in lite Fadjic Ocean. 



4.5 



pendenee for water was on the precarious supply he couid get 

 from the drippings of the rocks ; at length, finding that no one 

 was likely to come to take him from thence, and fearful of perish- 

 ing for the want of water, he formed a determination to attempt 

 at all hazards getting into Banks' Bay, where the ships cruise for 

 whales. With this view he provided himself with two seal skins, 

 with which, blown up, he formed a float ; and, after hazarding 

 destruction from the sharks, which frequently attacked his vessel, 

 and which he kept off* with the stick that served him as a paddle, 

 he succeeded at length in getting alongside an American ship 

 early in the morning, where his unexpected arrival not only sur- 

 prised but alarmed the crew. His appearance was scarcely human ; 

 clothed in the skins of seals, his countenance haggard, thin, and 

 eniaciated, his beard and hair long and matted, they supposed him 

 a being from another world. The commander of the vessel where 

 he arrived felt a great sympathy for his sufferings, and deter- 

 mined for the moment to bring to punishment the villain who had, 

 by thus cruelly exposing the hfe of a fellow-being, violated every 

 principle of humanity ; but from some cause or other he was pre- 

 vented from carrying into effect his laudable intentions, and to 

 this day the poor sailor has not had justice done him. 



At day-light on the morning of the 29th, I was roused from 

 my cot, where I passed a sleepless and anxious night, by the cry 

 of " sail ho r *' sail ho r which was re-echoed through the ship, 

 and in a moment all hands were on deck. The strange sail prov- 

 ed to be a large ship, bearing west, to which we gave chase ; and 

 in an hour afterwards we discovered two others, bearing southwest, 

 equally large in their appearance. I had no doubt of their being 

 British whale-ships ; and as I was certain that toward mid-day, 

 as usual, it would fall calm, I felt confident we should succeed in 

 taking the whole of them. I continued my pursuit of the first 

 discovered vessel, and at nine o'clock spoke her under British 

 colours. She proved to be the British whale-ship Montezuma, 

 Captain Baxter, with one thousand four hundred barrels of sper- 

 maceti oil. I invited the captain on board ; and vv^hile he was in 

 my cabin, giving me such information as was in his power re- 

 specting the other whale-ships about the Gallipagos, I took his 

 crew on board the Essex, put an officer and crew in the Monte- 

 zuma, and continued in pursuit of the other vessels, which made 

 all exertions to get from us. At eleven A. M., according to my 

 expectations, it fell calm ; we were then at the distance of eight 

 miles from them. I had reason from the information obtained, 

 to believe them to be the British armed whale-ships Georgiana, of 

 six eighteen-pounders, and the Policy, of ten six-pounders, the 

 one having on board thirty-five, and the other twenty-six men ; 

 but that they were British ships, there could not be a doubt, 

 and wc were determined to have them at all hazards. Thick and 



