462 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



Captains Greene and Bunker therefore went up to Port Desire with a whale-boat's crew about 7 leagues, leaving the 

 sloop at anchor. When they got to the garrison, after some few questions they were told by the Spaniards that they 

 believed them to be Englishmen, and as Spain was at war with England they mnst consider themselves prisoners. A 

 boat with twelve armed men was accordingly dispatched to bring up the sloop. They remonstrated and proposed to 

 remain as hostages and send down for the vessel's papers, but all to no purpose. As this would ruin all our voyages 

 for they said that they must be sent to the River de la Plata for trial, as English and American papers were so much 

 alike they were therefore determined to make a bold push. The Spaniards were determined to prevent it, and accord- 

 ingly stationed an armed barge down the river a little below the garrison. It looked very dark, for they were placed 

 inside the garrison, and there appeared no chance for escape. However, Greene, who you know is resolute and hawk- 

 eyed, gave a word of caution to keep together and be ready. 



The Spaniards always keep a padre or priest in their garrisons. When their prayer bell rang at 8 o'clock in 

 the evening, and they had all got into a small church which was inside the garrison, the wished for time offered. They 

 started and were soon hold of their whale-boat which had been hauled up. The movement was so quick that it was 

 not known whether an alarm had been given and after they were afloat and it was too dark to be fired at there was 

 little danger but that they could row two feet to one of any boat rowed by the Spaniards. They muffled their oars 

 and got alongside the sloop about midnight, jumped on deck and got possession of the arms, the soldiers being asleep. 

 They then made the soldiers get into their own boat, and after knocking out the flints returned them their muskets 

 and treated them each with a drink of grog. The soldiers were told to tell their commandant that he did not know 

 how to keep Yankees. They then got under way and ran to the northward. 



On the 4th of October our shallop came in with all hands from the islands and we began preparing the ship to 

 leave here by getting our topmasts on end and the rigging overhead, as we have had the ship completely stripped since 

 we have been here at the Falklands. On the llth of October we unmoored and found our cables in good order. Got 

 under way, and running into Big Harbor came to for one night. On the 12th we anchored in the harbor, and, after 

 mooting the ship, prepared for a sealing cruise in the shallop. On the 16th the shallop sailed for a fortnight's cruise, 

 leaving me alone ou board, but as it was a good harbor and the ship had good cables and anchors, I felt safe. I was 

 then captain, mate, and all hands. As I had enough to do I was not so lonesome as you may imagine. I was left 

 with a dog, a cat, and five kittens, but the dog killed the cat, and the kittens being but a day old, died also. I never 

 felt the loss of a cat so much. 



On the 26th the shallop returned with about seven hundred seal-skins. Had been on a number of islands and 

 found generally that the seal were off. November 9 Captain Greene again sailed in the shallop, and on the 13th 

 returned with two thousand skins which they took on Bird Keys. At New Island he found the ship Betsey, Capt. 

 Edmund Fanning, his first officer Caleb Brintnall, four months from New York, by whom we received letters which 

 were very acceptable. They were also on a sealing voyage. Also ship Lydia, Obed Fitch master, four months from 

 New Bedford, and the ship Olive Branch, Obed Paddock, five mouths from Nantucket, bound round Cape Horn for 

 sperm oil. 



On the 14th of November Captain Bunker arrived from the main in the sloop Betsey, five days passage from Cape 

 Mattas with but two thousand skins. He had been unfortunate. Had his boat stove by a whirlwind and had carrieds 

 away his mast head. 



The sloop Betsey sailed for Port Egmont on the 18th, which closed our partnership. Captain Greene made a 

 cruise of a few days in the shallop to the Bashee Islands, in latitude 52 55' ; found no seal of consequence on the 

 island. 



Two or three days after Captain Bunker sailed we found on the island a suitable mast for the sloop Betsey, which 

 would be very important for Captain Bunker. Accordingly Captain Greene took the mast in tow with the shallop 

 and went to Port Egmont and gave it to Captain Bunker. Captain Worth in the brig Garland was also lying at 

 Port Egmont and getting elephant oil. 



On December 6th Captain Greene sailed in the shallop for New Island expecting to find the Betsey still there, but 

 she had gone. Found there just arrived the ship Maria, Capt. Benjamin Paddock, eighty- four days from Nantucket, 

 bound round Cape Horn for sperm oil. 



On the 16th wo lost two men by the upsetting of the whale-boat in a tide up. 



December 22 Capt. Bazilla Worth, in the brig Garland, and Captain Bunker, in his sloop Tender, came up from 

 Port Egmont and anchored at Island Harbor, the other side of this island, and visited us on board. Captain Worth was 

 on his way to the northwest coast of America and Canton. He thinks to make up his cargo of skins and meet a vessel 

 at the Sandwich Islands, to which he will deliver his cargo and receive from her some "trade" for the north west coat. 

 The vessel ho calculates to meet belongs to the same owners. He calculates that his oil will bring 45 sterling per 

 per ton of 8 barrels or 240 gallons. 



The Neptune accompanied by her shallop left the Falklands for Patagonia December 24, having taken thus far 

 thirty thousand skins. 



On the 28th of December wo struck soundings on the west coast of Patagonia in latitude 49 38' south, 40 

 fathoms, white sand, off St. Julian's Bay. Having experienced very bad weather, in which one shallop made " good 

 weather," on the 29th examined the shore with a whale-boat, found an island in latitude 47 55' with about two 

 thousand hair-seal, which we did not want. The two following days found several islands with hair-seal, but no fur- 

 seal. Ou the 31st we made a cruise in the whaleboat and found a small bunch of dry rocks with about five hundred 

 fur-seals on them. January 1, 1798, we were off Port Desire, and landed on the same island where the captains in the 

 sloop had before landed. 



