INCIDENTS OF A WHALING VOYAGE. TO WHICH ARE ADDED OBSERVATIONS ON THE SCENERY, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, AND MIS- OF THE Sandwich and Society Eslands, ACCOMPANIED BY NUMEROUS LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTS. BY FRANCIS ALLYN OLMSTED. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY D. APPLETON AND CO. ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by FRANCIS ALLYN OLMSTED, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. Libe 52282 PREFACE. DURING the latter part of my collegiate course, my health became very much impaired by a chronic debility of the nervous system, and soon after graduating, the cold air of Autumn admonished me to seek a milder clime for spending the winter. While deliberating upon what would be most desirable in accomplishing the purposes I had in view, a favorable opportunity was offered me to go out as passenger in the whale-ship "North America," which was fitting out at New-London for a voyage to the Pacific. From an erroneous prejudice against whalers, it was with great reluctance that I determined upon embarking on this voyage, and many of my friends made sage predictions of the wretched life to which I was consigning myself. A strong inclination for the sea, however, which had made |