ghy at her stern. She hoisted the
Hawaiian colours in response to ours, and, as the breeze was very light,
I hailed her skipper and we began to talk. Our skipper wanted some
pump-leather; he wanted some white sugar.

'Come aboard,' he said, 'and have dinner with me. I'll give you a barrel
of 'Frisco potatoes to take back.'

We lowered our whale-boat, and, taking two hands, I pulled alongside the
barque. Although under the Hawaiian flag, her officers were nearly all
Americans, and, as is always the case in the South Seas, we were soon on
friendly terms. The four ships were all making for Jakoits Harbour, in
Ponape, to wood and water; and I said we would keep company with them.
Our own skipper, I must mention, was just recovering from wild, weird
visions of impossible, imaginary animals, superinduced by Hollands gin,
and I wanted to put him ashore at Ponape for a week or so.

After dinner the American captain put a barrel of potatoes into
our boat, and I bade him good-bye for the time. The breeze was now
freshening, and, as he decided to get into Jakoits before dark, the
barque made sail, and was soon a good distance ahead of our vessel.

Between four and five o'clock we saw the foremost whaler--the
ship--brace up sharp, and almost immediately the other three followed
suit. We soon discovered the cause--whales had been sighted, coming down
from windward. The 'pod' or school was nearest to us, and we could see
them quite plainly from the deck. Every now and then one of them would
'breach' and send up a white mass of foam, and by their course I saw
that they would pass between us and the barque--the ship nearest to us.
In less than five minutes there were more than a dozen boats lowered
from the four vessels, all pulling their hardest to reach the whales
first. The creatures came along very leisurely, then, when about a mile
from the schooner, hove-to for a short time; their keen hearing told
them of danger ahead, for three or four of them sounded, and then made
off to windward. These were followed by all the boats from the other
three vessels, and two from the barque, the remaining two belonging to
the latter pulling across our bows, close together and within a hundred
yards of us.

The rest of the whales--some cows, with their calves, and a bull--after
lying quiet for a short time, also sounded, but soon rose again, quite
close to the two boats. That of the chief mate got 'fast' first to one
of the cows, and away the