GO THE MAROON PARTY; 



of one, and you will pronounce it a disproportionate and uncouth, if 

 not a downright ugly-looking bird ; and yet in his proper station, 

 standing sentinel on a rock or mangrove branch, with his sullen look, 

 his enormous pouch half filled with fish, and his keen grey eye 

 watching his prey in the flood, his appearance harmonizes well with 

 the surrounding scenery, and possesses an interest which he loses in 

 any other situation. 



Embarking, we set sail towards Gasparie this is an island evi- 

 dently of volcanic formation, as the naked eye may discover from 

 the sea that its superficial soil is spread over a stratum of lava. The 

 water is so clear that though deep enough to float the largest ship in 

 the navy, we could plainly discern at the bottom the guns of the Santa 

 Maria ; for here it was that, when the English attacked this island, 

 the brave Admiral Apodaca gallantly saved his four ships from 

 falling into the hands of the British, by setting fire to them without 

 discharging a gun,* and then boasted of having saved the image of 

 San Jago of Campostella, his patron saint. 



This is the chief station of the Trinidad whalers. I have been 

 informed by several persons connected with this fishery that the le- 

 viathan may here be seen and even heard eating a kind of sea-weed 

 that grows on the rocksf beneath the Gulf. 



As we sailed along, a whale of about seventy feet in length made 

 his appearance near us, and after blowing a mass of steam and water 

 from his nostrils, with a deep roar sunk again. In about half a mi- 

 nute he re-appeared so near our vessel that we could discern his dis- 

 proportionately small eyes. The enormous creature gambolled about 

 our cutter as though it mistook it for one of its companions of the 

 deep now would it blow its cloud a-head of us with the force of a 

 steam-engine discharging its vapour, and sink. Anon it appeared on 

 our side again under our stern it would shew its enormous form 

 its awkward evolutions, although harmless, and doubtless playful, 

 were by no means agreeable to us. Du Bois having charged his gun 

 with a ball, the next time he appeared, fired on him. I imagine he 

 felt the shot on his blubber-defended back, as much as a tortoise 

 feels a musquito sting. However, conceiving I suppose this to be a 

 civil hint that his amiable visits were not desirable, he left us, much 

 to our satisfaction. The great quantity of these fish found here, in- 

 duced the Spaniards to call this Golfo de Ballena, or the Gulf of 

 Whales. Whalers here find the sharks strong rivals in their trade 

 no sooner is a fish harpooned than a countless mass of these ravenous 

 monsters attack it. In vain the people attempt to drive them off, so 

 daring are those wolves of the deep that they will tear off large 

 pieces of blubbler, while the men are belabouring them with their 

 oars ; nor is what they devour all the whaler loses they will snatch 



* El San Vincent (a superb three decker), 84 ; El Gallardo, 74 ; El Arrogante, 

 24; El San Ceuslia, a frigate, 40 guns : these were burnt by the Spaniards, but 

 El San Damasia, a 74, was captured without resistance the English had four 

 ships. 



f I have since heard this from a person of veracity of the whales of Bermuda 

 M well as those of Trinidad* 



