In the afternoon we went off to the ship, got our onions and potatoes aboard, and carried with us two Portuguese boys, about seventeen years of age--one of whom goes into the forecastle to do duty as a foremast hand, the other, into the steerage as steerage boy. Great numbers of young men are carried off from these islands annually, by American whaleships, the government demanding of each young man, born in the islands, a certain amount of military duty in Europe. To emancipate themselves from this irksome service they join whalers, as after an absence on the part of one, during which he has acquired the English language, he is exempted from military duty. Whether the government does this to encourage the development of knowledge, or that, after a tarry on his part amongst the republican Americans, they think him too liberal in sentiment to mingle with other servants of their despotic rule, I cannot say. When these people first come aboard the ship they are indifferently dressed, and invariably barefooted; when those we shipped were supplied with an outfit of sea clothes, they were greatly astonished and delighted. They are a very economical people, and by dint of washing for others, patching, at which in a short time they become adepts, and other little jobs, they soon become possessed of a large amount of clothing, which they hoard up and gloat over as a miser would his gold. They are shipped for little or nothing as regards remuneration, scarcely anything being said about a lay on either side; but the captain, if generous, will always make them a liberal allowance on the ship’s arriving at New Bedford. They are generally strong and able-bodied, and make good working-hands to pull and haul, but, except in rare instances, do not rise in position above steering a boat; although there are several ships at present sailing out of New Bedford whose masters are Portuguese by birth, yet in each instance, I am informed by good authority, they were taken from the islands at a very early age, and sent to school in America between voyages. When they first come aboard they look thin and cadaverous, probably from their almost entire diet being vegetable; but in a short time, from prodigious indulgence of their appetites for flesh, they become round and sleek. Their attenuated appearance has led to the standing joke amongst sailors, that if you want a Portuguese crew, all you have to do is to run close in to one of the Western Islands, heave a hook and line overboard baited with fat pork, and in a few minutes you will catch as many as you want. To tell the Portuguese this is considered by them as a bitter affront, they always magnifying their position ashore, I do not know how many times, making everything _grand_, as they express it. To illustrate their passion for meat, I shall not go into figures as regards the consumption, as few, if any, would credit my bare assertion; but I will state that one of the boys gained sixty pounds in