4 25Q 
PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
they had cut in, but had not time to try onto The captain infrnor- 
ed me there was as much as Would make from 80 to 90 barrels, 
and that it would require three days to try it out; but as I under* 
stood that it would be worth between two and three thousand dollars, 
I determined that it should not be lost. I therefore put on board her 
a crew who had been accustomed to the whaling business, and pla¬ 
ced the ship in the charge of Mr. Adams, the chaplain, with direc¬ 
tions to try out and stow away the oil with all possible expedition; 
but that he might do it more conveniently, I directed him to bear 
up for the harbour where the other prizes lay, (which I have call¬ 
ed Port Rendezvous,) and there I intended to run with the Essex ; 
but the wind growing light, and having a strong current against 
me, I was not enabled to get abreast the harbour until 10 o’clock 
at night; and not conceiving it prudent to run in, I stood through 
the sound into Banks’ Bay; and this I was the more strongly in¬ 
duced to do, as lieut. Gamble had come off in his boat to the Es¬ 
sex, and informed me that the look-out had reported that he had 
heard several guns to the northward the day before ; and that, since 
my departure, a ship had appeared in Banks’ Bay at three different 
times ; but on comparing the dates of her appearance with the 
log-book of the Sir Andrew Hammond, it proved to be her. The 
guns I could not so well account for, nor could I for the appear¬ 
ance of a fresh whale carcase that had lately came into the bay ; 
I therefore took a look in the offing, but, perceiving no vessels, I 
beat up for Port Rendezvous against a fresh land breeze, and an¬ 
chored there in fifteen fathoms water, a little outside of all the 
prizes, being one and a half cable’s length distant from each side 
of the harbour, and two and a half or three cables’ length from the 
bottom of the port. I here moored head and stern, and lay per¬ 
fectly secure from all winds. The officers and crews of the pri¬ 
zes, as may naturally be supposed, were greatly rejoiced to see 
me, as they were heartily tired of being confined to this most de¬ 
solate and dreary place, where the only sounds to be heard were 
the screaching of the sea-fowls, and the melancholy howlings of 
the seals. Their rest was much disturbed the few first nights of 
their arrival there, but after that the seals abandoned their haunts; 
sUid even their absence wa?s regretted, as their noise, disagreeable 
