miscarriages, they succeeded; thus they proceeded, step by step; the
profits of one successful enterprise helped them to purchase and
prepare better materials for a more extensive one: as these were
attended with little costs, their profits grew greater. The south
sides of the island from east to west, were divided into four equal
parts, and each part was assigned to a company of six, which though
thus separated, still carried on their business in common. In the
middle of this distance, they erected a mast, provided with a
sufficient number of rounds, and near it they built a temporary hut,
where five of the associates lived, whilst the sixth from his high
station carefully looked toward the sea, in order to observe the
spouting of the whales. As soon as any were discovered, the sentinel
descended, the whale-boat was launched, and the company went forth
in quest of their game. It may appear strange to you, that so
slender a vessel as an American whale-boat, containing six
diminutive beings, should dare to pursue and to attack, in its
native element, the largest and strongest fish that nature has
created. Yet by the exertions of an admirable dexterity, improved by
a long practice, in which these people are become superior to any
other whale-men; by knowing the temper of the whale after her first
movement, and by many other useful observations; they seldom failed
to harpoon it, and to bring the huge leviathan on the shores. Thus
they went on until the profits they made, enabled them to purchase
larger vessels, and to pursue them farther, when the whales quitted
their coasts; those who failed in their enterprises, returned to the
cod-fisheries, which had been their first school, and their first
resource; they even began to visit the banks of Cape Breton, the
isle of Sable, and all the other fishing places, with which this
coast of America abounds. By degrees they went a-whaling to
Newfoundland, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to the Straits of