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We had long ago run through all our dry clothes , and as sailors have no other way of drying them than by the sun , we had nothing to do but to put on those which were the least wet . The constant wading in the water , in all weathers , to take off hides , together with the other labors , is too much for old men , and for any who have not good constitutions . At length a compromise was effected , and a middle course , of shifting the ends and backs at every lay , was adopted , which worked well , and which , though they held it inferior to their own , each party granted was better than that of the other . His is one of those cases which are more numerous than those suppose , who have never lived anywhere but in their own homes , and never walked but in one line from their cradles to their graves . The medicines were strong , and took hold and gave a check to the disorder which was destroying him ; and , more than that , they had begun the work of exterminating it . He told them what he had heard , and said that he did not believe that they would try to do any such thing as was intimated ; that they had always been good men , - obedient , and knew their duty , and he had no fault to find with them ; and asked them what they had to complain of - said that no one could say that he was slow to carry sail , ( which was true enough ;) and that , as soon as he thought it was safe and proper , he should make sail . The affair remained in this state until four o'clock , when an order came forward for all hands to come aft upon the quarter-deck . His father had been governor of the province , and having amassed a large property , settled at San Diego , where he built a large house with a court-yard in front , kept a great retinue of Indians , and set up for the grandee of that part of the country . Supper , too , must be eaten before the letters were read ; and when , at last , they were brought out , they all got round any one who had a letter , and expected to have it read aloud , and have it all in common . 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 . " This called me again , and two of us went aloft , up the fore rigging , and two more up the main , upon the top-gallant yards . " This was good-naturedly answered from the California , and she braced sharp up , and stood close upon the wind up the coast ; while we squared away our yards , and stood before the wind to the south-southwest . The atmosphere , which had previously been clear and cold , for the last few hours grew damp , and had a disagreeable , wet chilliness in it ; and the man who came from the wheel said he heard the captain tell " the passenger " that the thermometer had fallen several degrees since morning , which he could not account for in any other way than by supposing that there must be ice near us ; though such a thing had never been heard of in this latitude , at this season of the year . As soon as supper was over and the kids cleared away , and each one had taken his smoke , we seated ourselves on our chests round the lamp , which swung from a beam , and each one went to work in his own way , some making hats , others trowsers , others jackets , etc ., etc .; and no one was idle . The Saturday night before our sailing , I spent an hour in the oven , and took leave of my Kanaka friends ; and , really , this was the only thing connected with leaving California which was in any way unpleasant . At night , after we had knocked off , and were sitting round in the forecastle , smoking and talking and taking sailor 's pleasure , we congratulated ourselves upon being in that situation in which we had wished ourselves every time we had come into San Diego . All this was for our comfort ; yet pass it we must ; and all hands agreed to make the best of it . Those who had no south-wester caps , made them , and several of the crew made themselves tarpaulin jackets and trowsers , lined on the inside with flannel . I knew , too , that the two captains had agreed together to get some one , and that unless I could prevail upon somebody to go voluntarily , there would be no help for Ben . At dark , the captain called all hands aft , and told them that not a man was to leave the deck that night ; that the ship was in the greatest danger ; any cake of ice might knock a hole in her , or she might run on an island and go to pieces . Between daylight and dark - that is , between nine o'clock and three - we saw thirty-four ice islands , of various sizes ; some no bigger than the hull of our vessel , and others apparently nearly as large as the one that we first saw ; though , as we went on , the islands became smaller and more numerous ; and , at sundown of this day , a man at the mast-head saw large fields of floating ice called " field-ice " at the south-east . A list of all those familiar names , ( beginning as usual with Abbot , and ending with W ., ) which , as I read them over , one by one , brought up their faces and characters as I had known them in the various scenes of college life . Finding the rain running down upon us , and our jackets getting wet through , and the rough , knotty-logs , rather indifferent couches , we turned out ; and taking an iron pan which we brought with us , we wiped it out dry , put some stones around it , cut the wet bark from some sticks , and striking a light , made a small fire in the pan . This is one of those petty frauds which every vessel practises in ports of inferior foreign nations , and which are lost sight of , among the countless deeds of greater weight which are hardly less common . In this state , the steward applied to the captain for some rice to boil for me , but he only got only got a - " No !