VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS.
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had now an heavy ſea, torrents of rain, accompanied with thunder and lightning, and winds from every point of the compaſs, though principally from Eaſt to South Eaſt, which blew right into the roads we had left; and it is more than probable, from the ſtate of our cable, and not laying more than a mile and an half from the ſhore, that, if we had attempted to ride out the gale, the ſhip would have been loſt. It was, indeed, one of the worſt nights I had experienced ſince I left Cape Horn.
Dec. 3.On the third day of December, we got in with the ſhore again, and obſerving the jolly-boat alone, I felt the ſevereſt anxiety reſpecting the other boat and crew. We hove too, with the head off ſhore, and the whaling maſter was diſpatched with every one on board, except myſelf, to aſcertain what had become of them. Fortunately no accident had happened, except the wetting they had undergone from the violence of the rain, and the whale boat which I had miſſed, with ſome ſolicitude, had been taken by them on a fiſhing party, in order to bring a ſupply of fiſh on board the ſhip. I allowed the ſick crew one day more to be on ſhore, and changed the party which was on board during the gale, to accompany them. During the whole