men in the water, away they dashed in chase of the
whale. Impeded by the shattered boat he was dragging after him, and by
several drogues fastened to the lines, he was soon overtaken, when
another harpoon and several more lances were darted into his body.
Still unconquered, away the animal again went, and up rose his tail: he
was attempting to sound, but this his increasing weakness prevented him
from doing. Then he stopped, and his vast frame began to writhe and
twist about in every possible way, beating the surrounding sea into
foam, and dyeing it with his blood. The boats backed out of his way.
The captain had sent another boat to the assistance of the men in the
water, when it was seen that the one upset was righted, and that the
people belonging to the shattered boat had been taken on board her. She
soon joined those which were fast to the whale, and when the monster at
length lay motionless on the water, assisted them in towing it up to the
ship.

Kitty could scarcely conceal her joy when she saw Mr Falconer steering
one of the boats. I shouted with satisfaction.

The whale was soon alongside, and the operation of cutting off the
blubber, hoisting it on board, and boiling it down in huge caldrons
placed on tripods, commenced.

As night came on, the fires lighted under the pots shed a bright glare
across the deck on the rigging and on the men at work. I thought them
wild and savage-looking enough before, but they now appeared more like
beings of the lower world than men of flesh and blood.

"I have no fancy for this sort of work," observed Dick, who was a
thorough man-of-war's man. "The decks won't be fit to tread on for
another week."

However, we had the decks dirtied in the same way many a time for
several weeks after that, being very successful in catching whales.

At last the fighting part of the crew, who were not accustomed to
whaling, began to grumble, and wished to return to the coast, to carry
on the privateering, or, as Dick called it, the pirating work, which
they looked upon as the chief object of the voyage.

Lieutenant Pyke was especially urgent about the matter, and proposed
that a descent should be made on some of the towns, which he and his
brave troops, he asserted, could capture without difficulty.

On reaching the coast, we brought up in a small bay with a town on its
shore.

We had not been long at anchor, when in the evening a boat came off,
manned by natives, with three Sp