I omitted to mention that on account of the extension of the term of our voyage, meat had been purchased in Mauritius; also, ten barrels and a half of colonial beef (of a very inferior quality) packed in Melbourne, and thirteen barrels of American pork purchased from the ship Robert Patton, of Boston: which, together with what we already had aboard, was deemed amply sufficient for our consumption on the short cruise off Madagascar, and during our passage home. The time of our leaving for home was now set to be New Year’s Day, 1859. This period, so long and devoutly prayed for, we were assured would not under any circumstances be again postponed, and we hoped that it would not; for we had been out very long, and all were thoroughly convinced that longer cruising for whales would be entirely useless. To be plain; all wanted to get home. The whole ship’s company, too, felt and expressed the opinion, that the voyage was unlucky, and they wished to begin a new one, under better auspices. Our continual ill fortune in not seeing whales, and having our boats stoven, had so deeply engendered this feeling that a general lukewarmness prevailed, which could only be dissipated by a notice from the masthead that sperm whales were about, when indeed all would again become as eager as we were at the commencement of the voyage. There were now, of the thirty who sailed from home in the vessel, but twenty-one remaining; yet even this is a much larger proportion of the original crew than is usually carried home from a voyage of such length as ours. The cabin had lost one of its members; the steerage was intact--the same boatsteerers remaining as when we first set sail; and of the foremast hands ten, besides the cook, remained: making twenty one in all. We had now been so long together, that the withdrawal of one of our number would produce a feeling like that caused by the separation from a member of one’s own family; and it was not without much regret that we thought on having parted with the two of our original crew in Port Louis.