PORTER S JOURNAL, 



211 



caused a separation from the prizes, and the strong current 

 setting to leeward would have prevented our rejoining them 

 again for some time. I therefore concluded it best to con- 

 tinue my course on a wind all night, but at day-hght, see- 

 ing nothing of the enemy,. I hove about to rejoin my prizes. 



At twelve o'clock next day, we w^ere joined by the 

 Greenwich and Seringapatam, but we saw nothing of the 

 New Zealander until the day following. Nothing, perhaps^ 

 could equal our disappointment in not taking this vessel. 

 We had already calculated with such confidence on her, 

 as to arrange her prize crew, and were exultiDg that we 

 had completely destroyed (with the exception of one ves- 

 sel more) the British whale-fishery on the coast of Peru. 

 We believed the vessel we were in pursuit of to be the 

 British whale-ship Indispensable, and we knew of no other 

 besides her on the coast, except the Comet of twenty guns, 

 fitted out both for whaling and cruising against the Ameri- 

 cans. Great, however, as our mortification was that he 

 should make his escape after so long a chase, w^e consoled 

 ourselves in some measure with the reflection, that this was 

 the first enemy who had ever escaped us where we had 

 known him to be such, and that his escape was owing only 

 to a fortuitous circumstance, wdiich might not happen again 

 in a thousand chases, and not to any good management on 

 bis part, or bad management on ours. Yet, such is our na- 

 ture, that we could not help blaming fortune for thus jilt- 

 ing us, and for this freak of hers, forgot for a moment all 

 the favours she had hitherto lavished on us. 



I now^ made every exertion to reach James' Island. But 

 light and baffling winds, and a constant lee current, pre- 

 vented our making any progress until the 3d of August, 

 when the current changed, and ran with great rapidity to 

 the eastward, as it had hitherto done in a contrary direc- 

 tion. 



On the 2d, being close by Abington, I had an opportuni- 

 ty of examining the west side of that island, and under a 

 high and inaccessible precipice, opposite to a sandy beach, 

 at the distance of three quarters of a mile from the shore, 

 found a good anchorage in twenty-two fathoms water, over 

 a smooth sandy bottom., well sheltered from the prevailing 

 winds by a point to the northwest of that called by Colnet 

 Cape Chalmers* This place, however, affords anchorage 



