I had my hands, feet, and neck, placed in the stocks, which was in the hot sun, upon the burning sand, during the day; I had to look continually up to the sun, and ere night was almost blind; my face badly swollen, and almost blistered. Swarms of mosquitoes and fleas visited me at night, each paying their respects, leaving an impression upon my feelings. Crowds of natives gathered around, offering me every insult they were capable of doing. When I was taken from the stocks I could hardly walk or stand, and it required several days for me to regain the use of my limbs to any comfortable degree.
Soon as I was able I crawled down to the shore, and fell in with Captain Masters, of the ship Tammercee of Liverpool, whither he would sail in a few days. Knowing he was in want of hands, I offered myself for thirty-seven dollars per month: this he was unwilling to give. Meeting him again in a few days, he said he had seen my former captain, who gave me a good character, and a reputation as a seaman, therefore he would give me the desired wages.
I went on board and was given the second mate's duty, which the ship carpenter had performed.
At evening the captain selected six of us to follow him on shore. We went to a house where there was a quantity of gold coins, mostly doubloons. He ordered us to take as many as we could carry, and go for the ship. This was done twice, and daylight coming on, we were deterred from going again. This was the property of resident merchants, who wished to make a deposit in the Bank of England, and were obliged to resort to this expedient on account of the laws, which prohibited their removal. We received a present from the merchants of a doubloon each for our services, and as a sort of bribe to keep silence.
The third day after I shipped on board we set sail. This was quite the latter part of May, 1838. Mr. Evans (mate) came on board in a state of intoxication, which was the cause of hard words between him and the captain, who was a person capable of the highest degree of excitement. The captain becoming enraged, seized a spyglass and hurled it at the mate, striking him on the head and brought him to the deck; collecting himself, he passed it back in the same way, but missed his aim. Exasperated to a still greater degree, the captain rushed to the cabin and brought forward a pair of pistols, intending to shoot the mate down. His wife being aboard, and seeing by his manner there was likely to be trouble, rushed up first and placed herself between him and the mate, bidding him fire if he chose. A moment sufficed to cool him down in a measure, and the matter was dropped by putting the mate off duty for ten days.
We came to anchor at the Gulf of Tehuantepec, or the roadstead of Rosario, and moored with a swivel.—We sent down the top-gallant masts and yards, and got ready to take on a cargo at Nicaragua.
The shore at this place as well as most others on the Mexican coast is almost inaccessible, from the high rolling surf, which at this time was altogether so for the boats. There are but few harbors in Mexico; consequently we anchored the long boat out about sixty fathoms from the beach, and erected a capstan on the shore; a block was fastened to the bow of the boat, through which a hawser was passed, which also went around the capstan on shore, thus forming a continuous line from the boat to the shore. Natives were employed to lash the wood, which is cut in sticks about four feet long, to one side of the hawser and pull upon the other, and thus convey it to the boat, where men were stationed to untie and load it into other boats, and then to the ship. This wood is very rough, and full of holes and crevices, into which scorpions, centipedes, and a small blue snake, of five or six inches in length, crawl. On removing or handling it, they run out and bite the first object that comes in their way or happens to touch them.
The bite or sting of the scorpion is said to prove fatal many times in two hours; their bite in the spring and summer months are said, by Pike, to be much more suddenly fatal. He also says, in speaking of them as found in other portions of Mexico: "remove them three leagues and they become perfectly harmless and lose all their venomous qualities." As a preventive we took three bottles of spirits, (old rum) and put a scorpion in one, a centipede in another, reserving the third for the snake; they were put in alive and allowed to die in the spirits. These to be used by applying the spirits of the respective bottles to the wounds of the different species. Fortunately for us but one was bitten, which was cured by immediate application of the spirits.
A disturbance arose to our quiet one day between the captain and one of the crew, which resulted in throwing the sailor on shore, one hundred miles nearly from a habitation of any kind, except temporary ones erected by the natives who came from Acapulco, 100 miles distant, to cut and deliver the wood to ships. Seeing a shipmate thus turned off, without clothes except those worn off, with no particular means of subsistence, was more than I could endure, and I resolved to assist him. The next morning I went to the long boat as usual, taking with me two shirts and a pound of tobacco rolled up as compactly as possible. Getting to the boat I jumped over and swam as far as I could, then caught hold of the hawser for the surf or swells to pass me; dropping into the smooth sea I exerted every nerve to reach the shore before the next sea; this I was unable to do. Soon the next swell was upon me, and by its impetus I was thrown high upon the sand insensible. The natives took me up and rubbed me for a long time before I could be brought to a state of consciousness, when they gave me some spirits to drink, and in a few hours I was enabled to walk out.
At night the ship's boat was sent to take me off; the surf running so high rendered it impossible to do so, only by rowing above about five miles to a small cove. Going on board I met the captain at the gangway, who said: