470 VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. [September, 
light ; and the captains and crews, when on shore, often partici- 
pate in the labours and amusements of the inhabitants. 
It is easy to perceive, that this island may at no distant day 
become a place of importance, at least to the whahng interests 
of the United States. By referring to this group of islands on 
the chart, it will be found to lie immediately in the neighbourhood 
of what is called the off-shore whaling ground ; indeed, to occupy 
the centre of a circle, around which the hardy wights of the har- 
poon are fishing up individual wealth, and adding to our national 
prosperity, by treasures procured from the depths of the sea. 
The freedom of the port, and the productions of the island, as 
well as the absence of all grog-shops, and that miserable gang of 
worthless keepers, who first intoxicate the sailor and afterward 
induce him to desert from his ship, seem strongly to recommend 
this place, at least to the trial of om whalers ; to say nothing of 
terapin, the best of all sea-stores, and which would almost repay 
' the voyage of an alderman to the South Sea.* 
The amount of tonnage and capital employed in the South Sea 
fisheries has so much augmented within a few years past, that 
the general impression in the United States is, that every thing 
connected with this great interest is going on prosperously and 
well. But such, unfortunately, is not the case. Abuses of the 
most serious nature not only exist, but are of daily occurrence in 
the whale fleet. The cause of some of these abuses can be cor- 
rected by the owners, and others can only be reached by the 
strong arm of our government. 
Our public vessels do all in their power to redress these disor- 
ders ; but, having the- interests of an extensive coast to look after, 
are often distant from the ports frequented by whalers. Hence 
* From the thirteenth of October, eighteen hundred and thirty-two, to the twen- 
tieth of August in the following year, thirty-one whale-ships touched, or were re- 
ported at La rioriana, with more than nineteen thousand barrels of oil. These ves- 
sels were all from the United States, with the exception of two, and belonged to 
the following places: — one to Hudson; one to Poughkeepsie ; three to Newport, 
R. I. ; three to Bristol, and one to Warren, R. I. ; thirteen to New-Bedford ; six 
to Nantucket ; one to New-London, and two to London. These had been out from 
six months to two and a half years ; and one of them had two thousand four htm- 
dred and fifty barrels of oil ; one nineteen hundred and fifty ; one sixteen hundred, 
one fourteen hundred, one thirteen hundred, and several from seven hundred to one 
thousand barrels. 
1 
