Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/98

32 between Captain Duck and Mr. Brown, the whaling-master. The captain was of opinion that these vessels should be looked after, although contrary to their instructions: Mr. Brown, on the other hand, contended that the whaling cruise should alone occupy their attention, although the ground appeared so bad. It was, however, at length determined that the Port au Prince should proceed for the island of Ceros, to make up for her ill success in her whaling cruize, by laying in a cargo of elephant oil and seal skins, this being part of her instructions. The two vessels laden with cocoa were therefore not waited for, although they would undoubtedly have been rich prizes. Here it may with propriety be remarked, that had the Port au Prince been fitted out alone as a privateer, she might have made a good voyage; or had her instructions been in such discretionary terms that the captain could have acted according to his own judgment, she might equally have made a successful cruise. But having two objects in view, the attention being divided between them, and all operations being fettered by the rigidness of the instructions, her success was far less than what it otherwise would have been.

No circumstance of importance occurred up to the 30th of July, when the island of Ceros appeared within sight, bearing N. W. ½ N. twenty