WHALING VOYAGE. 
349 
all afraid of running upon them in the utter dark- 
ness which prevailed during the violence of the storm. 
But even if it had been light, and we had been so 
situated, with land in our front, I doubt very much 
whether we could have escaped the imminent danger of 
shipwreck, as it was impossible to steer the ship in 
any other course than directly before the wind. For 
even if the ship “ yawed ” in the steering one or two 
points against it, it appeared to increase with tenfold 
violence, and such was the horrid howling of the wind, 
the roaring of the waters, the clashing of the “back- 
stays/’ creaking of the masts, and flapping of the torn 
fragments of the sails, that it appeared as if the demon 
of the storm was about to overwhelm and utterly de- 
molish us with all his wrath. 
On the 21st of April, we again made the Bonin 
Islands, and on my first visit to the shore I busied 
myself in clearing a small space of land on the left of 
the large bay, which is situated on the south-west por- 
tion of South Island, for the purpose of planting some 
cocoa-nuts, yams, and bananas, w r hich we had brought 
with us from Guam. I afterwards engraved my name in 
the bark of a large tamana tree which grew by the side 
of my plantation, as a frail memento of my visit. 
On our first arrival at the termination of this bay, we 
saw no less than upwards of a hundred large green 
turtle of the finest quality, lying upon the white sandy 
shore basking in the sun. Approaching the beach 
upon which they were lying, in the most cautious man- 
ner, w r e began turning them over upon their backs with 
