y, and no whaleman would be so reckless as to incur these unless
driven thereto by the necessity of obtaining provisions; otherwise, the
islands offer great inducements to whaling captains to call, since none
but men hopelessly mad would venture to desert in such places. That
qualification is the chief one for any port to possess in the eyes of a
whaling captain.

Our skipper, however, saw no necessity for entering any port. Running up
under the lee of Mohilla, we followed the land along until we came to
a tiny bight on the western side of the island, an insignificant inlet
which no mariner in charge of a vessel like ours could be expected even
to notice, unless he were surveying. The approaches to this tiny harbour
(save the mark) were very forbidding. Ugly-looking rocks showed up here
and there, the surf over them frequently blinding the whole entry.
But we came along, in our usual leisurely fashion, under two topsails,
spanker, and fore-topmast staysail, and took that ugly passage like a
sailing barge entering the Medway. There was barely room to turn round
when we got inside, but all sail had been taken off her except the
spanker, so that her way was almost stopped by the time she was fairly
within the harbour. Down went the anchor, and she was fast--anchored for
the first time since leaving New Bedford seven months before. Here we
were shut out entirely from the outer world, for I doubt greatly whether
even a passing dhow could have seen us from seaward. We were not here
for rest, however, but wood and water; so while one party was supplied
with well-sharpened axes, and sent on shore to cut down such small trees
as would serve our turn, another party was busily employed getting out
a number of big casks for the serious business of watering. The cooper
knocked off the second or quarter hoops from each of these casks, and
drove them on again with two "beckets" or loops of rope firmly jammed
under each of them in such a manner that the loops were in line
with each other on each side of the bunghole. They were then lowered
overboard, and a long rope rove through all the beckets. When this was
done, the whole number of casks floated end to end, upright and secure.
We towed them ashore to where, by the skipper's directions, at about
fifty yards from high-water mark, a spring of beautiful water bubbled
out of the side of a mass of rock, losing itself in a deep crevice
below. Lovely ferns, rare orchids, and trailing plants