CURRENTS AND WHALING. 525 



at Kapiti, New Zealand, on the 12th of December, 1839, for the pur- 

 pose of refitting with wood and water, at about 2 p. m., as the third 

 officer and five of the crew were employed in towing off a raft of 

 water ; being about one mile from the ship, they were boarded by a 

 whale-boat, having a crew of eight Europeans and one New Zealander, 

 under one James Harrison as headsman, armed with pistols and knives, 

 (being a part of the persons employed by Raymond and Young,) who 

 forcibly took possession of the boat and cut off the raft, threatening 

 instant death to any one who should make resistance. Having thus 

 captured the boat, they at once made sail, and ran for their establish- 

 ment, on the shore, about six miles distant. The captain, on perceiving 

 the piratical act, at once followed with two boats, but did not succeed 

 in overtaking them until they reached the shore and had hauled the 

 captured boat up on the beach. While on his way, he was pursued by 

 another boat, which kept firing at him. The captured boat was 

 surrounded on the beach by from thirty to forty desperate-looking 

 wretches, more or less armed. Of these, Harrison became the 

 spokesman, declaring that they had taken the boat and meant to keep 

 it, at the risk of his and all the party's lives, to which speech they all 

 signified their assent. Captain Brown repeatedly cautioned them 

 against such acts of piracy ; but his caution was received with curses 

 and all kinds of abuse, and finally a pistol was presented, with the 

 declaration that he, Harrison, would blow out the brains of Captain 

 Brown if he attempted to rescue the boat." 



Such has been the indiscriminate manner in which the whales 

 have been slaughtered, both old and young, that these haunts have of 

 late years been less frequented by them. 



The right whale is found of much larger size in high latitudes 

 than in low, and not unfrequently yields, when taken in these lati- 

 tudes, as much as one hundred and eighty barrels of oil. Besides 

 the oil, the whalebone produces some profit. A large number of 

 these whales were seen by us in the bays about Cape Horn, in the 

 months of March and April ; but the weather there is seldom favour- 

 able to the use of boats, and would of course preclude success in 

 carrying on such a business. 



On soundings, and in shoal water, attempts have been made to 

 capture a different species of whale, called the humpback (Gibbosa); 

 but there is a great impediment to the securing of the spoils of this 

 game, for when killed they immediately sink for thirty or forty hours. 

 It therefore becomes necessary, either to anchor a boat near by to 



vol. v. 132 



