Those, then, most skilful in this fishery are the Basques, who, for the purpose of engaging in it, take their vessels to a place of security, and near where they think whales are plenty. Then they equip several shallops manned by competent men and provided with hawsers, small ropes made of the best hemp to be found, at least a hundred and fifty fathoms long. They are also provided with many halberds of the length of a short pike, whose iron is six inches broad; others are from a foot and a half to two feet long, and very sharp. Each shallop has a harpooner, the most agile and adroit man they have, whose pay is next highest to that of the masters, his position being the most dangerous one. This shallop being outside of the port, the men look in all quarters for a whale, tacking about in all directions. But, if they see nothing, they return to the shore, and ascend the highest point they can find, and from which they can get the most extensive view. Here they station a man on the look-out. They are aided in catching sight of a whale both by his size and the water he spouts through his blow-holes, which is more than a puncheon at a time, and two lances high. From the amount of this water, they estimate how much oil he will yield. From some they get as many as one hundred and twenty puncheons, from others less. Having caught sight of this monstrous fish, they hasten to embark in their shallops, and by rowing or sailing they advance until they are upon him. Seeing him under water, the harpooner goes at once to the prow of the shallop with his harpoon, an iron two feet long and half a foot wide at the lower part, and attached to a stick as long as a small pike, in the middle of which is a hole to which the hawser is made fast. The harpooner, watching his time, throws his harpoon at the whale, which enters him well forward. As soon as he finds himself wounded, the whale goes down. And if by chance turning about, as he does sometimes, his tail strikes the shallop, it breaks it like glass. This is the only risk they run of being killed in harpooning. As soon as they have thrown the harpoon into him, they let the hawser run until the whale reaches the bottom. But sometimes he does not go straight to the bottom, when he drags the shallop eight or nine leagues or more, going as swiftly as a horse. Very often they are obliged to cut their hawser, for fear that the whale will take them underwater. But, when he goes straight to the bottom, he rests there awhile, and then returns quietly to the surface, the men taking aboard again the hawser as he rises. When he comes to the top, two or three shallops are stationed around with halberds, with which they give him several blows. Finding himself struck, the whale goes down again, leaving a trail of blood, and grows weak to such an extent that he has no longer any strength nor energy, and returning to the surface is finally killed. When dead, he does not go down again; fastening stout ropes to him, they drag