202 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



boat was taken up by the Indian, of London, 

 on the J9th of February; ninety-three days 

 from the time of the catastrophe, with only 

 three survivors. 



The captain's boat was fallen in with by the 

 Dauphin, of Nantucket, on the 23rd of the 

 same month, having only two men living, 

 whose lives had been eked out only through that 

 last resort of hunger in the wretched, which 

 words shudder to relate ! Out of a crew of 

 twenty, five only survived to make the ear of the 

 world tingle at their strange, eventful story.* 



* The "narrative" of this extraordinary shipwreck was 

 published at New York in 1821 ; a copy of it is now in my 

 hand. It is deeply and painfully interesting, and bears every 

 indication of accuracy, as well as general authenticity. In 

 one particular, however, I have come to a different conclusion 

 from that arrived at by the author of the present work, and 

 that of the original " narrative," this is, as to the first collision 

 of the whale with the Essex being a designed attack. I do not 

 myself believe that a whale, not being itself attacked, would 

 wilfully drive its head against so huge an object as a ship. 

 All that I have myself ever seen or heard of the habits of 

 whales, indicates the disposition to flee from any unusual ob- 

 ject, whether ship or boat, which might approach them, or lie in 

 their path. I have frequently seen the Mysticetus pass under 

 the bottom of my own ship, or of boats in which I have been 

 embarked ; and some of the whale tribe I have seen, when 

 deep under water (as they may sometimes be so discovered by 



