of Mr. Keeling, who accompanied him thither, felt and feel greatly disappointed.
The captain discovers a few stray vermin in the cabin, and I, two whales in sport, spouting water at each other.
12th.—Awoke this morning and found myself {37} out of sight of land, and 150 miles from Boston, lat. 40° 59[']. At nine, a.m. caught a fine fat halibut, a most valuable fish, weighing 180 pounds; the flesh of which partakes of fish, flesh, and fowl, and is fit for broiling, frying, boiling, or stewing.
14th.—The price of passage, in this vessel, to Charleston, is 15 dollars; to Havre, in France, 100 dollars. Picton, near Halifax, Nova Scotia, is a good place for cheapness of passage to England; 12l. and found in cabin. At three, a.m. spoke a schooner, the Eloisa, 17 days from New Orleans, to Boston bound, requesting our latitude and longitude, and what distance from the south shoal of Nantucket. It is no unusual thing for some of the people of this country, on going to Charleston, to take their free negroes with them and sell them for slaves, by way of turning a penny, or as they say, of making a good spec. of it. Two white gentlemen, I was told, determined on a plan to benefit themselves, and cheat the planter, or slave buyer; one blackened his face and body and became a negro; the other was his owner and salesman, and sold his friend to the planter for 800 dollars, but in less than three days he returned, a white free-man again, to divide the spoil, nor was the imposition ever discovered to prosecution. Our captain had green peas, on the 1st March, in abundance at Charleston. From two passengers, (shoemakers), I learn that first-rate hands will turn out from five to six pairs of {38} ladies' shoes, per day, and earn from 10 to 12 dollars per week. One of these gentle-
