I had only said that I would sail round the world in the _Spray_, "dangers of the sea excepted," but I must have said it very much in earnest.

The "charter-party" with myself seemed to bind me, and so I sailed on.

Toward night I hauled the sloop to the wind, and baiting a hook, sounded for bottom-fish, in thirty fathoms of water, on the edge of Cashes Ledge.

With fair success I hauled till dark, landing on deck three cod and two haddocks, one hake, and, best of all, a small halibut, all plump and spry.

This, I thought, would be the place to take in a good stock of provisions above what I already had; so I put out a sea-anchor that would hold her head to windward.