22 WHALING AND FISHINO, 



CHAPTER II. 



BEDFORD The Town The Wharves The Shipping Offion 

 Prospective Whalemen Old Bill The Outfitters Tricks 

 upon the Greenhorns Hezekiah Ellsprett claims the Cap 

 tain's Stateroom Old Bill and the Ship-owner The Trans- 

 formation. 



WE arrived in New Bedford after a short and 

 pleasant run of twenty hours through the Sound. 

 As soon as the vessel was anchored opposite the 

 wharves, I persuaded the cook to set me ashore, 

 and proceeded to seek a boarding house, and take 

 a preliminary survey of the town. 



I experienced no difficulty in securing a place 

 where, for a very moderate sum per week, I was 

 to be furnished with what the good lady called 

 " lodging and victuals," and, after getting my lug- 

 gage ashore, and receiving the five dollars due me 

 for helping to work the schooner to this place, I 

 et out on a ramble over the town. This I found 

 to differ in many particulars from any other 

 American seaport I had ever been in, and, indeed 

 from any conceptions I had formed in my own 

 mind of its general appearance. 



For a place in which so large a business is car 

 lied on as here, " Bedford" is remarkably still 

 At the distance of three squares from 



