THE GIANTS OF LABEADOK. 157 



oil in the hold. "When we passed Fort Hamilton 

 about three o'clock in the afternoon, and were visited 

 by the Custom-house officers, all the Avork was 

 finished, and, an hour afterwards, the vessel was in 

 its old place in the East River. 



"Whilst we had been absSnt after the whale, the 

 Sim (a rival of the Herald) had been very merry on 

 the subject of our " sell." A whale in New York 

 waters seemed to our contemporary to be a monster 

 without parallel, an abuse of public credulity for 

 which there could be no excuse. An article against 

 my little "par" had been published, with great 

 laughter at our expense. The public knew not 

 which to believe ; but the question was settled 

 next morning, when I published in the Herald a 

 full, true, and particular account of the voyage of 

 the Jackson to Long Island Point, and the Sun 

 (which had in former times published, as bond fide, 

 Herschel's* Voyage to the Moon," and other plea- 

 santries of the same kind, by the celebrated Edgar 

 Poe) had no reply to the detailed account which I 

 gave under the authority of my own name. 



The catch was worth 500Z. to the ship, and one 

 fine morning I received a present which I still pre- 

 serve as a memorial of the expedition, — a beautiful 

 breast-pin, representing a golden whale, with dia- 

 mond eyes, — "a due acknowledgment," said the 

 accompanying letter, ''of the service rendered us on 

 * Qucere. — " Hans Ffall'a Vovage" ? — Trans. 



