the ſpermaceti whales, as well as others, of a different ſpecies, accompanied us. At five o'clock in the evening, when we were within ſeven or eight miles of the ſhore, it being a moon-light night, I ſent the chief mate to fiſh, ſound for an anchoring place, and, if poſſible, to land, in order to diſcover what this iſland produced. We ſtood on and off during the whole night, and, at break of day, found that the current had ſet us conſiderably to the Southward and Weſtward. In the morning, we paſſed great quantities of pumice ſtone, and the ſea was covered with ſmall ſhrimps, the common food of the black whale. It being calm, or light winds all night, and the firſt part of the day, we did not get in with the ſhore, till two o'clock in the afternoon. We ſounded within five miles of it, but found no bottom, with one hundred and fifty fathoms of line.
In the evening, the boat returned, when the mate informed me, that he had ſounded off the lee-ſide of the iſle, and could not find a place of ſafety for the ſhip to lay in, or a landing for the boat, except in a ſmall cove, near the South point. They had caught a ſufficient quantity of fiſh for all hands, conſiſting of a kind of cod, ſnapper, and ſilver-fiſh; and they might have taken more, but the ſharks, which were very numerous, ran away with the hooks. On the iſland they