What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A
fish;--he smells like a fish; a very ancient and fishlike
smell; a kind of, not of the newest, Poor John. A strange
fish!
One glowing summer's day, in the pleasant month of June, two
travellers might have been seen slowly winding along the narrow path
that led from Ford's Bar, on the Middle Fork of the American River,
to Big Bar, eight miles above. It needed but a glance at the arms and
equipment of the first, to see that he was a knight of distinguished
rank, who was now, doubtless, wandering over the world in search
of adventures. The light cap that he wore on the back of his head,
showed crisp-curling black hair, sparkling eyes, united with a
rather thoughtful and grave expression, as of one equally skilled in
counsel and in fight. His helmet, which he carried slung over his
left shoulder, was of very unusual dimensions, and apparently made of
burnished copper, that fairly dazzled the eyes of the beholder as it
glinted back the rays of the morning sun.
If any one, however, had taken the trouble to peep into this
resplendent headpiece, he would have seen enough to satisfy him that
this exalted personage was now bent on some peaceful mission, and had
not the most remote fears of any encounter. Potatoes and onions, with
a great piece of ancient Dutch cheese, a goodly lump of salt pork,
and a great variety of smaller articles, all of the like harmless and
soft-hearted temper, reposed quietly in its warm belly, as the lion,
in early days, dandled the kid. The squire, who, according to the
custom of the time, walked a few paces in the rear, carried, with no
little difficulty, the remainder of his master's armour. It consisted
of a puzzling pair of large brass tubes, somewhat in shape resembling
an opera-glass; but the experienced observer had no difficulty in
determining at once their dangerous and destructive nature. They were
the invention of a very profound philosopher, who proposed to destroy
his enemies without the effusion of blood, by cunningly sucking the
breath out of their body. The squire carried this cumbrous implement
of destruction astride on his shoulders, and in his right hand grasped
a weapon more suited to his degree, and of the same description as was
erewhile employed by that distinguished jester, the Saxon Wamba, in
his renowned combat with Isaac the Jew.
A stout pair of blankets, strapped firmly to his back, completed the
squire's equipment, and showed that he was ready at any time, if need
were, to bivouac in the open air.
The sun had sunk behind the western hills--the broad shadow had slid
across the river and crept noiselessly up the steep face of the
mountain on their right; but still our travellers toiled on, now
dipping their dusty, burning feet in the cooling flood, now balancing
cautiously along the narrow path, where a single false step would
have been destruction, and where one resolute man could have held the
pass against a thousand foes. The stars were already appearing in the
darkened sky, when they at last halted beneath a sombre pine that had
thrust its roots deep in among the rocks.
The place seemed well chosen to guard against attack; on one side
was the river shutting off all approach in that direction; behind
them was a rugged mountain which no one in his senses would think of
descending; and on either hand the narrow path rendered all access
almost equally difficult. The knight disencumbered himself of his
helmet, and laid it, with due regard to its precious contents,
carefully in a hollow beside him; the squire did the same with his
breath-compelling weapon, and after a frugal supper of bread and
cheese they stretched themselves on the smoothest part of the rock,
and were soon fast asleep.
All this might have been seen, dear reader, and that too without any
greater stress of imagination than is usually demanded on similar
occasions; though strict veracity, that veracity that forms so
pleasing and fundamental a part of the character of bully Bottom, may
require a little explanation.
In good sooth then, our knight was no knight at all, but simple
Ethan Allen, not of revolutionary memory, but one of his numerous
descendants, degenerated from that rantipole, thundering, Ticonderoga
hero into a soft-tongued, smooth-faced varlet, who hated the British
by hereditary right, and still swore by the Continental Congress. I
had the honour of being his humble companion, and the deadly mischief
on my aching shoulders was neither more nor less than the ponderous
air-pumps that were to furnish a substitute for gills in our proposed
aquatic incursions.
Having given this brief word of caution, we will continue our
narrative in the more sober style befitting a grave and discreet
chronicler. We had expected to find the rest of our companions
awaiting us at the appointed place of meeting; but they did not make
their appearance till the next morning, when we at once set about
making the necessary preparations for putting the machine in operation.
From one to two hundred pounds of shot were required to overcome the
buoyancy of the armour; and as this could not be obtained nearer than
Coloma, Allen started alone on this errand, leaving to the rest of
us the work of constructing a raft. Incredible as it may seem, the
preliminary operations necessary to this simple undertaking occupied
us a whole week; the only trees fit for the purpose grew high up on
the mountain, and when we had at last succeeded in felling them, the
still more arduous task remained of getting them safely down to the
river's brink. The easiest and most natural method was to set them
in motion by crowbars and long levers, when their own momentum would
without any further trouble on our part carry them crashing down the
steep; but besides the danger of losing them altogether by their
plunging into the river, their ungovernable rage and impetuosity
would, in case of their striking any sufficient obstacle, dash them
into a hundred pieces. We were accordingly compelled to proceed with
the utmost caution, and let them down gradually by a rope passed once
or twice round a tree, in the same way that whalemen check the fierce
flight of _their_ victim in his frenzied efforts to escape.
This being at length accomplished, we proceeded to throw them into
the river, when one after another, as fast as they reached the water,
sunk like a stone beneath the surface, and settling cosily side by
side at the bottom, left us staring at each other with a ludicrous
mixture of amazement and indignation. Greater amaze could hardly have
seized the followers of the pious Eneas when their ships threatened
with hostile flames plunged goddesses of the sea beneath the waves.
There was no time to be lost, however, in useless lamentation; and
finding by this decisive experiment that live timber knew too much to
swim, we immediately commenced a search for some drier and more stupid
material. Some distance above our claim we found lodged among the
jagged rocks where it had been left by some previous freshet, a mighty
pine bleached as dry and white as the thigh bone of some antediluvian
monster. Its spongy elastic fibre long set at defiance our united
efforts, but having at last cut it into logs of a convenient length,
we rolled them into the water, and guided them down the river by long
ropes, the rapidity of the current rendering the task as difficult as
the steepness of the hill had done before, and often threatening to
wrest the log entirely from our control.
It was usual for the miners to rest several hours during the heat of
the day; but though our work was far more laborious, our impatience to
finish this undertaking hardly permitted us to relax our efforts for
a moment. Several days while we were thus occupied, the mercury stood
at 105° in the shade and the reader can but faintly imagine what we
endured standing on burning rocks, exposed to the fierce reflection
from the water, and at the same time obliged to exert our energies
to the utmost in overcoming the stupid obstinacy of large sticks of
timber, of all labour the most humiliating and discouraging.
From six till seven we toiled without intermission, stopping only
an hour at noon for dinner, and sleeping in the open air, on the
softest rocks, with no other canopy than the branches of a spreading
oak, through whose scanty foliage I could see the stars winking and
blinking in my face.
We found little time for conversation during the day, and it might be
supposed that we should have had little inclination for it at night;
but weary as I was, I could not resist the garrulity of one of my
companions, whose amusing narrative, continued night after night,
might well sustain a comparison with the more classic stories of
Scheherezade.
Passing over the earlier parts of his history in which, as with other
distinguished characters, his birth, whooping cough, and measles
occupied the principal portion, we come to the time when the young
Weaver, for such he was entitled, first displayed his ardent love of
heroic adventure by running away from home, and embarking in a long
and hazardous voyage in pursuit of mackerel.
This was the turning point in his life; and from this apparently
unimportant step the skilful historian will easy trace all his
subsequent career--all those striking ideosyncracies that, whether
they betrayed the greatness or the weakness of his character, equally
distinguished him from the mass of ordinary men around him.
The fishy odour of that first voyage still lingered about his person,
as grateful to his senses as to others the bank of violets where they
had played in childhood. He loved to talk of barrels and of quintals,
of schools of mackerel and of cod; till in his flowing figures the
little fishing smack assumed the state and importance of some mighty
whaler, and his puny prey was invested with all the terrors of
Leviathan.
No such mackerel were ever seen in these degenerate days, and no such
storms as he then encountered. When, in process of years, the greater
love of ease, and lessening spirit of adventure induced him, yet
unwillingly, to give up what had hitherto been his favourite pastime,
he manifested his icthyological propensities and the strength of
early associations, by declining his affections upon an oyster. In
the society of those amiable and suggestive testacea he passed many
grateful hours, sailing the while in fancy o'er his much-loved Banks
of Newfoundland, or watching the dying flounderings of some gigantic
cod that had erewhile yielded to his victorious hook.
His observations on life and manners in the metropolis of New England,
had about them the same smack of fishy sagacity, plainly declaring
from what source his philosophy had been derived.
"Boston," said he, with a melancholy shake of the head at the tender
recollection of some earlier passages in his varied experience,
"Boston, I will allow, is a mighty dangerous place for a man to be out
o' nights: yet, somehow'r other, I never felt very ticklish about it,
though they know't I was in the habit of carrying about considerable
sums o' money. Many and many's the time 'at I've been through some o'
the very worst places in the city, with as much as a gallon or two of
iseters, and sometimes the money for 'em, too; but nobody ever offered
to touch me--I s'pose acause they'd a kind o' stinking notion 'at I'd
be likely to prove an ugly customer.
"The gentleman as I was a working with used ollus to send me to carry
the iseters; ''cause,' says he, 'Weaver's a man as can be depended
on, and what he says he'll do, he'll do.' I remember one day, when
we was all-fired busy--seems to me folks in Boston never ate so many
iseters before--a gentleman was going to have a large party, and he
sent for me to come and help. Boss, 'cause we was so busy, you know,
was agoing to send somebody else; but the gentleman, he says, says
he, 'I don't want nobody but Weaver.' So I went, and I was out in the
kitchen a opening iseters for dear life, when the gentleman he came
out, and asked me, why I didn't go in and see the folks. So, bimeby,
I went in--I had on my best close, and looked about as smart as any
on 'em--and his wife and daughters--he had four, and they was none o'
yer milk-an'-water things either--they said, 'how d'ye do, Mr. Weaver?
We are very glad to see you.' So I told 'em I was very glad to see
them; and then I sat down and talked awhile, and bimeby somebody said
sumthin' about iseters--so I began, and told 'em all I knew about it,
and all about my going a-mackereling, and they was so interested, you
never see.
"And then, sich a supper as they had! It was just the beatimost thing
I ever did see; for they was real tip-top folks, and no mistake--and,
as for the iseters, you may be sure, I looked out for them myself.
"So, after the party was over, and the folks was going home, the
gentleman steps up to me, before 'em all, as perlite as could be, and
says, says he, 'we're very much obliged to you, Mr Weaver; I really
don't know how we should ha' got along without you:' and then he
offered to pay me for the iseters; but I wan't agoing to do no sich
thing. 'Not a cent,' says I, 'not a cent;' for I thought 'twould be
real shabby to go to his party, and then make him pay for the iseters.
So he put the money back into his pocket, and everybody laughed and
looked so tickled, 'at I knowed I'd done just about the right thing.
And then he said, he hoped he should have the pleasure--I misremember
the exact words, but that's near enough--of seeing me again at his
house, some time'r other, and so I mean he shall; for, as soon as
ever I git ten thousand dollars, I'm going straight back to Boston,
and I mean to call on him the very first thing.
"And, then, I'm going to the old shop where I used to work; and,
first, I shall call for a dozen raw--and then I shall call for a dozen
fried--and then for an out-and-out stew; and then! I'll walk up to the
counter, and pay 'm in gold dust! won't that make 'em stare?"
When the cunning Weaver had woven so much of his fantastic web, he
invariably turned over and went to sleep--very wisely, as I thought;
for, surely, no wit of man could blow a more airy and buoyant bubble
than that on which, balloon-like, he now set sail for the land of
dreams.
The morning brought with it less seductive realities. For breakfast
we had, at first, coffee without sugar--the sugar and pepper having
become too intimately blended during their rough journey to answer
their legitimate purpose--ship biscuit, with a bit of pork or bacon,
and, now and then, a dish of stewed beans. After living this way a
week, we obtained a keg of butter and a small quantity of flour; and,
one evening, "Now," says Weaver, "I'm going to have some nice biscuit
for supper, so hold on, boys, I'll have 'em ready in a twinkling."
Weaver was a short, thick-set fellow, and wore a pair of oilcloth
pantaloons, strikingly suggestive of his former avocations. Owing to
their natural gummy and adhesive nature, their original colour had
been overlaid and aggravated, something like a painter's palette,
by numerous successive layers of every variety of hue, among which,
however, dirt-colour was decidedly predominant. This process of
accretion had been carried on with most perseverance and success
on that part of his nether garments that would naturally stand in
greatest need of such patching, and which, from constant manipulation,
now exhibited a truly Parthian polish, almost dazzling to behold.
Having emptied a due proportion of flour and water into one of the
large, shallow tin-pans used in mining, Weaver gave his hands, fresh
from their day's work, a desperate slide over the part aforesaid,
and, without more ado, plunged them half up to the elbows into the
paste. A liberal supply of saleratus was added, and, in half an hour,
he placed upon the smooth stone that served us for a table, two small
loaves of a greenish-yellow complexion and about the consistency of a
middling-boiled egg.
"There!" said he, triumphantly, as he drew a long knife from his boot,
and, breathing upon it, gave it a preparatory wipe over his breeches,
"that's what I call despatch. Now for some butter!"
The butter was brought in a plate, already bearing the indisputable
marks of pork and beans; though a bowl would have been the more
fitting receptacle, the heat of the sun having converted the contents
of the keg into a state of perfect fluidity.
"Never mind," said Weaver, "I'll fix it to-morrow;" and with the word,
five knives clashed together on the bottom of the plate, and returned
as if they had been dipt in oil.
Weaver was as good as his word; he had said that he would fix the
butter, and he did. Sometime the next day, the butter, which had
partially cooled during the night, having again melted, he set the keg
in the edge of the water; and, not long after, we witnessed the novel
and pleasing spectacle of what seemed a river of oil or honey. The
water had risen, as it did regularly once in twenty-four hours, and
the whole of our butter issuing out of the keg, had floated tranquilly
down the stream.
The next morning, when Weaver was preparing to renew his culinary
operations, I, by some manoeuvre, called his attention to a man just
performing his matin ablutions on the opposite side of the river, and
cautiously suggested that it might be as well to follow his example.
He received the hint, as if the idea had just dawned upon him for
the first time; and, having bathed his hands and face, declared that,
really, he didn't know before how much better a man felt after being
washed; and he thought it would be a good plan to do it every morning,
or at least as often as every Sunday.
I am sorry that I am unable to state whether this knight of the knife
and the shell ever attained the summit of his modest ambition; but
I am rather impressed with the belief that he never succeeded in
throwing off his old habits, and may still be found at his former
quarters in Devonshire street, busily and not ignobly employed in
studying his favourite science of conchology.
On fastening our logs together by wooden bolts and ropes of bark, we
found the raft thus constructed altogether inadequate to sustain the
necessary weight consisting of four men, the armour weighing about one
hundred pounds, and nearly double that quantity of shot; but by means
of ropes attached to the outer corners, and made fast to the rocks, we
made it sufficiently buoyant to answer for the first experiment; and
our eager impatience would not admit of any longer delay.
As none of our company felt willing to play the part of diver, we
hired for that purpose a man who had already been down in one of "the
masheens" at home, and now gladly embraced the opportunity of making
somewhat higher wages than he had been in the habit of receiving.
It was not a little curious and amusing to watch the operations of
his toilet while preparing for the descent,--seldom is the proudest
belle while being drest for a ball waited upon by more zealous and
obsequious attendants; he seemed indeed like some turtle fed alderman
now disabled by gout or other infirmity, and dependent upon the
services of others.
Our nabob divested of all but shirt and pantaloons, seated himself
on a stone, while two of his ready servitors pulled on his boots
and breeches all in one--a suit of genteel black very wide at the
hips and having a copper ring round the waist. We next arrayed his
highmightiness in a close jacket of the same fashion, with a second
ring at the bottom, and at the top a monstrous copper basin somewhat
larger than a water bucket, "within which his head seemed to have
shrunk away like a dried filbert in its shell." He looked out through
two glass eyes having that lidless stare peculiar to the sculpen, and
there was a still larger window opposite his mouth, opening by a screw
in order to give him air while dressing.
The jacket and trowsers were screwed firmly together by means of the
two copper rings--the bags of shot and sand tied over his shoulders
and round his waist--the viser closed, and the air-pumps at the same
moment put in motion. A long hose of india rubber connected the pumps
with the top of his helmet, and as the unwieldly figure rose to its
feet, and waddled forward to the edge of the raft, while the inrushing
air puffed out his flabby skin to its full extent, he looked like an
infant elephant on its hind legs, or some of the monstrous idols of
heathendom, among which, however, he would certainly have carried
off the palm for ugliness. He was not like most other amphibious
animals, awkward and clumsy on land, but all alert in the water; his
awkwardness never deserted him, and the ridiculous splash, it could
hardly be called a plunge, with which he settled into what seemed
a more congenial element, reminded me of nothing so much as Ma'am
Bridges sitting unexpectedly down in her own wash-tub.
After he had been gone some ten minutes, and no signal twitch had been
given at the cord provided for that purpose, we began to look at each
other with a mysterious sort of dread, and debate the expediency of
pulling him up. My own position at the pumps prevented me from taking
any more active part, but I did my best to induce my companions to
haul him in without any further delay, and they at length yielded to
my expostulations. But, to our infinite consternation, we now found
all our strength unable to move him from the bottom; and crying out,
all at once, to a party of miners on the opposite bank, two of them
came in a canoe to our assistance, and by pulling directly over the
spot where the diver lay, succeeded in bringing him to the surface.
We drew him hastily to the shore, and opening the visor saw, within
the depths of the helmet, a countenance paler than that of Ivanhoe
when he fainted in the very presence of the Queen of Love and Beauty,
at the gentle and famous passage of arms at Ashby de la Zouche.
Long after his armour had been removed, he still lay apparently
lifeless,--and it was an hour before he could give us any account of
his misfortune. He then told us that walking along the bottom he had
suddenly stepped into a hole behind a rock, and was having the best
time he ever had in his life, when all at once he fell asleep.
He was not in the least disturbed by the imminent danger he had
escaped so narrowly, and declared his readiness to make a second
trial, if a place could be found free from rocks, and where the water
was sufficiently clear for us to see him from the surface.
As no such place was to be found in that vicinity, all our previous
labour went for nothing; we abandoned our raft, and moved several
miles further up the river to a spot not far below Big Bar, and said
in the high flown language of the miners to contain a cart load of
gold.
The sand bags proving quite unfit for the purpose, Allen again set
off in search of an additional supply of shot; and the rest of us set
to work with redoubled energy, to construct a second and larger raft,
with such improvements as our hard-won experience suggested.
In the meantime I went down the river to Ford's Bar to purchase a
stock of provisions, and a number of articles required in our delicate
operations. Having bought a hundred weight of flour--a small quantity
of pork, sugar and coffee--and a large coil of rope at Dutch Tom's, I
hired him and a mule to carry them to our camp.
As it was utterly impossible for a mule to make his way on the shore,
we determined to ascend the mountain and keep along the summit as
far as was convenient, and then get down the best way we could. The
hill in question resembled nothing so much as a monstrous hyena, up
whose tail we now slowly climbed, till we reached its spinous bristly
back bone, where the travelling was comparatively smooth. Having at
length arrived as near as I could judge, at the proper point, we
began to descend; but had gone only a few rods when the mule came to
a full halt, and Dutch Tom declared that it was altogether out of the
question for man or beast to go any further; he had been over all the
worst places within fifty miles, but this was a little too much even
for him.
I coaxed, I threatened, I expostulated in vain. I offered to
give him ten dollars more than the price we had promised, if he
remained faithful to his agreement, and assured him, on the other
hand, he would never receive a dollar if he deserted me in such a
situation--but he swore that if the flour were turned into gold it
would be no temptation, and urged me not to make the venture. I told
him, however, that I could be as obstinate as any Dutchman of them
all; and finding me as good as my word, he unloaded his mule and set
out on his return with that unpleasant coolness and deliberation for
which his countrymen are so remarkable, and which I found it mere
affectation to attempt to equal.
In fact I was not cool at all, and could have thrashed the perfidious
Nederlander with hearty good will, but as he was now beyond my
reach, I vented my rage with far greater ease and safety against the
inoffensive sack of flour, pleasing myself all the while with the
thought that I was demolishing a broad-skirted Dutchman at every kick.
When I was tired of this exercise, I sat down again to rest and think
what I had best do next.
It was now nearly sundown--the valley below lay in deep shadow which
was slowly creeping with a broken irregular front, and with the
stealthy tread of an Indian army up the mountain. Tired and exhausted
as I was by our long march under a burning sun I had yet no time to
rest; and no sooner had the sound of hoofs died away in the distance
than I sprang to my feet and commenced my descent.
Having first marked the place as carefully as I could, I made a
bundle of some of the more indispensable articles, weighing in all
some eighty pounds, and lashed it firmly to my back in order to leave
my hands at perfect liberty. The face of the mountain consisted,
like that at Ford's Bar, of broken slate that continually, as it was
started by the feet, slid away in little streams awaking a strange
curiosity to see how far they would go. A scattered growth of shrubs
and vines covered the ground, but the first were too brittle to be
of much service, and the thorns that guarded the latter only tore my
clothes and scratched my hands and face without in the least retarding
my downward course. Crouching down on my feet I sometimes slid
straightforward a distance of several rods--at others, I was obliged
to advance more slowly in a diagonal direction, when I could not help
wishing that my legs, like those of the animal called the brocke, were
of unequal length, that they might correspond better to the sloping
surface.
After proceeding thus painfully about an hour I came almost before I
was aware upon a perpendicular precipice from one to two hundred feet
in height, which seemed effectually to bar all further progress in
that direction. I could now hear however the roar of the river with
great distinctness, and the sound inspiring me with fresh energy,
I resolved to make the attempt. I accordingly took my pack from my
shoulders, and having thrown it into what seemed a clump of bushes
at the foot of the precipice, prepared myself to follow, though with
somewhat greater deliberation.
In my cooler moments I should have shrunk at once from so perilous
an undertaking; but I was now possessed with a sort of stupid,
unreasoning courage that prevented me from seeing the full extent of
the danger, and probably actually diminished it in the same proportion.
The first part of the way was by no means difficult; I discovered
on closer inspection a narrow shelf descending steeply along the
face of the precipice, affording barely room for my feet, so that in
order to preserve my balance I was obliged to advance in a sidling
direction with my face to the rock, and my fingers constantly thrust
into the narrow seams that mapped its surface. The shelf terminated
abruptly about fifty feet from the summit, and for a moment I saw no
way of continuing my descent. Creeping slowly back the path I had
just travelled, I came in a few steps to a sort of fissure in the
rock about two feet in width and penetrating deeper than my eye could
follow. By bracing my feet against the opposite sides of this hollow,
I thought I would descend in the same manner in which a sweep works
his way up and down a chimney.
It was a peculiarity of the state of mind I was then in that the
moment any plan presented itself I hastened to put it in execution.
In a few minutes I found myself far below the point at which I had
started, the numerous hollows and projections in the sides of my
chimney affording an excellent foothold; but now a new difficulty
presented itself. The chasm had insensibly widened, till now, with my
feet planted firmly against one side, and my hands braced against the
other, I found it no easy matter to maintain my position. To ascend
seemed an effort wholly beyond my strength, yet another step downward
might plunge me headlong on to the rocks below. The little light that
found its way into the mouth of the chasm did not enable me to see the
bottom, but I naturally concluded that the depth was considerable.
Cautiously sliding my hands a little lower, and then stretching out
one foot as far as possible, I found to my utter consternation, that
the wall retired so rapidly at this point that it was entirely beyond
my reach. My limbs which had been before as rigid as iron, now seemed
weaker than a child's, but it was only for a moment. The next my hope
revived, and I resolved, desperate as it seemed, to make an attempt
to return. But just then a stone detached by my foot fell into the
chasm. I listened to hear it strike with the same sort of curiosity
as if I had been in perfect safety; but to my great surprise no sound
followed. Could it be that the hollow was so deep, or had it,--and I
trembled at the thought,--fallen so short a distance as to make no
noise? It would be easy to determine the fact by another trial, but
on making the effort I could not find a single stone that was loose.
I succeeded however, by a violent effort, in getting my hand into my
pocket; and taking out my knife dropped it carefully in the middle
of the chasm and the same moment heard it strike just at my feet. A
single step placed me on the level ground at the bottom, which had
been all the while scarcely an inch beyond my reach. I groped about
till I had found my knife; and following the slender ray of light that
streamed from a short distance, soon felt the cool breath of the river
on my burning brow.
Our camp, it fortunately happened, was not far off, where my sudden
arrival astonished my companions almost as much as if I had fallen
from the moon. I was too much exhausted, however, to satisfy their
curiosity, and lost no time in stretching myself out on my bed of
rocks with a far keener sense of rest and enjoyment than the bridal
chamber of the St. Nicholas could ever bestow.
I dreamed all night of rolling down hill in a barrel stuck full of
nails; and in the morning, when I came to feel my bruises and look at
my torn and bleeding hands, I almost believed my dream to be real;
hardly a spot in my body but was as black and blue as if I had been
hunted by a legion of fairies through every forest in Christendom.
In less than a week our raft was completed; it was much larger than
the other, with an opening at one end, over which we erected a stout
triangle or tripod to assist in raising and lowering the diver. For
more than a month we continued to struggle against a series of delays
and vexatious such as must necessarily attend an undertaking of so
great magnitude in a new country; but after all, the thing itself was
the chief obstacle,--all others were finally surmounted, but we were
apparently as far as ever from attaining our object. The diver was
almost entirely helpless in his moving prison; he was unable to remain
under water more than a few hours a day, and came out dripping with
perspiration and trembling as if he had the ague.
More than once he was overtaken by the same fit or faintness that had
so alarmed us before, and we were thus kept in a state of constant
apprehension. He found it nearly impossible to use a pick or shovel
under water, but contrived by means of a small scoop to fill an iron
pot we lowered down to him; and though it contained little gold, this
trifling achievement raised considerably the spirits of the more
sanguine of our party.
I had for some time, however, ceased to feel any lively faith in our
success, and, on consulting with my brothers, we all agreed that there
was little hope of doing anything that season, and determined to sell
our share without further delay. An opportunity soon offering, I
disposed of our quarter of the armour for four hundred and ninety-five
dollars, to be paid two days after at Coloma; and thus ended six weeks
of the severest labour I ever encountered.