We made sail on a wind, and soon after raised a whale on the weather beam coming to leeward. From his actions, as at times he lashed the water into foam, we were satisfied that it was the same whale that we had struck. Soon another was seen off the lee beam coming to windward. We hauled aback and lowered away again, spreading our chances well. The two whales came together, and jogged to leeward in company. The next chance fell to our boat, and, as the mate called me up to dart, I perceived that the whale with the iron hanging at his side was farthest from me, and, seeing not much choice in them for size, I pitched my iron into the other one. The other boats were on hand to assist us, and we soon killed and secured this whale, while the wounded one again escaped, spouting strong and clear. We had light airs for three or four days succeeding this, and were not slow to express our discontent, as we made but little progress towards Sydney, the port we were all so anxious to see. We had cut and boiled out our first whale, and still the wind was lighter than ever, almost gone entirely, while our ship, seeming as impatient as ourselves, lay rolling on the glassy sea, when a black object was seen from the masthead, five or six miles off, abeam of us, tossing into view on the swell, and disappearing again; and, after examining it through the spyglass, we were satisfied that it was a dead whale. So our boat was lowered away to examine him, and found a large whale, but little blasted, having been dead, apparently about forty-eight hours. We cut out the iron from his side and found, as we expected, the name "Arethusa," underrun our line, and saved the whole of it, set a waif for the other boats, and towed him down to the ship in triumph. We now had reason to congratulate ourselves upon the light airs that had been the occasion of so much growling, and instead of having lost a line, with nothing to show for it, as at one time seemed to be the result of our attack upon these two whales, we had saved it, and added a hundred and fifty barrels of sperm oil to our cargo.