14
VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS.
tude given by La Roche: nor can I doubt, from the quantity of whales I perceived near its ſuppoſed ſituation, that it would prove a much greater acquiſition than the Iſland Georgia, to which many profitable voyages had been made for ſeal ſkins alone.
This route, however, will be of ſome advantage to Britiſh navigators, even if no land ſhould be diſcovered according to our expectations, as it will tend to undeceive the maſters and owners of whalers, who have entertained an opinion that the black whale was never to be found in bodies, ſo far to the Eaſtward: for, if half the whalers belonging to London had been with me, they might have filled their veſſels with oil.
March 23.The autumnal equinoctial gale came on us the twenty-third of March, and held upwards of four days, with frequent claps of thunder, accompanied by lightning, hail and rain. It blew as hard as I ever remember, and, for ſeveral hours, we could not venture to ſhew any ſail. At the ſame time a whirlwind or typhoon aroſe to windward, from whence in one of the ſqualls, two balls of fire, about the ſize of cricket balls, fell on board. One of them ſtruck the anchor which was houſed on the fore-caſtle, and burſting into particles, ſtruck the chief mate and one of the ſeamen, who