VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS.
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we drifted. In the winter ſeaſon, when the winds are more freſh, theſe difficulties might not occur, otherwiſe, it would be impoſſible for any veſſel, which was not a very prime ſailer, to whale here with ſucceſs; though at a certain ſeaſon any quantity of ſperm oil might be procured. The oldeſt whale-fiſhers, with whom I have converſed, as well as thoſe on board my ſhip, uniformly declared that they had never ſeen ſpermaceti whales in a ſtate of copulation, or ſquid their principal food in ſhoals before; but both theſe objects were very common off theſe iſles, and we frequently killed the latter, of four or five feet in length, with the granes. Young ſpermaceti whales were alſo ſeen in great numbers, which were not larger than a ſmall porpoiſe. I am diſpoſed to believe that we were now at the general rendezvous of the ſpermaceti whales from the coaſts of Mexico, Peru, and the Gulf of Panama, who come here to calve: as among thoſe we killed, there was but one bull-whale. The ſituation I recommend to all cruizers, is between the South end of Narborough iſle and the Rock Rodondo: though great care muſt be taken, not to go to the North of the latter; for there the current ſets at the rate of four and five miles an hour due North. Narborough Iſle falls gradually down to a point at the North, South, and Eaſt ends, and may be equal in produce to any of the neighbouring iſles; but of this I can only
