PREFACE.

I am well aware of the fact that the public has for a long time back been solicited in behalf of new publications in a well-nigh distracting degree. Modern facilities for book-making have ushered upon the world a new breed of the genus homo, known as the book-agent, making a fourth to be added to the list of Solomon's insatiables. And with an eye like the "ancient mariner's" and a power like that of Scheherazade for spinning a yarn, this nondescript is as far-reaching as civilization, ubiquitous as advertisements of quack medicine and persistently penetrative as the North wind, and generally about as unwelcome.

I, however, must in justice to myself and my supporters in the enterprize, repudiate the idea of now appearing in such forbidding and unpropitious form. In the first place the little work which I claim the honor of introducing to your patronage, is so unpretentious that I have not got to din your hearing with any warbled melody, or

hoarsely uttered gutturals in its praise. In the next place, as it is quite non-commital on subjects apt to cause bickerings, it is not objectionable where many of higher pretensions might be considered so.

But here I detect myself unconsciously flourishing its excellencies, and tooting its eulogy in a negative way, and that very positively; and imagining I hear a voice from some one crying "Avast there!" I will just "haul up" and let you discover, gentle reader, for yourself what more I might have to say in this line. Yet as you will not very likely be able to find out, unless I tell you, that I compiled this book without having any notes-all my papers, including a diary of the voyage, having been destroyed in a storm when we were homeward bound-allow me to state this much, by way of excuse for what defects you may observe; as also, that owing to almost entire blindness, I am quite unfitted to the task of mechanical writing, comparing of notes, assortment of papers, all inseparably involved in the getting out of a work of this nature unless with aid from an amenuensis and colaborator, who, timeously for me, turned up in the person of an old comrade, to whom the services exacted have been purely labor amoris, both of us bravely holding ourselves uninterdicted by the imperative warning

set forth in the imprecative dictum of that sublime and far-seeing genius, "the man of Uz:" "Oh that mine enemy would write a book."

Still loath in curtailing this never-to-be-slighted opportunity for puff, there is yet one thing more pressing for utterance that I would like to bring out before taking a back seat and letting the affair, standing on its own merits, speak for itself. It is that I have made endeavors in it as far as possible, to avoid technicality, with view toward all my readers having a fair chance to comprehend the meaning of the text.

With regard to the work apart from its merits or demerits intrinsically, and bearing upon the principles of its inception, there remains but a word to be said. It is true that the idea of writing a book came to me as a resort and expedient for turning over an honest dollar, to whom other avenues of advancement in the world are most peremptorily closed. By the direst of all afflictions that humanity can possibly have to groan under -deprivation of sight-I have been forced thus to turn within myself for the means of wresting from the world what it owes us all, a living, but which it will give us charily unless we use energy to procure it, like Jacob with the angel. As nothing that I could do seemed so available to this result, and as previous to my whaling, I had

been a printer, and familiar with the business of publishing, I thought of acting the part of a true American to whom nothing comes amiss, and furnishing to the world some recollections of my vanished activity in it, while yet the paths it disclosed were bright before me, and ere blindness had extinguished forever the light to one eye, and greatly obscured it to the other.

A previous experiment on a smaller and humbler scale, likewise gave me encouragement. In it I met no doubt much kind consideration which gave me its support on grounds distinct from deserts manifested in my writing, but I also encountered much hearty enconium which inspirited me to make another effort of the same kind. Both the press and individuals of good taste and acknowledged judgment in the community, accorded my first effort the approval which has breathed the breath of life into this second.

Now in placing these lucubrations before the public, I would only presume to express the sanguine hope which I cherish instead of lofty ambition, that, standing independent of the extraneous aid of the circumstances I have brought into notice, or of any other, it may prove somewhat entertaining, and not quite destitute of instruction; and that all who are induced to purchase a copy of this little production, may realize in its perusal an

equivalent for their investment. Likely they, in many cases may fail to glean from it any new fact or truth worthy to be deposited in the repertoire of their knowledge, but if they come across in it with what is refreshing to their memories of what they have previously learned, or find in it any old established information with new setting, or freshly furnished so as to afford some new degree of enjoyment, I shall have fulfilled an end I held in view from the first, and shall have the most gratifying boon that in doing, any man can desire for himself-the approval of conscience, and shall contemplate with complaisance the change effected in my personel from being an assistant whale-catcher in a Yankee schooner, to becoming a full-fledged author, with more than one work to look back upon, following my name into public notice if not into immortality, and with a liklihood to look forward too, from the mast-head as it were, of producing another ere long, detailing my adventures in quest of whales in the South Pacific.

Here I find myself naturally led to the concluding part of my preface, which is to tender to my friends my heartiest thanks for past favors showered upon me. At the same time I would inform all and sundry, that with the leisure I enjoy, and greater facilities as well as improved opportunities I possess for getting up the present volume,