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Portefs Voyage 



us to so much trouble, near Abington Island. -She was, however^ 

 painted very differently, and from her showing no appearance of 

 alarm, I had my doubts on the subject. I had got possession of some 

 of the whalemen's signals, and made one which had been agreed 

 on between a Captain William Porter and the captain of the New 

 Zealander, in case they should meet. I did not know but thi& 

 might be Captain Porter's ship, and that the signal might be the 

 means of shortening the chase, by inducing him to come down 

 to us. 



At one o'clock we were at the distance of four miles from the 

 chase, when she cast off from the whales she had alongside, and 

 made all sail from us. Every thing was now set to the best ad- 

 vantage on board the Essex, and at four o'clock we were within 

 gunshot, when, after firing six or eight shot at her, she bore down 

 under our lee, and struck her colours. She proved to be the 

 British letter of marque ship. Sir Andrew Hammond, pierced for 

 twenty guns, commissioned for sixteen, but had only twelve 

 mounted, with a complement of thirty-six men, and commanded 

 by the identical Captain Porter whose signal I had hoisted. But 

 the most agreeable circumstance of the whole was, that this was 

 the same ship we had formerly chased ; and the captain assured 

 me, that our ship had been so strangely altered, that he supposed 

 her to be a whale-ship, until we were wdthin three or four miles of 

 him, and it was too late to escape. Nor did he suppose her to 

 be a frigate until we were within gun-shot, and indeed never 

 would have suspected her to be the same ship that had chased him 

 before, as she aid not now appear above one half the size she did 

 formerly. 



The time was now arriving for me to expect Lieut. Downes ; 

 I therefore determined to fill up my water and provisions from 

 my prizes, and wait until the 2d day of next month, which was the 

 period fixed for our departure. I had determined, should he not 

 arrive in that time, to leave letters for him, and proceed to either 

 the Marquesas or Washington Islands, where I intended to clean 

 my ship's bottom, overhaul her rigging, and smoke her to kill 

 the rats. These had increased so fast as to become a most dread- 

 ful annoyance to us, by destroying our provisions, eating through 

 our water- casks, thereby occasioning a great waste of our water, 

 getting into the magazine and destroying our cartridges, eating 

 their way through every part of the ship, and occasioning con- 

 siderable destruction of our provisions, clothing, flags, sails, &c. 

 It had become dangerous to have them any longer on board ; 

 and as it would be necessary to remove every thing from the ship 

 before smoking her, and probably to heave her out to repair her 

 copper, which in many places was coming off, I believed that a 

 convenient harbour could be found among one of the groups of 



