Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/455

 OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 215 the party; a desire to visit the low shores of the Dela ware once more, uniting with the mortification of the re cent changes, to induce them nil to wish to see the land of their fathers before they died. All the oil in the colony was purchased by Woolston, at rather favourable prices, the last quotations from abroad being low : the ex-governor disposed of most of his movables, in order to effect so large an operation. He also procured a glorious collection of shells, and some other light articles of the sort, filling the ship as full as she could be stowed. It was then that the necessity of having a second vessel became apparent, and Betts determined to withdraw his brig from the fishery, and to go to America in her. The whales had been driven off the original fishing-ground, and the pursuit was no longer as profitable as it had been, three fish having been taken formerly to one now; a circumstance the hierarchy of the Crater did not fail to ascribe to the changes in the constitution, while the journal attributed it to certain aristocratical tendencies which, as that paper averred, had crept into the management of the business. The vessels were loaded, the passengers disposing of as many of their movables as they could, and to good advan tage, intending to lay in fresh supplies in Philadelphia, and using the funds thus obtained to procure a freight for the bricj. At the end of a month, both vessels were ready; the different dwellings were transferred to new occupants, some by lease and others by sales, and all those who con templated a voyage to America were assembled at the crater. Previously to taking leave of a place that had be come endeared to him by so many associations and inte rests, Mr. Woolston determined to take the Anne, hiring her of the government for that purpose Governor Pennock condescendingly deciding that the public interests would not suffer by the arrangement and going in her once more through the colony, on a tour of private, if not of official inspection. Bridget, Heaton, Anne, and Captain Betts, were of the party ; the children being left at the crater, in proper custody. The first visit was paid to Rancocus Island. Here the damage done by the pirates had long been repaired; and the mills, kilns and other works, were in a state of pros-