weight during the first five months he was with us. If there be only one or two of this race aboard, and they are separated in different parts of the ship, and not allowed too frequently to converse with each other, they soon acquire English and become useful; but if there are half a dozen together in the forecastle, they jabber and chatter their unmusical jargon from morning until night, and will go a three years’ voyage, knowing at the end of it little more English than is embraced in the technical terms of the service, which, being impressed on their memory with a kick or blow by way of injunction, they are apt to retain. These people are, or profess to be, devoted to their padres or fathers in the church, and from my light observation of them and their peculiarities, I should be inclined to give it as my opinion that they are totally under the sway of their Jesuitical advisers; but I must about ship and resume the thread of my narrative. Whilst lying here off and on shore we gammoned the ship E. L. Jones, of New Bedford; the barque Sea Flower, of same port, and schooner Antarctic, of Provincetown. This is an excellent whaling-ground--numbers of large and small craft are continually cruising here, and in the course of a voyage generally do well. Gammoning at sea is the term for an interchange of civilities between two or more ships, and is much in vogue amongst whalemen, who have so much time that hangs heavy on their hands, and are glad to vary the monotony by the sight of a stranger, or, if a later arrival, receiving intelligence from home. When a ship wishes to gammon another, or, as it is pronounced at sea, gam’, the second syllable being dispensed with, the _lee_ ship hauls aback her mainyard, or sets a signal signifying her wish, the _weather_ craft squares her yards, puts her helm up, runs across the other’s stern and speaks her. Then the captain of one lowers away and boards the other, the mate returns in the boat with a fresh crew, the officers resort to the cabin, the boatsteerers to the steerage, and the crew to the forecastle. As soon as breathing time is allowed to the visitors they are beset by a dozen querists, who, all at once, want to know how long they are from home, what success they have had, and the birth-place, or place of residence of each. For instance, here one steps up and inquires, “Any New Yorkers here,” or “Any Philadelphia, New Bedford, or Boston chaps,” whichever place to him is best known; and if, perchance, he finds a townsman, in a few minutes they are as thick as lovers, and as far advanced in friendship as an acquaintance of twenty years ashore would warrant; and ere they part chests are thrown open, with the injunction to help yourself added, and do not be backward about it either. Soon after some one calls for a song, and in a short time, after some pressing and coaxing, which is as necessary here as in more select circles, the time-worn, but sweet