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" The same boat carried off Harris , my old watchmate , who had previously made an exchange with my friend S - - - . Nearly two hundred hours ( as we had calculated it ) had we walked the ship 's deck together , at anchor watch , when all hands were below , and talked over and over every subject which came within the ken of either of us . There was the latent gentleman about him , and the sense of honor , and no little of the pride , of a young man of good family . She came in under top-gallant sails , clawed up and furled her sails in good order , and came-to , within good swinging distance of us . From this , if a man comes within an ace of breaking his neck and escapes , it is made a joke of ; and no notice must be taken of a bruise or cut ; and any expression of pity , or any show of attention , would look sisterly , and unbecoming a man who has to face the rough and tumble of such a life . The pretty lawn on which it stands , as green as sun and rain could make it ; the pine wood on the south ; the small river on the north side ; the houses , with their white plastered sides and red-tiled roofs , dotted about on the green ; the low , white presidio , with its soiled , flying , and the discordant din of drums and trumpets for the noon parade ; all brought up the scene we had witnessed here with so much pleasure nearly a year before , when coming from a long voyage , and our unprepossessing reception at Santa Barbara . " said the crew , " the captain has let you off , because you are a gentleman 's son , and have got friends , and know the owners ; and taken Ben , because he is poor , and has got nobody to say a word for him ! With a great deal of trouble , we managed to get them down to the boats , though not without many angry looks and interferences from the Spaniards , who had marked them out for their prey . Mr. Brown 's plan had a good effect , for there was no more quarrelling among the boys for the rest of the voyage . 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 . 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 . Here we were , not yet within a thousand miles of the latitude of Cape Horn , and our decks swept by a sea not one half so high as we must expect to find there . A small island , situated about two leagues from the anchorage , called by us " Wood Island , " and by the Spaniards " Isle de Los Angelos , " was covered with trees to the water 's edge ; and to this , two of our crew , who were Kennebec men , and could handle an axe like a plaything , were sent every morning to cut wood , with two boys to pile it up for them . Having filled the ship up , in this way , to within four feet of her beams , the process of steeving commenced , by which an hundred hides are got into a place where one could not be forced by hand , and which presses the hides to the utmost , sometimes starting the beams of the ship , resembling in its effects the jack-screws which are used in stowing cotton . Nat then came up to the mark , but looked white about the mouth , and his blows were not given with half the spirit of his first . We were all day at this work , and towards sundown , having loaded the vessel as deep as she would bear , we hove up our anchor , and made sail , beating out the bay . No thanks , thought I , as we left the sandy shores in the distance , for the hours I have walked over your stones , barefooted , with hides on my head ; - for the burdens I have carried up your steep , muddy hill ; - for the duckings in your surf ; and for the long days and longer nights passed on your desolate hill , watching piles of hides , hearing the sharp bark of your eternal coati , and the dismal hooting of your owls .