THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 239 



I could help it. At twenty-two I was master, and in twen- 

 ty voyages have followed the right whale from ground to 

 ground, from the banks of the South Atlantic, around the 

 East Cape to the Pacific, through Mozambique to Delgado 

 Bay, East Africa ; most everywhere a whale could be found, 

 in fact. Once I passed Behring Strait into the Arctic Seas, 

 when the ice began to swing in on us, on the 5th of Septem- 

 ber. Away up there we met the bow-heads, or true Green- 

 land whales, old fellows that would turn up two hundred 

 and fifty barrels of oil, and give three thousand pounds of 

 bone, single slabs of which would run to fourteen and fif- 

 teen feet in length. There we might turn up one thousand 

 barrels of oil without letting the fire down in the try-works, 

 and in that day our oil might be worth from seventeen to 

 twenty-five cents per gallon ; bone would bring seven cents. 

 The latter wasn't worth hoisting in. Don't you think a 

 man must have loved whaling to go for that? I tell you I 

 did love it. I might not be bailing a fortune in the sea, but 

 I had the tallest kind of hunting, and we always picked up 

 some sperm-whales in our passages, which always paid." 



The spirit of the enthusiastic captain touched an answer- 

 ing chord in the heart of the young dreamer," who leaned 

 against the idle wheel; and he stood no longer the slouch- 

 ing, half-clad sailor, at the beck and call of every superior, 

 but was master of a ship, beautiful as the one he steered. 

 I had a good boat under me, with a crew who could trust 

 in me, and in whom I could trust. A good whale had just 

 risen a short half-mile ahead of me ; three minutes of time ; 

 ten capping seas lay between the harpoon's point and le- 

 viathan. I would change places with no king, for no royal 

 huntsman from the days of Nimrod was ever so equipped 

 or had such regal game to tempt to the chase ! I have gir- 

 dled the world that I might be here ; I have swept a planet 

 to run this race. With five brave fellows, trained in many 



