PORT FEGA8US. 365 



obliged to delegcate the task of fluke-boring, while I rested 

 a little. The ship was soon alongside, though, and the 

 whale secured. There was more yet to be done before 

 we could rest, in spite of our fatigue. The other boats 

 had been so successful that they had got two big fish, 

 and what we were to do with them was a problem not 

 easily solvable. By dint of great exertion, we managed 

 to get another whale alongside, but were fain to come to 

 some arrangement with the Eliza Adams, one of the 

 ships that had been unsuccessful, to take over our other 

 whale on an agreement to render us one-third of the 

 product either in Port William or at home, if she should 

 not find us in the former place. 



Behold us, then, in the gathering dusk with a whale 

 on either side, every stitch of canvas we could show set 

 and drawing, straining every nerve to get into the little 

 port again, with the pleasant thought that we were 

 bringing with us all that was needed to complete our well- 

 earned cargo. Nobody wanted to go below ; all hands 

 felt that it was rest enough to hang over the rail on 

 either side and watch the black masses as they surged 

 through the gleaming sea. They represented so much 

 to us. Very little was said, but all hearts were filled 

 with a deep content, a sense of a long season of toil 

 fitly crowned with complete success ; nor was any depres- 

 sion felt at the long, long stretch of stormy ocean 

 between us and our home port far away in the United 

 States. That would doubtless come by-and-by, when 

 within less than a thousand miles of New Bedford ; but 

 at present all sense of distance from home was lost in 

 the overmastering thought that soon it would be our 

 only business to get there as quickly as possible, without 

 any avoidable loitering on the road. 



We made an amazing disturbance in the darkness of 

 25 



