PASSAGE TO NEW BEDFORD. 2t 



' At any rate." continued he, " there's but little 

 danger of it, for no owner 9r captain in New Bed 

 ford, would ship such an old salt as you." 



Now, I may as well own here, that this con* 

 tinued assertion, that I would not be able to 

 obtain a birth in any whaleship in New Bedford, 

 had the effect of adding much strength to my at 

 first but weakly entertained wish. The more 

 insurmountable seemed the difficulties which 

 hedged about my undertaking, the more earnestly 

 it took hold of my mind, and the more desirable 

 did its attainment appear to me. And thus it 

 came about, that before we reached New Bedford, 

 1 was firmly resolved to leave no avenue un- 

 tried, in my effort to obtain a place on a whaler. 

 It must not be supposed however, that the wish to 

 make a trial of whaling, and add this to my expe- 

 riences of sea life, was altogether of so late a date 

 as the previous day. On the contrary, I had long 

 entertained the determination to make a whale 

 cruise at some time or other, and every whaling 

 yarn spun in a forecastle served to keep alivo 

 this thought. But I had never before now set a 

 time and place for the carrying into effect of this 

 idea 



