WHALING VOYAGE. 
287 
join with the unseen spirits of darkness, which are said 
to “ walk the night ” while the rest of nature lies in 
profound repose. 
A fire now became the first object of our attention : 
what was our sorrow when we found that we had left 
the ship without the necessary apparatus for obtaining 
one, — but our genius of good fortune had not yet for- 
saken us. In the person of the New Zealander we found 
a fortunate assistant, who by the friction of rubbing two 
pieces of wood together produced to our eager eyes a 
flame, which soon ignited a pile of wood that we had 
gathered for the purpose, and we began to prepare a 
repast from the fish we had been so fortunate as to cap- 
ture. Our New Zealand friend, by a process peculiar 
to the tribe to which he belonged, quickly removed by 
the aid of his thumb nail the strong and large scales of 
a very fine fish, then thrusting a long stick into its 
mouth, he stood to windward of the blazing fire, and by 
turning the stick frequently round, soon cooked in a 
masterly manner the unfortunate inhabitant of the ocean. 
In tw r o old shells he found upon the beach, in one of 
which he placed a portion of the fish, while the other 
contained a little salt water for sauce, did our useful 
companion serve up to myself and the mate this humble 
meal. This plan was quickly followed by our compa- 
nions, and in a short time all but myself might have 
been seen in the arms of Morpheus ; they were much 
fatigued or they could not have slept, for now the storm 
had increased to tenfold violence. Standing alone upon 
the beach, I observed with awe this convulsion of nature, 
