ix thousand barrels of sperm
oil--from the neighbourhood to which we were now bound. He always
admitted, though, that the weather he experienced was unprecedented.
Still, nothing could shake his belief in the wonderful numbers of sperm
whales to be found on the south coasts of New Zealand, which faith was
well warranted, since he had there won from the waves, not only the
value of his new ship, but a handsome profit in addition, all in one
season.

Hearing this kind of thing every day made me feel quite hungry to reach
the battle-field; but, for reasons which doubtless were excellent,
although I cannot pretend to explain them, we started north about, which
not only added nearly one hundred miles to the distance we had to go,
but involved us in a gale which effectually stopped our progress for
a week. It was our first taste of the gentle zephyrs which waft their
sweetness over New Zealand, after sweeping over the vast, bleak,
iceberg-studded expanse of the Antarctic Ocean. Our poor Kanakas were
terribly frightened, for the weather of their experience, except on the
rare occasions when they are visited by the devastating hurricane, is
always fine, steady, and warm. For the first time in their lives they
saw hail, and their wonder was too great for words. But the cold was
very trying, not only to them, but to us, who had been so long in the
tropics that our blood was almost turned to water. The change was nearly
as abrupt as that so often experienced by our seamen, who at the rate of
sixteen knots an hour plunge from a temperature of eighty degrees to one
of thirty degrees in about three days.

We, with the ready adaptability of seamen, soon got accustomed to the
bleak, bitter weather, but the Kanakas wilted like hothouse plants under
its influence. They were well fed and well clothed, yet they seemed
to shrivel up, looking thinner every day, several of them getting deep
coughs strongly suggestive of a cemetery. It was no easy task to get
them to work, or even move, never a one of them lumbering aloft but I
expected him to come down by the run. This was by no means cheering,
when it was remembered what kind of a campaign lay before us. Captain
Count seemed to be quite easy in his mind, however, and as we had
implicit confidence in his wisdom and judgment, we were somewhat
reassured.

The gale at last blew itself out, the wind veering to the northward
again, with beautiful, spring-like weather, just cool enough to be
pl