On the last day of our stay in port, the Englishman who had made himself so disagreeable to all hands, on expressing a wish to be left ashore, was discharged by our captain. He had seven or eight pounds sterling; the captain gave him several more, as also a piece of cotton stuff for which he could readily procure sale, and then provided him a guide across the country. A large, powerful man, belonging to Troy, New York, having effected his escape from the Allen, on the last day, eluding the natives sent in pursuit of him, was supposed to have accompanied him, and both took their way to Anfernande, a seaport some thirty miles distant. In the evening of the day that we took our departure from this pleasant spot, we were favored with a strong breeze, and the crew became themselves again in the execution of their multifarious duties about the ship; lying in port always giving to Jack Tar a sluggish carriage; but the moment the sea breeze strikes the vessel, he livens up and feels himself called upon for exertion. In the course of the ensuing week, the cocoa-nuts, tamarinds, and bananas were proportionately distributed amongst the crew, fore and aft, and these, with fowl additions to our usual sea fare, enabled us to live high for some time; and our monkeys affording a source of amusement, time passed speedily and pleasantly. These little creatures soon became expert in running about the rigging; a suit of sailor’s clothes was made for them, and their antics in this attire were most ludicrous. They became much attached to one of the boatsteerers, and followed him, in fine weather, to the masthead. One day he observed them run in company to the extreme end of the maintopgallant yard-arm, when one, with a mischievous grin, pushed the other off; but though the poor fellow fell on deck, he escaped with slight injury. With a fine breeze, we steered a southerly course, along the West coast of New Holland, until we arrived on our old cruising-ground. The weather here, although a few weeks previously we had found it uncomfortably warm, after our visit to so much lower latitudes, felt quite chilly, and woolen shirts, stockings, and underclothes--articles of apparel to which we had long been strangers--were hunted up from out of the way nooks and corners of chests, and donned. We here saw the ship Stephania, of New Bedford, making a passage for Angiers, whence her course went homeward. She was leaking badly, and her crew grumbled at the oppressive labor of pumping in the existing hot weather. She had considerable right whale oil, taken off the Island of Desolation, which island was described by her crew as a miserable place for cruising--cold weather, with heavy gales, prevailing there almost all the time. A few days previous to our meeting her, they had been fast to a large sperm whale, which crushed a boat in its huge jaws, seriously injuring the captain’s hand at the time. CHAPTER VI.