WHALING VOYAGE. 
355 
of London, Captain Swain, which belonged to the same 
owner as the ship I was then in. When I informed 
Captain Swain of my desire to return home, he in the 
most handsome manner offered me a passage in his 
ship, for which kind offer, under all the circumstances 
with which we were then surrounded, I shall never 
cease to feel grateful. On the same day that I have 
just mentioned, I exchanged berths with Mr. Hildyard, 
who happened to be surgeon of the Sarah and Elizabeth, 
and with whom I had been acquainted in London, he 
having studied at the same medical school in which I 
was also engaged. He entered the berth I had left by 
his own urgent desire, but much against my wishes 
and best advice, and which afterwards he had much 
reason to regret. But fate appeared to order the ex- 
change, which was greatly to my advantage, and at 
midnight, it being calm and convenient, I was conveyed 
to the Sarah and Elizabeth with the whale-boat that I 
was in so completely filled with curiosities and shells 
that the oars could not be used, so that the men were 
obliged to make use of paddles instead. 
On the dark ocean, at midnight, I took my last 
farewell look of the noble but ill-fated ship, which 
had carried me safely through a thousand dangers. 
We had weathered them together, we had travelled 
together at least twenty-five thousand miles ! and now 
in my separation from her, the tear that bedimmed my 
eye made me think that she was almost a thing of life. 
The brave seamen who had sailed with me from London, 
and who were still doomed to remain on board, saw me 
