
a time when I knew he was on a very short allowance, as there was but
little to eat on the beach.
My favorite among all of them, and one who was liked by both officers
and men, and by whomever he had anything to do with, was Hope. He was
an intelligent, kind-hearted little fellow, and I never saw him angry,
though I knew him for more than a year, and have seen him imposed upon
by white people, and abused by insolent officers of vessels. He was
always civil, and always ready, and never forgot a benefit. I once
took care of him when he was ill, getting medicines from the ship's
chests, when no captain or officer would do anything for him, and he
never forgot it. Every Kanaka has one particular friend, whom he
considers himself bound to do everything for, and with whom he has a
sort of contract,--an alliance offensive and defensive,--and for whom
he will often make the greatest sacrifices. This friend they call
aikane; and for such did Hope adopt me. I do not believe I could have
wanted anything which he had, that he would not have given me. In
return for this, I was always his friend among the Americans, and used
to teach him letters and numbers; for he left home before he had
learned how to read. He was very curious about Boston (as they call
the United States); asking many questions about the houses, the people,
etc., and always wished to have the pictures in books explained to him.
They were all astonishingly quick in catching at explanations, and many
things which I had thought it utterly impossible to make them
understand, they often seized in an instant, and asked questions which
showed that they knew enough to make them wish to go farther. The
pictures of steamboats and railroad cars, in the columns of some
newspapers which I had, gave me great difficulty to explain. The
grading of the road, the rails, the construction of the carriages, they
could easily understand, but the motion produced by steam was a little
too refined for them. I attempted to show it to them once by an
experiment upon the cook's coppers, but failed; probably as much from
my own ignorance as from their want of apprehension; and, I have no
doubt, left them with about as clear an idea of the principle as I had
myself. This difficulty, of course, existed in the same force with the
steamboats and all I could do was to give them some account of the
results, in the shape of speed; for, failing in the reason, I had to
fall back upon the fact. In my account of the speed I was supported by
Tom, who had been to Nantucket, and seen a little steamboat which ran
over to New Bedford.
A map of the world, which I once showed them, kept their attention for
hours; those who knew how to read pointing out the places and referring
to me for the distances. I remember being much amused with a question
which Hope asked me. Pointing to the large irregular place which is
always left blank round the poles, to denote that it is undiscovered,
he looked up and asked.--"Pau?" (Done? ended?)
The system of naming the streets and numbering the houses, they easily
understood, and the utility of it. They had a great desire to see
America, but were afraid of doubling Cape Horn, for they suffer much in
cold weather, and had heard dreadful accounts of the Cape, from those
of their number who had been round it.
They smoke a great deal, though not much at a time; using pipes with
large bowls, and very short stems, or no stems at all. These, they
light, and putting them to their mouths, take a long draught, getting
their mouths as full as they can hold, and their cheeks distended, and
then let it slowly out through their mouths and nostrils. The pipe is
then passed to others, who draw, in the same manner, one pipe-full
serving for half a dozen. They never take short, continuous draughts,
like Europeans, but one of these "Oahu puffs," as the sailors call
them, serves for an hour or two, until some one else lights his pipe,
and it is passed round in the same manner. Each Kanaka on the beach had
a pipe, flint, steel, tinder, a hand of tobacco, and a jack-knife,
which he always carried about with him.
That which strikes a stranger most peculiarly is their style of
singing. They run on, in a low, guttural, monotonous sort of chant,
their lips and tongues seeming hardly to move, and the sounds modulated
solely in the throat. There is very little tune to it, and the words,
so far as I could learn, are extempore. They sing about persons and
things which are around them, and adopt this method when they do not
wish to be understood by any but themselves; and it is very effectual,
for with the most careful attention I never could detect a word that I
knew. I have often heard Mr. Mannini, who was the most noted
improvisatore among them, sing for an hour together, when at work in
the midst of Americans and Englishmen; and, by the occasional shouts
and laughter of the Kanakas, who were at a distance, it was evident
that he was singing about the different men that he was at work with.
They have great powers of ridicule, and are excellent mimics; many of
them discovering and imitating the peculiarities of our own people,
before we had seen them ourselves.
These were the people with whom I was to spend a few months; and who,
with the exception of the officer, Nicholas the Frenchman, and the boy,
made the whole population of the beach. I ought, perhaps, to except
the dogs, for they were an important part of our settlement. Some of
the first vessels brought dogs out with them, who, for convenience,
were left ashore, and there multiplied, until they came to be a great
people. While I was on the beach, the average number was about forty,
and probably an equal, or greater number are drowned, or killed in some
other way, every year. They are very useful in guarding the beach, the
Indians being afraid to come down at night; for it was impossible for
any one to get within half a mile of the hide-houses without a general
alarm. The father of the colony, old Sachem, so called from the ship
in which he was brought out, died while I was there, full of years, and
was honorably buried. Hogs, and a few chickens, were the rest of the
animal tribe, and formed, like the dogs, a common company, though they
were all known and marked, and usually fed at the houses to which they
belonged.
I had been but a few hours on the beach, and the Pilgrim was hardly out
of sight, when the cry of "Sail ho!" was raised, and a small
hermaphrodite brig rounded the point, bore up into the harbor, and came
to anchor. It was the Mexican brig Fazio, which we had left at San
Pedro, and which had come down to land her tallow, try it all over, and
make new bags, and then take it in, and leave the coast. They moored
ship, erected their try-works on shore, put up a small tent, in which
they all lived, and commenced operations. They made an addition to our
society, and we spent many evenings in their tent, where, amid the
Babel of English, Spanish, French, Indian, and Kanaka, we found some
words that we could understand in common.
The morning after my landing, I began the duties of hide-curing. In
order to understand these, it will be necessary to give the whole
history of a hide, from the time it is taken from a bullock until it is
put on board the vessel to be carried to Boston. When the hide is
taken from the bullock, holes are cut round it, near the edge, by which
it is staked out to dry. In this manner it dries without shrinking.
After they are thus dried in the sun, they are received by the vessels,
and brought down to the depot at San Diego. The vessels land them, and
leave them in large piles near the houses.
Then begins the hide-curer's duty. The first thing is to put them in
soak. This is done by carrying them down at low tide, and making them
fast, in small piles, by ropes, and letting the tide come up and cover
them. Every day we put in soak twenty-five for each man, which, with
us, made an hundred and fifty. There they lie forty-eight hours, when
they are taken out, and rolled up, in wheelbarrows, and thrown into the
vats. These vats contain brine, made very strong; being sea-water,
with great quantities of salt thrown in. This pickles the hides, and
in this they lie forty-eight hours; the use of the sea-water, into
which they are first put, being merely to soften and clean them. From
these vats, they are taken, and lie on a platform twenty-four hours,
and then are spread upon the ground, and carefully stretched and staked
out, so that they may dry smooth. After they were staked, and while yet
wet and soft, we used to go upon them with our knives, and carefully
cut off all the bad parts:--the pieces of meat and fat, which would
corrupt and infect the whole if stowed away in a vessel for many
months, the large flippers, the ears, and all other parts which would
prevent close stowage. This was the most difficult part of our duty: as
it required much skill to take everything necessary off and not to cut
or injure the hide. It was also a long process, as six of us had to
clean an hundred and fifty, most of which required a great deal to be
done to them, as the Spaniards are very careless in skinning their
cattle. Then, too, as we cleaned them while they were staked out, we
were obliged to kneel down upon them, which always gives beginners the
back-ache. The first day, I was so slow and awkward that I cleaned only
eight; at the end of a few days I doubled my number; and in a fortnight
or three weeks, could keep up with the others, and clean my
proportion--twenty-five.
This cleaning must be got through with before noon; for by that time
they get too dry. After the sun has been upon them a few hours, they
are carefully gone over with scrapers, to get off all the grease which
the sun brings out. This being done, the stakes are pulled up, and the
hides carefully doubled, with the hair side out, and left to dry.
About the middle of the afternoon they are turned upon the other side,
and at sundown piled up and covered over. The next day they are spread
out and opened again, and at night, if fully dry, are thrown upon a
long, horizontal pole, five at a time, and beat with flails. This
takes all the dust from them. Then, being salted, scraped, cleaned,
dried, and beaten, they are stowed away in the house. Here ends their
history, except that they are taken out again when the vessel is ready
to go home, beaten, stowed away on board, carried to Boston, tanned,
made into shoes and other articles for which leather is used; and many
of them, very probably, in the end, brought back again to California in
the shape of shoes, and worn out in pursuit of other bullocks, or in
the curing of other hides.
By putting an hundred and fifty in soak every day, we had the same
number at each stage of curing, on each day; so that we had, every day,
the same work to do upon the same number: an hundred and fifty to put
in soak; an hundred and fifty to wash out and put in the vat; the same
number to haul from the vat and put on the platform to drain; the same
number to spread and stake out and clean; and the same number to beat
and stow away in the home. I ought to except Sunday; for, by a
prescription which no captain or agent has yet ventured to break in
upon, Sunday has been a day of leisure on the beach for years. On
Saturday night, the hides, in every stage of progress, are carefully
covered up, and not uncovered until Monday morning. On Sundays we had
absolutely no work to do, unless it was to kill a bullock, which was
sent down for our use about once a week, and sometimes came on Sunday.
Another good arrangement was, that we had just so much work to do, and
when that was through, the time was our own. Knowing this, we worked
hard, and needed no driving. We "turned out" every morning at the
first signs of daylight, and allowing a short time, about eight
o'clock, for breakfast, generally got through our labor between one and
two o'clock, when we dined, and had the rest of the time to ourselves;
until just before sundown, when we beat the dry hides and put them in
the house, and covered over all the others. By this means we had about
three hours to ourselves every afternoon; and at sundown we had our
supper, and our work was done for the day. There was no watch to stand,
and no topsails to reef. The evenings we generally spent at one
another's houses, and I often went up and spent an hour or so at the
oven; which was called the "Kanaka Hotel," and the "Oahu Coffee-house."
Immediately after dinner we usually took a short siésta to make up for
our early rising, and spent the rest of the afternoon according to our
own fancies. I generally read, wrote, and made or mended clothes; for
necessity, the mother of invention, had taught me these two latter
arts. The Kanakas went up to the oven, and spent the time in sleeping,
talking, and smoking; and my messmate, Nicholas, who neither knew how
to read or write, passed away the time by a long siésta, two or three
smokes with his pipe, and a paséo to the other houses. This leisure
time is never interfered with, for the captains know that the men earn
it by working hard and fast, and that if they interfered with it, the
men could easily make their twenty-five hides apiece last through the
day. We were pretty independent, too, for the master of the
house--"capitan de la casa"--had nothing to say to us, except when we
were at work on the hides, and although we could not go up to the town
without his permission, this was seldom or never refused.
The great weight of the wet hides, which we were obliged to roll about
in wheelbarrows; the continual stooping upon those which were pegged
out to be cleaned; and the smell of the vats, into which we were often
obliged to get, knee-deep, to press down the hides; all made the work
disagreeable and fatiguing;--but we soon got hardened to it, and the
comparative independence of our life reconciled us to it; for there was
nobody to haze us and find fault; and when we got through, we had only
to wash and change our clothes, and our time was our own. There was,
however, one exception to the time's being our own; which was, that on
two afternoons of every week we were obliged to go off and get wood,
for the cook to use in the galley. Wood is very scarce in the vicinity
of San Diego; there being no trees of any size, for miles. In the
town, the inhabitants burn the small wood which grows in thickets, and
for which they send out Indians, in large numbers, every few days.
Fortunately, the climate is so fine that they had no need of a fire in
their houses, and only use it for cooking. With us the getting of wood
was a great trouble; for all that in the vicinity of the houses had
been cut down, and we were obliged to go off a mile or two, and to
carry it some distance on our backs, as we could not get the hand-cart
up the hills and over the uneven places. Two afternoons in the week,
generally Monday and Thursday, as soon as we had got through dinner, we
started off for the bush, each of us furnished with a hatchet and a
long piece of rope, and dragging the hand-cart behind us, and followed
by the whole colony of dogs, who were always ready for the bush, and
were half mad whenever they saw our preparations. We went with the
hand-cart as far as we could conveniently drag it, and leaving it in an
open, conspicuous place, separated ourselves; each taking his own
course, and looking about for some good place to begin upon.
Frequently, we had to go nearly a mile from the hand-cart before we
could find any fit place. Having lighted upon a good thicket, the next
thing was to clear away the under-brush, and have fair play at the
trees. These trees are seldom more than five or six feet high, and the
highest that I ever saw in these expeditions could not have been more
than twelve; so that, with lopping off the branches and clearing away
the underwood, we had a good deal of cutting to do for a very little
wood. Having cut enough for a "back-load," the next thing was to make
it well fast with the rope, and heaving the bundle upon our backs, and
taking the hatchet in hand, to walk off, up hill and down dale, to the
hand-cart. Two good back-loads apiece filled the hand-cart; and that
was each one's proportion. When each had brought down his second load,
we filled the hand-cart, and took our way again slowly back, and
unloading, covering the hides for the night, and getting our supper,
finished the day's work.
These wooding excursions had always a mixture of something rather
pleasant in them. Roaming about in the woods with hatchet in hand,
like a backwoodsman, followed by a troop of dogs; starting up of birds,
snakes, hares and foxes, and examining the various kinds of trees,
flowers, and birds' nests, was at least, a change from the monotonous
drag and pull on shipboard. Frequently, too, we had some amusement and
adventure. The coati, of which I have before spoken,--a sort of
mixture of the fox and wolf breeds,--fierce little animals, with bushy
tails and large heads, and a quick, sharp bark, abound here, as in all
other parts of California. These, the dogs were very watchful for, and
whenever they saw them, started off in full run after them. We had
many fine chases; yet, although our dogs ran finely, the rascals
generally escaped. They are a match for the dog,---one to one,--but as
the dogs generally went in squads, there was seldom a fair fight. A
smaller dog, belonging to us, once attacked a coati, single, and got a
good deal worsted, and might perhaps have been killed had we not come
to his assistance. We had, however, one dog which gave them a good
deal of trouble, and many hard runs. He was a fine, tall fellow, and
united strength and agility better than any dog that I have ever seen.
He was born at the Islands, his father being an English mastiff, and
his mother a greyhound. He had the high head, long legs, narrow body,
and springing gait of the latter, and the heavy jaw, thick jowls, and
strong fore-quarters of the mastiff. When he was brought to San Diego,
an English sailor said that he looked, about the face, precisely like
the Duke of Wellington, whom he had once seen at the Tower; and,
indeed, there was something about him which resembled the portraits of
the Duke. From this time he was christened "Welly," and became the
favorite and bully of the beach. He always led the dogs by several
yards in the chase, and had killed two coati at different times in
single combats. We often had fine sport with these fellows. A quick,
sharp bark from a coati, and in an instant every dog was at the height
of his speed. A few moments made up for an unfair start, and gave each
dog his relative place. Welly, at the head, seemed almost to skim over
the bushes; and after him came Fanny, Feliciana, Childers, and the
other fleet ones,--the spaniels and terriers; and then behind, followed
the heavy corps--bulldogs, etc., for we had every breed. Pursuit by us
was in vain, and in about half an hour a few of them would come panting
and straggling back.
Beside the coati, the dogs sometimes made prizes of rabbits and hares,
which are very plentiful here, and great numbers of which we often shot
for our dinners. There was another animal that I was not so much
disposed to find amusement from, and that was the rattlesnake. These
are very abundant here, especially during the spring of the year. The
latter part of the time that I was on shore, I did not meet with so
many, but for the first two months we seldom went into "the bush"
without one of our number starting some of them. The first that I ever
saw, I remember perfectly well. I had left my companions, and was
beginning to clear away a fine clump of trees, when just in the midst
of the thicket, not more than eight yards from me, one of these fellows
set up his hiss. It is a sharp, continuous sound, and resembles very
much the letting off of the steam from the small pipe of a steamboat,
except that it is on a smaller scale. I knew, by the sound of an axe,
that one of my companions was near, and called out to him, to let him
know what I had fallen upon. He took it very lightly, and as he seemed
inclined to laugh at me for being afraid, I determined to keep my
place. I knew that so long as I could hear the rattle, I was safe, for
these snakes never make a noise when they are in motion. Accordingly,
I kept at my work, and the noise which I made with cutting and breaking
the trees kept him in alarm; so that I had the rattle to show me his
whereabouts. Once or twice the noise stopped for a short time, which
gave me a little uneasiness, and retreating a few steps, I threw
something into the bush, at which he would set his rattle agoing; and
finding that he had not moved from his first place, I was easy again.
In this way I continued at my work until I had cut a full load, never
suffering him to be quiet for a moment. Having cut my load, I strapped
it together, and got everything ready for starting. I felt that I could
now call the others without the imputation of being afraid; and went in
search of them. In a few minutes we were all collected, and began an
attack upon the bush. The big Frenchman, who was the one that I had
called to at first, I found as little inclined to approach the snake as
I had been. The dogs, too, seemed afraid of the rattle, and kept up a
barking at a safe distance; but the Kanakas showed no fear, and getting
long sticks, went into the bush, and keeping a bright look-out, stood
within a few feet of him. One or two blows struck near him, and a few
stones thrown, started him, and we lost his track, and had the pleasant
consciousness that he might be directly under our feet. By throwing
stones and chips in different directions, we made him spring his rattle
again, and began another attack. This time we drove him into the clear
ground, and saw him gliding off, with head and tail erect, when a
stone, well aimed, knocked him over the bank, down a declivity of
fifteen or twenty feet, and stretched him at his length. Having made
sure of him, by a few more stones, we went down, and one of the Kanakas
cut off his rattle. These rattles vary in number it is said, according
to the age of the snake; though the Indians think they indicate the
number of creatures they have killed. We always preserved them as
trophies, and at the end of the summer had quite a number. None of our
people were ever bitten by them, but one of our dogs died of a bite,
and another was supposed to have been bitten, but recovered. We had no
remedy for the bite, though it was said that the Indians of the country
had, and the Kanakas professed to have an herb which would cure it, but
it was fortunately never brought to the test.
Hares and rabbits, as I said before, were abundant, and, during the
winter months, the waters are covered with wild ducks and geese. Crows,
too, were very numerous, and frequently alighted in great numbers upon
our hides, picking at the pieces of dried meat and fat. Bears and
wolves are numerous in the upper parts, and in the interior, (and,
indeed, a man was killed by a bear within a few miles of San Pedro,
while we were there,) but there were none in our immediate
neighborhood. The only other animals were horses. Over a dozen of
these were owned by different people on the beach, and were allowed to
run loose among the hills, with a long lasso attached to them, and pick
up feed wherever they could find it. We were sure of seeing them once a
day, for there was no water among the hills, and they were obliged to
come down to the well which had been dug upon the beach. These horses
were bought at, from two, to six and eight dollars apiece, and were
held very much as common property. We generally kept one fast to one
of the houses every day, so that we could mount him and catch any of
the others. Some of them were really fine animals, and gave us many
good runs up to the Presidio and over the country.