ANCHOR OFF BUNJ3URY. 247 



times ; and was thus punislied for thirty-six hours. 

 lie was quite a lad, and his offence was said to be 

 the participating in a fracas in the forecastle. Whe- 

 ther just or unjust, the application of this harsh and 

 cruel punishment recoiled upon the captain, as a few 

 weeks afterward, when several of her crew deserted 

 from her in Bunbury, he could not replace them : 

 notice of this circumstance having got ashore — whe- 

 ther from our crew or hers, I cannot say ; but it was 

 all-sufficient to deter any of the men ashore from en- 

 gaging with her captain, as they answered his propo- 

 sals to them for that purpose with scorn and insult. 



On the 22d we saw sperm whales going off to 

 windward at a tangent. We lowered, but found it 

 useless. Two days afterward we squared away for 

 Bunbury. In the afternoon we doubled Cape Natu- 

 raliste at a slashing pace, knocking twelve knots an 

 hour out of the old ship. That night we came to, 

 with our head-yards aback ; and the following morn- 

 ing cast anchor off the town. Our first job, after 

 anchoring, was to heave our maintopmast up, and 

 substitute a new fid for the old one. This was but 

 little trouble. On extracting the old fid, we were 

 at a loss to account for the mast havina; so lono; 

 remained upright, with such a miserable support: 

 the weight of the topmast having crushed the stout 

 oak fid almost completely through — but a few 

 inches of solid wood remaining to sustain it. 



Almost as soon as the boat could convey them to 

 us, fresh beef and vegetables were brought aboard ; 

 proving that, when inclined to purchase it, meat was 

 uo article of scarcity in this market. 



After adjusting our topmast, we went ashore 



