OF THE SPERM WHALE. 
175 
and round them, appearing as if meditating an attack 
with his flukes, which if he had thought proper to do, 
in return for the grievous wounds that he had himself 
received, a few strokes of his ponderous tail would soon 
have destroyed his enemies ; but this was not attempted. 
They had now nothing to hope for but the arrival of the 
other boats to relieve them from their dangerous situation, 
rendered more so by the appearance of several large 
sharks, attracted by the blood which flowed from the 
whale, which were sometimes only a few feet from them ; 
and also from the inability of one of the boats’ crew to 
swim, by which three or four of his mates were much 
exhausted in their efforts to save him, which they suc- 
ceeded in doing after having lashed two or three oars 
across the stern of the boat, which happened to be not 
much fractured, on which they placed their helpless 
fellow -adventurer. After they bad remained in the water 
about three quarters of an hour, assisting themselves by 
clinging to pieces of the wreck, one of the other boats 
arrived and took them in, no doubt greatly to their relief 
and satisfaction. But although these brave whale fisher- 
men had been so defeated, they were not subdued: fch-o 
moment they entered the boat which took them from 
the ocean, their immediate determination was for another 
attack upon the immense creature, which remained 
close by, while the other boat, which was pulling 
towards them with all the strength of its rowers, would 
still be a quarter of an hour before it could arrive. 
Captain Swain, with twelve men in one boat, there- 
fore made another attack upon the whale with the lance, 
