The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1858-10-21

a 6 poor scholar with q snort sPooo
whilst giving a rough sketch of the past Season
whaling and other matters in the North anu A'''
AS generally send several of your valuable papers
each fall to my friends in the States it VIII save "e
the trouble Of writing q number OF letters II ge' M
insertion of my royings for the past season IN LUG
advertiser. ,
We left Honolulu in April for the hodlacK =.
Arctic, with the intention of stopping o COUPE y
months ON right whaling ground, and then proceea-
inc North. We arrived on the kodiack the iast =
the month, but as the weather was foggy, ana "ucn
of the time blowing for three or four weeks, ana SEQ
ing but few whales, we changed our original inten-
tions. and started direct for the Arctic. we a''ef-
wards had reason to regret this course. as we iearneu
by report that several ships had done well tnere' u
Rainbow especially, taking 1900 or l6OO bois' anu
the bark Cynthia, Capt. Sherman, OF Honolulu, q
riously reported with from 500 to l29O bbis, whist
we did not take our first whale till near the middle OF
July in the Arctic.
In the Kodiack we lost a kanaka, the hrst OF three
who died within two months Of each other. The Sec
ond died whilst we were cruising along the ice below
Cape Thaddeus, and the last just before entering
Bhering Straits. 1t seemed to me q cold grave ana
a hard fate for these poor natives of the warm ana
sunny isles of the South as I saw them lowered down
into the icy-cold waters, there to decompose ana
again become part of the elements Of Nature. Surely,
thought 1, as the last words Of the great statesman
and patriot, the Hon. j. @. Adams, came to my
mind, Sc this is the last of earth" But 1t Is 0 debt
we all have to pay, and we soon get accustomed to
view scenes of this kind with comparative indifference.
The loss of Ben,' from Tahiti, the last one who died,
left q void in our circle which has been felt ever
since. He was with us last season, was young. good
gay, jovial. and fond of music, being gener-
ally drumming for others to dance in his watch be-
low. The other two were from kohala, Hawaii. All
three were young and diseased when they shipped.
We started for the North in company with the
Nm. Tell, Emerald, barks ~: S. Perkins and
.Mefropolis. but had not passed the Fox Islands into
Bristol Bay but two or three degrees before we
came to the ice, and by following it west found that
it reached across the entire sea to the kamschatka
shore and back some GOO or 700 miles to the Arctic.
On the West side below Cape Thaddeus, along the ice,
in lat. $50 or 6Oe, 80 or 40 ships sembled and for
a short time there were any quantity of bowheads,
2OOO or 5000 bbls. being taken by the different
ships before the whales left. A number of ships took
from one to three whales each, and the brig Agate
took a 200 or $50 Dbl. whale but three or four weeks
from Honolulu, and the bark Harmony and a New
Bedford bark each got 500 or 600 bbls. before going
into the Arctic. The Harmony was badly jammed
in the ice. and the SpeedweH and addison slightly,
whilst the French ship Napoleon ILL., was sunk.
The crew were all saved, and two of them got from the
South america on board this bark Ont of l2OO or
1900 bbls. but 800 or 400 were saved by the Brag-
anza. there were now in the vicinity some thirty
eight or forty whaling vessels, a list of which l send
you. 1--WE omit the Gst.]
Some of them were not reported as to whales, and
afterwards not heard of as being in the Arctic, and
several just went into the Arctic and left again. The
.4rchitect and Florida on the Kodiack got 1000 bbls.
each, but it is thought that the fleets of both the
Kodiack and Arctic did not average 500 bbls. each
The Oahu brigs and banks, five of which were in the
Arctic. are fitted out for both trade and whaling, and
Capt. Comstock of the Metropolis, when last heard
from, had 10, 600 lbs. walrus teeth, and more whale
bone got of the natives for tobacco, &c. The Emer-
aid, Benjamin Tucker, Japan, Sd0ah Shea, South
-america and Trident are on their third season, and
go home this fall.
We lay alongside the ice for weeks and could not
get into the Arctic till the 1st of July. 1t is a sub
iect of wonder how so much of it will melt away each
day IN this cold climate. 1t was most of the time
calm and pleasant, and leagues of it would vanish in
a few hours. We passed Ployer Bay through the ice
in company with fifteen or twenty ships and arrived
at Cape East opposite st. Lawrence Island on the
Russian shore. Here the natives came off in canoes,
the first of the ..rctic Indians I had ever seen. and a
more filthy, degraded, f~oul-smelling set of creatures
claiming affinity to the human race l never saw.
The smell of their skin clothes is almost intolerable,
even on a whaleship. All they appear to care about,
both men and women, is tobacco and rum first, and
then knives, nee les, thimbles. and the few articles
they make use of in their rude state. The men and
women would clap their hands to their cheeks and
beg g tobak,' even after they had got two kegs for
their ivory. In justice to the women 1 would say
that they appear to be strictly virtuous in their in
with seamen. except & at st. Lawrence Island,
where they offered a house and women to sailors if
they would go ashore. Their virtue, as a general
thing, may well be maintained, for a more ILL., propor-
toned, dwarish-looking set I never saw. Their faces
are broad, and their lips and mouths lack all express
sion. 1 would accept three or four young girls saw
at the town in the straits, who had fair features and
looked all the more interesting from the savage cos
tune in which they were dressed. They had mecca
sins, skin leggins and hunting coats the same as the
men.
The men who we're wrecked on the bark Indian
Chief last season, nine of whom wintered amongst
the natives at Indian Point, do not confirm the COM
mon opinion of seamen about the virtue of the women.
Two of their number died. They say the underground
houses are extremely warm in winter, though it is
dreadful cold in the open air. They were hard
pinched for food last winter, and n devil6sh which
ashore and had been dead a long time was
used by them. Other tribes still worse off came to
them for assistance. They only eat the black skin
and an inch or SO of blubber next to it. The rest
they use for fuel. The men, three of whom are on
the bark Fortune, say that in the winter, when il has
it has a sour and not disagreeable taste.
Whale ships have made sad inroads on their two
principal articles of food, whale and walrus. They
a whale late last fall, but getting foul of the ice
off what blubber they could and let him go. The
town in the Straits on the Asiatic shore contains some
or sixty walrus hide huts, on the side of a steep
and high hill, which comes down to the waters edge,
with just sand beach enough for their canoes, of