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Misfortune , extravagance , and the want of funds , or any manner of getting interest on money , soon eat the estate up , and Don Juan Bandini returned from Mexico accomplished , poor , and proud , and without any office or occupation , to lead the life of most young men of the better families - dissolute and extravagant when the means are at hand ; ambitious at heart , and impotent in act ; often pinched for bread ; keeping up an appearance of style , when their poverty is known to each half-naked Indian boy in the street , and they stand in dread of every small trader and shopkeeper in the place . There is a story current among seamen , that a beef-dealer was convicted , at Boston , of having sold old horse for ship 's stores , instead of beef , and had been sentenced to be confined in jail , until he should eat the whole of it ; and that he is now lying in Boston jail . All our spare spars were taken on board and lashed ; our water-casks secured ; and our live stock , consisting of four bullocks , a dozen sheep , a dozen or more pigs , and three or four dozen of poultry , were all stowed away in their different quarters : the bullocks in the long-boat , the sheep in a pen on the fore-hatch , and the pigs in a sty under the bows of the long-boat , and the poultry in their proper coop ; and the jolly-boat was full of hay for the sheep and bullocks . The bride 's father 's house was the principal one in the place , with a large court in front , upon which a tent was built , capable of containing several hundred people . As soon as I had got my wits about me , I put on a bold front , and told him plainly that I had a letter in my chest informing me that he had been written to , by the owners in Boston , to bring me home in the ship , and moreover , that he had told me that I was to go in the ship . Tell him to eat salt junk and hard bread , like the rest of them . 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 . " Never mind - we're homeward bound ! Once or twice , when our bullocks failed and we were obliged to make a meal upon dry bread and water , it seemed like feeding upon shavings . Having been long enough below to get my hands well warmed and softened , the first handling of the ropes was rather tough ; but a few days hardened them , and as soon as I got my mouth open wide enough to take in a piece of salt beef and hard bread , I was all right again . 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 .