WHALING VOYAGE. 
CHAPTER IV. 
On the 28th of March 1831, our sails were again 
unfurled, and refreshing breezes soon wafted us from 
Monta Christa. Our friends, and among them many a 
dark-eyed maid, watched the gradually dissolving form 
of our ship as she ploughed and glided over the blue 
waters that every moment widened the distance which 
intervened between us, while we sailed along the equi- 
noctial line and ran down our longitude to the west. 
Thousands of flying squid, medusae, and polipi now 
crowded the limpid waves, and about four days’ sail from 
Monta Christa we fell in with a school of female sperm 
whales, which were the first we had yet seen, although 
we had now been absent from England about six months, 
and a good “look out” had been kept for them the 
whole of that time. The three mates were put upon 
their first trial of skill this voyage, and the bustle of the 
chase commenced ; and in a short time they were for- 
tunate enough to prove their prowess by bringing along- 
side the ship four slain monsters of the deep, amid the 
well-merited cheers and congratulations of their fellow- 
adventurers. On the sixth day from our departure from 
the shore we again saw whales, but we did not succeed 
in taking any of them, and all sail was crowded upon 
our gallant bark for the Sandwich Islands, on our way 
