270 WHALING AND FISHING 



CHAPTER XV. 



Ceremony A Sailor's Grave I turn Boatman- 

 Life in the Isle of France Seeking Employment Joo Rodg- 

 era A Bullock Drogher Tamative Bay The place of 

 Sculls Hump cattle Our return Passage Taming wild 

 Cattle Sancho His docility Meeting Ashore Difficulty 

 of leaving so warm a Friend A Wedding. 



ON the first Sabbath after I came ashore I was 

 witness, in my capacity of captain of a boat, to 

 the performance of a very touching ceremony. I 

 had been informed on the preceding day, by Ange- 

 lique, that she and certain of her friends expected 

 me to ferry them across the harbor to the city 

 cemetery. 



Accordingly, at early dawn I was summoned, 

 and repairing, in company with my little Malabar 

 assistant, to the boat, found her already lad en with 

 fourteen or fifteen young girls dressed in puie 

 white, and each with an armfull of flowers. We 

 hoisted our sail, and just as the sun rose glided 

 gently across the smooth surface of the bay, 

 toward the western headland. Several other 

 boats, freighted like mine, were ahead and astern 

 of us, bound on a like errand with us. Low, 

 plaintive songs resounded from the boats across 



