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By the utmost exertions , we saved ourselves from being carried out to sea , and were glad to reach the leewardmost point of the island , where we came-to , and prepared to pass another night , more uncomfortable than the first , for we were loaded up to the gunwale , and had only a choice among logs and sticks for a resting-place . Then went all our hides and horns , and we left hardly anything in the ship but her ballast , and this we made preparation to heave out , the next day . As we were obliged to carry the hides on our heads from fear of their getting wet , we each had a piece of sheepskin sewed into the inside of our hats , with the wool next to our heads , and thus were able to bear the weight , day after day , which would otherwise have soon worn off our hair , and borne hard upon our skulls . It was , course , too cold to carry on any ship 's work , and we had only to walk the deck and keep ourselves warm . A regular look-out was then set , and kept by each watch in turn , until the morning . To carry the work on quicker , a division of labor was made . Four of our men , a few days afterwards , went up in one of the quarter-boats to Santa Clara , to carry the agent , and remained out all night in a drenching rain , in the small boat , where there was not room for them to turn round ; the agent having gone up to the mission and left the men to their fate , making no provision for their accommodation , and not even sending them anything to eat . The water-party were gone three days , during which time they narrowly escaped being carried out to sea , and passed one day on an island , where one of them shot a deer , great numbers of which overrun the islands and hills of San Francisco Bay . This was our last port . Being so deep and heavy , she wanted the buoyancy which should have carried her over the seas , and she dropped heavily into them , the water washing over the decks ; and every now and then , when an unusually large sea met her fairly upon the bows , she struck it with a sound as dead and heavy as that with which a sledge-hammer falls upon the pile , and took the whole of it in upon the forecastle , and rising , carried it aft in the scuppers , washing the rigging off the pins , and carrying along with it everything which was loose on deck . Some laughed at the " scholars , " and went over the other side of the forecastle , to work , and spin their yarns ; but I carried the day , and had the cream of the crew for my hearers . " This was the most lively part of our work . During the next watch it fell calm , with a drenching rain , until daybreak , when the wind came out to the westward , and the weather cleared up , and showed us the whole ocean , in the course which we should have steered , had it not been for the head wind and calm , completely blocked up with ice . They danced with grace and spirit , moving in circles round their nearly stationary partners , and showing their figures to great advantage . When the last hide was stowed away , and the hatches calked down , the tarpaulins battened on to them , the longboat hoisted in and secured , and the decks swept down for the night , - the chief mate sprang upon the top of the long-boat , called all hands into the waist , and giving us a signal by swinging his cap over his head , - we gave three long , loud cheers , which came from the bottom of our hearts , and made the hills and valleys ring again . It carries you back to the spot , better than anything else . This passenger - the first and only one we had had , except to go from port to port , on the coast , was no one else than a gentleman whom I had known in my better days ; and the last person I should have expected to have seen on the coast of California - Professor N - - - , of Cambridge . After we had been here some time , he started off one morning , in fine spirits , well dressed , to carry the clothes which he had been making to the pueblo , and saying he would bring back his money and some fresh orders the next day . In addition to this , she had been steeved so thoroughly , and was so bound by the compression of her cargo , forced into her by so powerful machinery , that she was like a man in a straight-jacket , and would be but a dull sailer , until she had worked herself loose . Accordingly , having picked out a good berth , in the stream , with a good smooth beach opposite , for a landing " Place and within two cables ' length of our hide-house , we moored ship , unbent all the sails , sent down the top-gallant yards and all the studding-sail booms , and housed the top-gallant masts . " The same boat carried off Harris , my old watchmate , who had previously made an exchange with my friend S - - - .