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Had I known , an hour sooner , that he was to leave us , I would have made an effort to get from him the true history of his early life . The heavy chain cables to be hauled and pulled about the decks with bare hands ; wet hawsers , slip-ropes , and buoyropes to be hauled aboard , dripping in water , which is running up your sleeves , and freezing ; clearing hawse under the bows ; getting under weigh and coming-to , at all hours of the night and day , and a constant look-out for rocks and sands and turns of tides ; - these are some of the disagreeables of such a navigation to a common sailor . The last night they kept it up in great style , and were getting into a high-go , when the captain called us off to go aboard , for , it being south-easter season , he was afraid to remain on shore long ; and it was well he did not , for that very night , we slipped our cables , as a crowner to our fun ashore , and stood off before a south-easter , which lasted twelve hours , and returned to our anchorage the next day . Not knowing where that was , he told him that he wanted to go to Europe , and asked if California was in Europe . Then I imagined them upon the stage , speaking their orations , dissertations , colloquies , etc ., with the gestures and tones of each , and tried to fancy the manner in which each would handle his subject , * * * * * , handsome , showy , and superficial ; * * * * , with his strong head , clear brain , cool self-possession ; * * * modest , sensitive , and underrated ; * * * * * , the mouth-piece of the debating clubs , noisy , vaporous , and democratic ; and so following . One afternoon , before we were turned-to , these boys got into a violent squabble in the between-decks , when George ( the Boston boy ) said he would fight Nat , if he could have fair play . These brought us up again ; but the wind continuing light , the California set hers , and it was soon evident that she was walking away from us . The otter are very numerous among these islands , and being of great value , the government require a heavy sum for a license to hunt them , and lay a high duty upon every one shot or carried out of the country . He held on to the kid till the last , like a good fellow , but the beef was gone , and when the water had run off , we saw it lying high and dry , like a rock at low tide - nothing could hurt that . A constant look-out was necessary ; for any of these pieces , coming with the heave of the sea , were large enough to have knocked a hole in the ship , and that would have been the end of us ; for no boat ( even if we could have got one out ) could have lived in such a sea ; and no man could have lived in a boat in such weather . and two days more ( to our no small joy ) gave us our last view of that place , which was universally called the hell of California , and seemed designed , in every way , for the wear and tear of sailors . An English brig , which had put into San Francisco , lost both her anchors ; the Rosa was driven upon a mud bank in San Diego ; and the Pilgrim , with great difficulty , rode out the gale in Monterey , with three anchors ahead . It had now set in for a steady gale from the south-west ; but we were not yet far enough to the southward to make a fair wind of it , for we must give Terra del Fuego a wide berth . The last resort , that of speculating upon the future , seemed now to fail us , for our discouraging situation , and the danger we were really in , ( as we expected every day to find ourselves drifted back among the ice ) " clapped a stopper " upon all that . Each morning we went ashore , and beat and brought off as many hides as we could steeve in the course of the day , and , after breakfast , went down into the hold , where we remained at work until night . We unbent the mainsail , and formed an awning with it over the after part of the boat , made a bed of wet logs of wood , and , with our jackets on , lay down , about six o'clock , to sleep . Twenty-three guns followed in regular succession , with an interval of fifteen seconds between each when the cloud cleared away , and the ship lay dressed in her colors , all day . Our sailor dresses - and we took great pains to have them neat and shipshape - were much admired , and we were invited , from every quarter , to give them an American sailor 's dance ; but after the ridiculous figure some of our countrymen cut , in dancing after the Spaniards , we thought it best to leave it to their imaginations .