OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 135 being stiff enough to be brought from the Reef to Blubber Island, under some of her lower sails. This moving of vessels among the islands of the group was a very easy matter, so long as they were not to be carried to windward ; and, a further acquaintance with the channels, had let the mariners into the secret of turning up, against the trades and within the islands, by keeping in such reaches as enabled them to go as near the wind as was necessary, while they were not compelled to go nearer than a craft could lie. Such was the commencement of a trade that was des tined to be of the last importance to our colonists. The oil that was brought in, from this first cruise, a cruise that lasted less than two months, and including that taken by all the boats, amounted to two thousand barrels, quite fill ing the lower hold of the Rancocus, and furnishing her with more than half of a full cargo. At the prices which then ruled in the markets of Europe and America, three thousand five hundred barrels of spermaceti, with a due proportion of head matter, was known to be worth near an hundred thousand dollars; and might be set down as large a return for labour, as men could obtain under the most advantageous circumstances. CHAPTER X. The forest reels beneath the stroke Of sturdy woodman s axe ; The earth receives the white man s yoke, And pays her willing tax Of fruits, and flowers, and golden harvest fields, And all that nature to blithe labour yields." PAULDIITG. NOTWITHSTANDING the great success which attended the beginning of the whaling, it was six months before the Rancocus was loaded, and ready to sail for Hamburgh with her cargo. This time the ship went east, at once,
