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Not a drop of anything had been given them during the whole time , ( though the captain , as on the night that I was on deck , had his coffee every four hours , ) except that the mate stole a potful of coffee for two men to drink behind the galley , while he kept a look-out for the captain . I had been aloft nearly all the afternoon , at work , standing for as much as an hour on the fore top-gallant yard , which was hoisted up , and hung only by the tie ; when , having got through my work , I balled up my yarns , took my serving-board in my hand , laid hold deliberately of the top-gallant rigging , took one foot from the yard , and was just lifting the other , when the tie parted , and down the yard fell . " down the hatch-way , singing , " Oh , no , we never mention him . By the loss of the sailmaker , our watch was reduced to five , of whom two were boys , who never steered but in fine weather , so that the other two and myself had to stand at the wheel four hours apiece out of every twenty-four ; and the other watch had only four helmsmen . The wet and soiled clothes which had accumulated there during the past month , were brought up on deck ; the chests moved ; brooms , buckets of water , swabs , scrubbing-brushes , and scrapers carried down , and applied , until the forecastle floor was as white as chalk , and everything neat and in order . He added a few words about their duty in their present situation , and sent them forward , saying that he should take no further notice of the matter ; but , at the same time , told the carpenter to recollect whose power he was in , and that if he heard another word from him he would have cause to remember him to the day of his death . We could put but little confidence in our reckoning , as there had been no opportunities for an observation , and we had drifted too much to allow of our dead reckoning being anywhere near the mark . When the last luff was hooked on , all hands were called to the rope - cook , steward , and all - and ranging ourselves at the falls , one behind the other , sitting down on the hides , with our heads just even with the beams , we set taught upon the tackles , and striking up a song , and all lying back at the chorus , we bowsed the tackles home , and drove the large books chock in out of sight . I stepped back a little , when she went up behind the Don , and with one hand knocked off his huge sombrero , and at the same instant , with the other , broke the egg upon his head , and springing behind me , was out of sight in a moment . When this was arranged , and the ways greased upon which the book was to slide , the falls of the tackles were stretched forward , and all hands tallied on , and bowsed away until the book was well entered ; when these tackles were nippered , straps and toggles clapped upon the falls , and two more luff tackles hooked on , with dogs , in the same manner ; and thus , by luff upon luff , the power was multiplied , until into a pile in which one hide more could not be crowded by hand , an hundred or an hundred and fifty were often driven in by this complication of purchases . One morning , when we went ashore in the boat , we found him at the landing-place , dressed in California style , - a wide hat , faded velveteen trowsers , and a blanket cloak thrown over his shoulders - and wishing to go off in the boat , saying he was going to pasear with our captain a little . It was a place well suited to stand at the junction of the two oceans , beyond the reach of human cultivation , and encounter the blasts and snows of a perpetual winter . His breath , too , became very offensive ; he lost all strength and spirit ; could eat nothing ; grew worse every day ; and , in fact , unless something was done for him , would be a dead man in a week , at the rate at which he was sinking . The tide leaving us , we came to anchor near the mouth of the bay , under a high and beautifully sloping hill , upon which herds of hundreds and hundreds of red deer , and the stag , with his high branching antlers , were bounding about , looking at us for a moment , and then starting off , affrighted at the noises which we made for the purpose of seeing the variety of their beautiful attitudes and motions . They swore they would not go aboard , and went back to the town , were stripped and beaten , and lodged in the calabozo , until the next day , when the captain bought them out . His next chance was with the carpenter and sail-maker , and he lounged round the after hatchway until the last had gone down . " The last week , we had been occupied in taking in a supply of wood and water for the passage home , and bringing on board the spare spars , sails , etc. I was sent off with a party of Indians to fill the water-casks , at a spring , about three miles from the shipping , and near the town , and was absent three days , living at the town , and spending the daytime in filling the casks and transporting them on ox-carts to the landing-place , whence they were taken on board by the crew with boats . However , we were spared any further experience on the point ; for the next day , when we must have been near the Cape of Pillars , which is the south-west point of the mouth of the straits , a gale set in from the eastward , with a heavy fog , so that we could not see half of the ship 's length ahead . We continued at work in this manner until the lower hold was filled to within four feet of the beams , when all hands were called aboard to commence steeving . The mission of San Francisco near the anchorage , has no trade at all , but those of San Jose , Santa Clara , and others , situated on large creeks or rivers which run into the bay , and distant between fifteen and forty miles from the anchorage , do a greater business in hides than any in California . At twelve o'clock we went below , and had just got through dinner , when the cook put his head down the scuttle and told us to come on deck and see the finest sight that we had ever seen .