By nightfall the next day the ship had resumed her normal
appearance, and we were a tun and a quarter of oil to the good.
Black Fish oil is of medium quality, but I learned that,
according to the rule of "roguery in all trades," it was the
custom to mix quantities such as we had just obtained with better
class whale-oil, and thus get a much higher price than it was
really worth.
Up till this time we had no sort of an idea as to where our first
objective might be, but from scraps of conversation I had
overheard among the harpooners, I gathered that we were making
for the Cape Verde Islands or the Acores, in the vicinity of
which a good number of moderate-sized sperm whales are often to
be found. In fact, these islands have long been a nursery for
whale-fishers, because the cachalot loves their steep-to shores,
and the hardy natives, whenever and wherever they can muster a
boat and a little gear, are always ready to sally forth and
attack the unwary whale that ventures within their ken.
Consequently more than half of the total crews of the American
whaling fleet are composed of these islanders. Many of them have
risen to the position of captain, and still more are officers and
harpooners; but though undoubtedly brave and enterprising, they
are cruel and treacherous, and in positions of authority over men
of Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon origin, are apt to treat their
subordinates with great cruelty.
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