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Besides our own ship, and the above-mentioned corvette, commanded by Captain Simson, three merchant ships under Chilian, and three whalers under English colours also lay here. In the afternoon I went ashore myself, and paid the Commandant a visit; I was received in the most friendly manner, but with a good deal of Spanish etiquette, by an old man, who was evidently a zealous republican.
About the middle of the nineteenth century a large amount of American capital was invested in the whaling industry in Japanese and Chinese waters, and one motive for the sending of Perry's expedition to Japan was the protection of the whalers.
There were fine East Indiamen, emigrant ships, American clippers, steamers, traders foreign and English whalers, &c., waiting there only through want of seamen. In the cool of the evening our gallant host rowed us back to the beach. Since our first landing, tents and stores had been erected in great numbers, and Little Adelaide was grown wonderfully.
It was he who must first throw the harpoon, then watch the unrolling of the long line fastened at its end; then, finally finish the animal with spears, when it should return to the surface of the ocean. Whalers sometimes employ firearms for this kind of fishing.
Pitch-the-bar was a trial of strength rather than of skill, and was popular with sturdy Nantucket whalers till into this century, though deemed hopelessly plebeian in old England. We hear of foot-ball being played by Boston boys in Boston streets and lanes; of the Rowley Indians playing it in 1686 on the broad sandy shore, where it was "more easie," since they played barefooted.
Not so many years ago some whalers secured a lot of walrus hides and tusks by having a whole herd of walrus wiped out, in spite of the fact that these animals were, at that very time, known to be the only food available for a neighbouring tribe of Eskimos. The Eskimos were starved to death, every soul among them, as the Government explorers found out.
My irons were first in this fish; I never have been loose from it, since it was first struck, and my lance killed it. Under such circumstances, sir, I am surprised that any man, who knows the usages among whalers, should have stuck by the creature as you have done." "It's in my natur', Gar'ner," was the answer.
But the census of the isle, sadly lessened by the dispensation of justice, and not materially recruited by matrimony, began to fill his mind with sad mistrust. Some way the population must be increased. Now, from its possessing a little water, and its comparative pleasantness of aspect, Charles's Isle at this period was occasionally visited by foreign whalers.
Katherine listened to this digression in honor of the whalers of Nantucket, with marked complacency; and, when he concluded, she repeated slowly: "Coffin! this, then, is long Tom!"
It is customary for the boats of the whalers to have two or three lines coiled in them, which not only gives them great stability, but, with good management, makes it difficult for a bear, when swimming, to put his paw upon the gunwale, which they generally endeavour to do; whereas, with our boats, which are more light and crank, and therefore very easily heeled over, I have more than once seen a bear on the point of taking possession of them.
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