After our whale was stowed below and finished with, we remained off the Leuwin for a few weeks, seeing whales but once, and then just at nightfall. So the captain said, one fine morning, that he thought he had waited long enough for the whales, and that now they might wait for him. He ordered the helm hard up, and we went bowling away before a ten knot breeze toward Vasse--a settlement situated in Geographe Bay, a short distance to the northward of Cape Leuwin. Soon we could see the breakers dashing and surging over the inhospitable coast, and at 7 o’clock P. M. let go our port anchor in three and a half fathoms of water, about three miles distant from the shore. We found several other whalers at anchor, and two more came in the same evening. From the ship the country looked low, sandy, and bushy. The next day we went ashore for the purpose of procuring fresh water, and found that we had an onerous task; as the casks were towed ashore and rolled about a quarter of a mile to the wells, over a sandy, uneven road, into which the pedestrian sank knee deep at every step. On arriving at the wells, the water had to be dipped up by bucketsful from a depth of twelve feet; nor was the water very good, it being produced from the sea by filtration through the sand, which deprived it of its saline matter. On filling our casks, finding it impossible to roll them through the sand, we took our raft rope and laid it in a continuous line, rolled a cask upon it, brought the end of the rope over it, and thus, all hands taking hold, we succeeded in parbuckling them, one by one, to the beach. I had often heard it sung that Jordan was a hard road to travel, and whilst engaged in this occupation, beneath a burning sun and over the scorching sand, I thought that it would not have been inappropriate to substitute Geographe for Jordan; as a harder road to travel I defy any one to point out. Thus we toiled, day after day, until we had four hundred barrels of water in our ship’s hold, when liberty commenced. This is always a season of rejoicing amongst sailors, but it would be impossible to give a perfect description of the manner in which they enjoy themselves, and the mad pranks they cut whilst their liberty lasts. Imagine, if you can, a school of the most mischievous urchins let loose, with perfect freedom to enact all the mischief they are capable of, and you can form a faint idea of Jack ashore in a foreign port. Some have hired horses and are riding double, one facing forward, the other in the opposite direction, kicking, spurring, and urging the nag onward, occasionally getting a fall which is productive of nothing but a hearty laugh, the loose sand protecting the dismounted cavalier from injury; and ten chances to one, after recovering his feet, the unseated one would grasp the animal’s tail to mount again. I remember a case of one of our crew, who, burning to distinguish himself, went ashore, hired a horse, and rode off into the bush at full speed. The