Sometimes it blew so hard that it put us under a
fore-course; especially in the night; but in the daytime we had commonly
our main topsail reefed. We met with nothing of moment; only we passed by
a dead whale, and saw millions (as I may say) of sea-fowls about the
carcass (and as far round about it as we could see) some feeding, and the
rest flying about, or sitting on the water, waiting to take their turns.
We first discovered the whale by the fowls; for indeed I did never see so
many fowls at once in my life before, their numbers being inconceivably
great: they were of divers sorts, in bigness, shape and colour. Some were
almost as big as geese, of a grey colour, with white breasts, and with
such bills, wings, and tails. Some were pintado-birds, as big as ducks,
and speckled black and white. Some were shearwaters; some petrels; and
there were several sorts of large fowls. We saw of these birds,
especially pintado-birds, all the sea over from about 200 leagues distant
from the coast of Brazil to within much the same distance of New Holland.
The pintado is a southern bird, and of that temperate zone; for I never
saw of them much to the northward of 30 degrees south.
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