business of the voyage, nothing is farther from my plan than to
neglect the very interesting portion of our cruise which relates
to visiting strange, out-of-the-way corners of the world. If
--which I earnestly deprecate--the description hitherto given of
sperm whale-fishing and its adjuncts be found not so interesting
as could be wished, I cry you mercy. I have been induced to give
more space to it because it has been systematically avoided in
the works upon whale-fishing before mentioned, which, as I have
said, were not intended for popular reading. True, neither may
my humble tome become popular either; but, if it does not, no one
will be so disappointed as the author.

We had made but little progress during the week of oil
manufacture, very little attention being paid to the sails while
that work was about; but, as the south-east trades blew steadily,
we did not remain stationary altogether. So that the following
week saw us on the south side of the tropic of Capricorn, the
south-east trade done, and the dirty weather and variable
squalls, which nearly always precede the "westerlies," making our
lives a burden to us. Here, however, we were better off than in
an ordinary merchantman, where doldrums are enough to drive you
mad. The one object being to get along, it is incessant "pully-
hauly," setting and taking in sail, in order, on the one hand, to
lose no time, and, on the other, to lose no sails. Now, with us,
whenever the weather was doubtful or squally-looking, we
shortened sail, and kept it fast till better weather came along,
being quite careless whether we made one mile a day or one
hundred. But just because nobody took any notice of our progress
as the days passed, we were occasionally startled to find how far
we had really got. This was certainly the case with all of us