130 THE CRATER; the men of all but those who belonged to the Henlopen were altogether inexperienced. It is true, they had learned the theory of the art of taking a whale; but they were utterly wanting in the practice. Betts was not the man to have the game in. view, however, and not make an effort to overcome it. His boat was manned in an instant, and away he went, with Socrates in the bows, to fasten to a huge creature that was rolling on the water in a species of sluggish enjoyment of its instincts. It often happens that very young soldiers, more especially when an esprit de- corps has been awakened in them, achieve things from which older troops would retire, under the consciousness of their hazards. So did it prove with the Martha s boat s crew on this occasion. Betts steered, and he put them directly on the whale ; Socrates, who looked fairly green under the influence of alarm and eagerness to attack, both increased by the total novelty of his situation, making his dart of the harpoon when the bows of the fragile craft were literally over the huge body of the animal. All the energy of the negro was thrown into his blow, for he felt as if it were life or death with him ; and the whale spouted blood immediately. It is deemed a great exploit with whalers, though it is not of very rare occurrence, to inflict a death- wound with the harpoon ; that implement being intended to make fast with to the fish, which is subsequently slain with what is termed a lance. But Socrates actually killed the first whale he ever struck, with the harpoon ; and from that moment he became an important personage in the fisheries of those seas. That blow was a sort of Palo Alto affair to him, and was the forerunner of many similar suc cesses. Indeed, it soon got to be said, that " with Bob Betts to put the boat on, and old Soc to strike, a whale commonly has a hard time on t." It is true, that a good many boats were stove, and two Kannakas were drowned, that very summer, in consequence of these tactics; but the whales were killed, and Betts and the black escaped with whole skins. On this, the first occasion, the whale made the water foam, half-filled the boat, and would have dragged it under, but for the vigour of the negro s arm, and the home cha racter of the blow, which caused the fish to turn up and
