356 
SOUTH SEA 
leave them with regret ; all of them would have followed 
me, but it was impossible : such is the effect of tyranny 
that they would have abandoned the captain to his fate, 
but they had no door by which to escape. 
After I had left them, they commenced the Japan 
fishery, but obtained only a small quantity of oil ; they 
then went to the coast of California, and there they met 
with the same ill success ; the ship then sailed towards 
the equinoctial line, and there they lost the source of all 
their misfortunes— the captain died, and his corse was 
committed to the great deep, “ without a mark, without 
a bound/" 
The people who remained on board obtained but little 
oil afterwards, because they had by this time been out so 
long that provisions were getting scant, their rigging 
and the ship also were getting in a dilapidated state. 
The men who were left on board, for by this time many 
had forsaken her, were completely dispirited, their con- 
joined cry was for home ! to which they endeavoured 
to get as fast as the condition of their sails and cordage 
would allow them. And after they had put the owner 
to an enormous expense, touching at one place and 
another as they sailed along, finding it necessary to do 
so, they at length were fortunate enough to arrive at the 
port from whence they sailed, after an absence of three 
long years and a half, during which time they had only 
procured one-half of an average cargo. 
