436 
THE PRINCE ALBERT. 
Melville Bay in a season, they would take from a 
couple of hundred thousand to half a million. 
On the ninth we overtook a vessel, which proved to 
be the M'Lellan of New London, the hearer to us of 
letters and papers from home. My seals, thank God, 
were all in red wax ; and I missed my count of twen- 
ty-four hours, by sitting up through the whole day- 
light night, reading them till it was hreakfast-time. 
The tenth, we came up with the whaling fleet ly- 
ing at the Barrier; and before midnight had seven 
north country whaling captains from them, " holding 
clack" in our little cabin. The sturdy good fellows 
were overrunning with sympathy for dangers which 
they appreciated better than ourselves, but did not 
limit its expression to words of advice and warning. 
I must be excused for saying that our countryman, 
Quail, the master of the M'Lellan, made us pay freely 
for a few stores we obtained from him, lest the liber- 
ality of these good Britons should be esteemed a mat- 
ter of course. Money could hardly have paid them 
for the luxuries which they insisted on giving up to 
us. Their malt, and brandy, and vegetables, and 
quarters of fresh beef, and haunches of venison shot 
on the islands, covered our decks. 
On the t welfth, from the highest point of one of the 
Duck Islands, we descried with our object-glass a top- 
sail schooner to the southward, which proved to be the 
Prince Albert, bound on the same errand as ourselves. 
Her commander, Mr. AVilliam Kennedy, boarded us at 
midnight between the sixteenth and seventeenth. He 
had more home letters for us, but he brought his own 
welcome with him besides. His demeanor announced 
his character at once. He had with him Dr. Cowrie, 
Hepburn — the Hepburn of poor Franklin's Copper- 
