In August, Captain Porter, with the American frigate Essex, cruising in the Pacific Ocean, captured twelve armed British whalers.

Captain Hull, an experienced whaler, would leave nothing to chance.

"But dame Nature, always capricious in her favors, has denied fertility to the adjacent soil; and the supply of water is limited, in consequence of which it is seldom resorted to, except by foreign whalers fishing on the coast.

After that no further attempt was made, and for nearly a year before we occupied the town our naval whalers and small cruisers sailed, the white ensign proudly flying, into the harbour to anchor and to watch the interned shipping.

Notable whalers, 127.

This certainly caused us some alarm, but, fortunately for us, a good-sized whaler, the Marianne, was then lying at anchor in the port, having arrived but a few days previously.

I am informed that many of the stoutest whalers are produced among our small Indian tribes.