112 TEE CRUISE OF THE "CACHALOT:* 



were plentiful here, I do not know, but it was now May, 

 and for the last few days we had not seen a solitary 

 spout of any kind. Preparations, very slight it is true, 

 were made for departure ; but before we left those parts 

 we made an interesting call for water at Mohilla, one 

 of the Comoro group, which brought out, in unmistak- 

 able fashion, the wonderful fund of local knowledge 

 possessed by these men. At the larger ports of Johanna 

 and Mayotte there is a regular tariff of port charges, 

 which are somewhat heavy, and no whaleman would 

 be 80 reckless as to incur these unless driven thereto 

 by the necessity of obtaining provisions ; otherwise, 

 the islands offer great inducements to whaling captains 

 to call, since none but men hopelessly mad would 

 venture to desert in such places. That qualification 

 is the chief one for any port to possess in the eyes of a 

 whaling captain. 



Our skipper, however, saw no necessity for entering 

 any port. Running up under the lee of Mohilla, we 

 followed the land along until we came to a tiny bight 

 on the western side of the island, an insignificant inlet 

 which no mariner in charge of a vessel like ours could 

 be expected even to notice, unless he were surveying. 

 The approaches to this tiny harbour (save the mark) 

 were very forbidding. Ugly-looking rocks showed up 

 here and there, the surf over them frequently blinding 

 the whole entry. But we came along, in our usual 

 leisurely fashion, under two topsails, spanker, and fore- 

 topmast staysail, and took that ugly passage like a 

 sailing barge entering the Medway. There was barely 

 room to turn round when we got inside, but all sail 

 had been taken off her except the spanker, so that hear 

 way was almost stopped by the time she was fairly 



