EDQINO SOUTHWARD. 239 



blubber, making it easier to get hold and tear off more, 

 and their numbers were increasing so fast that the 

 surrounding sea was fairly alive with them. Lower 

 and lower sank the sun, deeper and darker grew the 

 gloom upon our faces, till suddenly Samuela leaped to 

 his feet in our midst, and emitted a yell so ear-piercing 

 as to nearly deafen us. He saw the ship ! Before two 

 minutes had passed we all saw her — God bless her ! — 

 coming down upon us like some angelic messenger. 

 There were no fears among us that we should be over- 

 looked. We knew full well how anxiously and keenly 

 many pairs of eyes had been peering over the sea in 

 search of us, and we felt perfectly sure they had sighted 

 us long ago. On she came, gilded by the evening glow, 

 till she seemed glorified, moving in a halo of celestial 

 light, all her homeliness and clumsy build forgotten in 

 what she then represented to us. 



Never before or since has a ship looked like that to 

 me, nor can I ever forget the thankfulness, the delight, 

 the reverence, with which I once more saw her ap- 

 proaching. Straight down upon us she bore, rounding 

 to within a cable's length, and dropping a boat simul- 

 taneously with her windward sweep. They had no whale 

 — well for us they had not. In five minutes we were on 

 board, while our late resting-place was being hauled 

 alongside with great glee. • 



The captain shook hands with me cordially, pooh- 

 poohing the loss of the boat as an unavoidable incident 

 of the trade, but expressing his heart-felt delight at 

 getting us all back safe. The whale we had killed was 

 ample compensation for the loss of several boats, 

 though such was the vigour with which the sharks were 

 going for him, that it was deemed advisable to cut in at 



