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At morning and night we had a quart of tea to each man ; and an allowance of about a pound of hard bread a day ; but our chief article of food was the beef . This day was Christmas ; and as it rained all day long , and there were no hides to take in , and nothing especial to do , the captain gave us a holiday , ( the first we had had since leaving Boston , ) and plum duff for dinner . The boy signed the articles , received his advance , laid out a little of it in clothes , and spent the rest , and was ready to go on board , when , upon the morning of sailing , he heard that the ship was bound upon the North-west Coast , on a two or three years ' voyage , and was not going to Europe . We found ourselves as great objects of attention as any persons or anything at the place . In this state of the weather and before sunrise , in the grey of the morning , we had to wade off , nearly up to our hips in water , to load the skiff with the wood by armsfull . " I comforted him as well as I could , and promised to ask the captain to help him from the medicine-chest , and told him I had no doubt the captain would do what he could for him , as he had worked in our employ for several years , both on shore and aboard our vessels on the coast . I knew that it would be hopeless to attempt to prevail upon any of the ship 's crew to take twelve months more upon the California in the brig . It blew hard the whole time , and there was an almost constant driving of either rain , hall , or snow . At sunset they were both out of sight , and we were once more upon the ocean where sky and water meet . I felt all this , and saw the necessity of being determined . Our watch had an afternoon watch below , for the first time since leaving San Diego , and having inquired of the third mate what the latitude was at noon , and made our usual guesses as to the time she would need , to be up with the Horn , we turned in , for a nap . A pretty young girl was dancing , named , after what would appear to us the sacrilegious custom of the country - Espiritu Santo , when a young man went behind her and placed his hat directly upon her head , letting it fall down over her eyes , and sprang back among the crowd . 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 . The situation was offered him only a few hours before we sailed ; and though he must give up returning to America , yet I have no doubt that the change from a dog 's berth to an officer 's , was too agreeable to his feelings to be declined . It was , course , too cold to carry on any ship 's work , and we had only to walk the deck and keep ourselves warm . " For eight days we lay drifting about in this manner . Toward noon we procured horses , and rode out to the Carmel mission , which is about a league from the town , where from the town , where we got something in the way of a dinner - beef , eggs , frijoles , tortillas , and some middling wine - from the mayordomo , who , of course , refused to make any charge , as it was the Lord 's gift , yet received our present , as a gratuity , with a low bow , a touch of the hat , and " Dios se lo pague ! He was just turning the corner of a street , when the shippingmaster , who had been in search of him , popped upon him , seized him , and carried him on board . " - The fall was stretched along the decks ; all hands laid hold ; - " Hurrah , for the last time , " said the mate ; and the anchor came to the cat-head to the tune of " Time for us to go , " with a loud chorus . From this we escaped , having had a pretty good siege with the wooding . This weakened us so that we could not well manage more than one topsail at a time , in such weather as this , and , of course , our labor was doubled . " Having collected nearly all the hides that were to be procured , we began our preparations for taking in a supply of wood and water , for both of which , San Francisco is the best place on the coast . 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 .