THE CAPTAIN. 237 



" About thirty miles south of No Man's Land 

 we fell in with a fleet of fishing vessels and gave 

 them a great fright, for they thought we were the 

 enemy. 



" When we lowered a boat to go alongside of 

 them, we could see them pulling in their lines to 

 try to escape us. 



tl But we soon convinced them we were all 

 right, and exchanged some of our salt pork for 

 a fine mess of fresh mackerel. They told us how 

 the land bore, and the next morning, June 25, at 

 five o'clock, we came to anchor off Butler's flat in 

 the lower harbor, New Bedford. 



" We had left St. Helena on the first of May, 

 and it was just three years and eleven months 

 since we had sailed from home on what proved a 

 long, disastrous and unfortunate voyage. 



"We had suffered from a severe hurricane, 

 losing our boats, which were not replaced for 

 nearly a year. 



" Our officers and crew had deserted us, which 

 completely spoiled our plans. 



" Yet our ship was new and well-provisioned, 

 and we were so far from home we could not return. 



" We had seen whales enough to overload us 

 with oil, but we could not capture them because 

 we had not men enough to do it. 



