the same effect as he passed under our consort's
stern.

"I keep the ten commandments, Captain Hake," answered Captain Bland.
"The Master who gave them is the greatest of the two, and He will look
after the owners' interests."

By night on that occasion our boats had brought two whales alongside,
but the crews were so weary from having been away all day under a
scorching sun that they were unable to commence cutting in till next
morning. At that time the boats of the "Lady Alice" were away, and in
less than an hour had brought one whale alongside; shortly afterwards
another was secured, so that as it turned out both ships commenced
trying out at the same time, and the "Lady Alice" had the whole of the
oil stowed away by Saturday night. The same sort of thing occurred more
than once after this. Captain Bland adhered to his rule, and by the end
of the week had stowed as many barrels of oil in his hold as we had.

At length whales becoming scarce, the two captains agreed to proceed
westward across the Pacific to the Japan whaling ground. We called off
various islands on our way, chiefly to obtain fresh provisions and
water. At length we reached the neighbourhood of the Kingsmill group,
off which we found so many whales that we remained for several months,
during which time we captured a large number. As there is no safe
anchorage the ships had to stand off and on while the boats went on
shore to obtain water and provisions, but we had to be very careful in
our dealings with the natives, who were thorough savages and treacherous
in the extreme.

The weather now gave signs of changing, but as every day a whale was
seen the captains were tempted to remain on. I had of late frequently
gone away in the boats, generally with Medley, who had become a good
harpooner. For two days not a whale had been seen, and we were on the
point of proceeding further west when about noon a whole school
appeared, and scattering sported far and wide over the surface of the
deep. All the boats from both ships were lowered, and I went in one
with Medley, who was intent on attacking a large whale which we saw to
the eastward, in which direction the land lay from us. Just as we had
got within a dozen fathoms of the monster up went its flukes and it
sounded, leaving us looking very blank at the spot where it had gone
down. It might be forty minutes or more before it would come up again.
We determined to wait, and as we had had a sharp p