At 10¹⁄₂ A. M. on the morning of February 12th, the ship James Allen, and barque Henry M. Crapo, hove up their ground tackle and stood out to sea. The captain of the James Allen had been vaunting of the speed of his ship, and confidently asserting that she would outsail any ship or barque in the harbor, he issued a challenge. We hove up at 11 o’clock, half an hour later than he, and in the course of two hours had both the Crapo and James Allen on our lee quarter. As we passed the latter, our captain facetiously desired them to let go that _hawser_. They were too badly beaten to answer without displaying their chagrin; they therefore were discreet, and said not a word. As this ship was our consort from this time until July, 1857, I shall describe her and her appointments. Like us, she was built from an old fashioned model, but was a much younger ship. Her captain was of a diminutive person, and strove to atone for his small size by blustering; his first officer, who, from all accounts, governed the ship, delighted in a display of pugilistic powers, and kicked, cuffed, and boxed the men on the slightest provocation. She was two months longer from home than we, and up to this time had taken no oil. One circumstance that I omitted, in my remarks on Vasse, was the fact of a collation and a ball, held on board this ship whilst we lay there. Invitations were issued, and the elite of the vicinity, for miles around, accepted them, and at about 3 o’clock P. M. were conveyed aboard the Allen by the boats of the vessels in the harbor. All the vessels had their colors hoisted; the captains and chief mates were the only guests from the vessels. When the boats with their freight arrived alongside, a chair that had a whip attached to it was lowered, the ladies, singly, placed in it, and, reposing on the American flag, hoisted aboard. Here a canvass screen was extended across the quarter-deck, just abaft the mainmast, and, after a hearty repast, a negro fiddler, who is an American by birth, and the principal headsman at the bay whale-fishery, was called into requisition, and, with the assistance of a triangle player, discoursed music for the dancers. Soon the whole assembly were tripping the light fantastic toe, on the well-worn decks that had faced many a gale. The scene was pleasing. The coils of rigging, the shrouds, and lower masts dimly lit up by the globe lanterns, reflecting a striking picture, and reminding one of the smugglers’ jubilees, after a successful run; hardy, weather-beaten men, leading in the dance; fair maidens, I was about to say--but the scathing sun of Australia allows very few females to boast a fair complexion, although their nut-brown cheeks glow with health. The respectability of these people I know nothing about, except from hearsay; but that they were a motley collection I was assured of the following day, by hearing an old resident, a female, describe their efforts, or rather the efforts of some of the party, to appear covered