Page:Colnett - Voyage to the South Pacific (IA cihm 33242).djvu/44

 tude given by La Roche: nor can I doubt, from the quantity of whales I perceived near its uppoed ituation, that it would prove a much greater acquiition than the Iland Georgia, to which many profitable voyages had been made for eal kins alone.

This route, however, will be of ome advantage to Britih navigators, even if no land hould be dicovered according to our expectations, as it will tend to undeceive the maters and owners of whalers, who have entertained an opinion that the black whale was never to be found in bodies, o far to the Eatward: for, if half the whalers belonging to London had been with me, they might have filled their veels with oil.

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 everal hours, we could not venture to hew any ail. At the ame time a whirlwind or typhoon aroe to windward, from whence in one of the qualls, two balls of fire, about the ize of cricket balls, fell on board. One of them truck the anchor which was houed on the fore-catle, and burting into particles, truck the chief mate and one of the eamen, who