Leviathan. 
225 
could see from the masthead. ... I saw a very 
great prospect of establishing a fishery upon 
this coast.” That was over a hundred and six 
years ago, and at the present time, during 
certain months of the year when the whales 
are travelling northward to the Bampton Shoals 
and the islands of the East Indian Archipelago, 
the same sight may be seen from any headland 
on the Australian mainland ; for to-day the 
whales are as plentiful and as fearless of human 
foes as they were then. But, alas ! the ships and 
the men are gone. 
Melville, the master of the Britannia , was, 
however, a shrewd fellow, and as soon as he 
had got clear of his cargo of 150 convicts, he 
went to Governor Phillip and asked him to 
expedite his ship’s departure so that he might 
cruise for whales even with the poor equipment 
he could secure in Sydney. He and his officers 
had tried to keep both their discovery and in¬ 
tentions in regard thereto a secret, but several 
of his ship’s company were not so reticent, and 
when the Britannia's bluff old bows splashed 
into the sweeping billows of the Pacific four 
other ships followed almost in her wake. These 
were the Matilda , William and Ann , Salamander, 
16 
