154 
PORTER’S JOURNAL, 
English political pamphlet, from which we were led to suppose 
they had been English. We were in hopes of finding also a 
bottle containing letters, as it is a frequent practice for vessels 
engaged in the whale trade to leave them at their stopping’ 
places; but, after the most diligent search, we were unable to 
find any. In the neighbourhood of this place we killed an enor¬ 
mous sea-lion, and several seals, and in the course of half an 
hour caught as many fish as the boat could conveniently carry ; 
and in the same time every boat belonging to the ship, had they 
been properly provided with hooks and lines, might have been 
loaded. There were a great variety, and all proved to be of an 
excellent quality. The sharks proved troublesome to us in 
taking away hooks, and sometimes snatching the fish from the 
lines ; but on the whole we were well compensated for the time 
we spent, and the few T hooks we lost, by the excellent repast they 
afforded. 
Proceeding along shore to the northward of the bason, on a 
small sandy beach, among some rocks, we saw a number of tur ¬ 
tle, which we turned on their backs; and a short distance fur¬ 
ther to the north, in a small and shallow cove near some man¬ 
grove trees, we found a great many more, and succeeded in turn¬ 
ing upwards of 30 of them, all of that species called the green 
turtle, and most of them upwards of 300 weight. At both these 
places I caused large fires to be made, and on my return to the 
ship, where I did not arrive until dark, I dispatched two boats 
to bring them off; the fires guided them to the spot; but on 
their arrival on board next morning they brought with them 
only ten, as a sudden rise of the tide (a circumstance we had not 
sufficiently guarded against) had enabled the rest to make their 
escape, and even of those that were brought alongside, one of the 
largest among them was lost overboard in getting it on board. 
We however had enough remaining to give two or three fresh 
messes to all hands. 
As the Barclay had not been enabled to get into the bay, in 
consequence of the violence of the current, and as we had lost 
sight of her, I concluded it best to run out and see what had 
become of her ; and at 12 o’clock discovered her standing in for 
