As the fellows began to get their sea legs on, they began to talk as if
they were still in California, and could easily manage any little boat
like this, and could run things as they did when they crossed the
plains, where no sheriff, court or judge had anything to say about
matters, and all law was left behind. They began to act as if they were
lords over all they could see, and as many of them were from the
Southern states, they seemed to take an especial pride in boasting of
how they did as they pleased, about like the Helms brothers. They talked
as if they could run the world, or the universe even, themselves without
assistance.
One morning at breakfast, when the table was full and the waiters
scarce, some of these fellows swore and talked pretty rough, and as a
waiter was passing a blue-blood from New Orleans rose in his seat and
called for sugar, holding the empty bowl in his hand, but the waiter
passed on and paid no attention, and when a mulatto waiter came along
behind him the angry man damned him the worst he could, ordering him to
bring a bowl of sugar, quick. This waiter did not stop and the Louisiana
man threw the bowl at the waiter's head, but missed it, and the bowl
went crashing against the side of the ship. I expected surely the
Captain and his men would come and put the unruly fellow in irons, and
there might be a fight or a riot, so I cut my meal short and went on
deck about as soon as I could do so, thinking that would be a safer
place. But the Captain seemed to know about how to manage such fellows,
and never left his stateroom, which I think was a wise move. The darky
did not make his appearance at table afterwards, and the man who threw
the bowl said that colored folks had to mind a gentleman when he spoke
to them, or fare worse.
The Captain now got out his passenger list, and we all had to pass
through a narrow space near the wheel-house and every one answer to his
name and show his ticket. This made work for about one day. Some
stowaways were found and put down into the hole to heave coal. One day
the Captain and mate were out taking an observation on the sun when a
young Missourian stepped up to see what was being done, and said to the
Captain:--"Captain, don't you think I could learn how to do that kind of
business?" The Captain took the young man's hand and looked at his nails
which were very rough and dirty and said:--"No my lad; boys with such
finger nails can't learn navigation." This made a big laugh at the brave
lubber's expense.
Many of the sea-sick ones did not get up so soon, and some died of that,
or something else, and their bodies were sewed up in blankets with a
bushel of coal at their feet to sink them, and thrown overboard. The
bodies were laid out on a plank at the ship's side, the Captain would
read a very brief service, and the sailors would, at the appropriate
time, raise the end of the plank so that the body slid off and went down
out of sight in a moment.