Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
Nat gave in; not so much beaten, as cowed and mortified; and never
afterwards tried to act the bully on board. We took George forward,
washed him in the deck-tub, complimented his pluck, and from this time
he became somebody on board, having fought himself into notice. Mr.
Brown's plan had a good effect, for there was no more quarrelling among
the boys for the rest of the voyage.
Wednesday, January 6th. Set sail from Monterey, with a number of
Spaniards as passengers, and shaped our course for Santa Barbara. The
Diana went out of the bay in company with us, but parted from us off
Point Pinos, being bound to the Sandwich Islands. We had a smacking
breeze for several hours, and went along at a great rate, until night,
when it died away, as usual, and the land-breeze set in, which brought
us upon a taut bowline. Among our passengers was a young man who was
the best representation of a decayed gentleman I had ever seen. He
reminded me much of some of the characters in Gil Blas. He was of the
aristocracy of the country, his family being of pure Spanish blood, and
once of great importance in Mexico. 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. His son was sent to Mexico, where he received the best
education, and went into the first society of the capital. 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. He had a slight and elegant
figure, moved gracefully, danced and waltzed beautifully, spoke the
best of Castilian, with a pleasant and refined voice and accent, and
had, throughout, the bearing of a man of high birth and figure. Yet
here he was, with his passage given him, (as I afterwards learned,) for
he had not the means of paying for it, and living upon the charity of
our agent. He was polite to every one, spoke to the sailors, and gave
four reáls--I dare say the last he had in his pocket--to the steward,
who waited upon him. I could not but feel a pity for him, especially
when I saw him by the side of his fellow-passenger and townsman, a fat,
coarse, vulgar, pretending fellow of a Yankee trader, who had made
money in San Diego, and was eating out the very vitals of the Bandinis,
fattening upon their extravagance, grinding them in their poverty;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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