838 THE ISLAND OF MADAGASCAR. 



had a man killed by a sperm whale ; the officer in 

 command of the boat having been foolhardy enough 

 to run on the fish whilst in his flurry, his amidship 

 oar's man was instantly swept from time into eter- 

 nity by a stroke of its flukes; but, fortunately, no 

 others of the crew were injured. 



October the 25th we sighted the southern part of 

 the Island of Madagascar, which was to be our 

 cruising-ground for the next two months. It is any- 

 thing but a comfortable latitude to make a prolonged 

 stay in ; for, on an average, once every twenty-four 

 hours, violent rain-storms of from one to four hours' 

 duration thoroughly drench the crew and vessel. 

 These squalls are attended with any quantity of 

 thunder and lightning, which adds very much to the 

 disagreeableness of their visitations. 



This ground is the point to which we endeavored 

 to beat up three years ago, with the intention of 

 whaling, before visiting New Holland. It bears a 

 good reputation as to the presence of wliales ; but 

 the fish are noted for their fighting on being struck, 

 so that it is no easy matter to make a capture, after 

 once striking. Whether we should have been any 

 the more successful had we visited and cruised on 

 this ground in the earlier portion of our voyage, 

 deponent, from his ignorance, saith not. 



I omitted to mention that on account of the exten- 

 sion of the term of our voyage, meat had been pur- 

 chased in Mauritius; also, ten barrels and a half of 

 colonial beef (of a very inferior quality) packed in 

 Melbourne, and thirteen barrels of American pork 

 purchased from the ship Robert Patton, of Boston : 

 which, together with what we already had aboard, 



