Several New Zealanders in the respective crews of these vessels attracted my attention, from the tattooing on their bodies. The figures on the face and breast were not near so disgusting, as from previous description I had imagined them to be. Quite a pleasant incident occurred on board our vessel, during this evening. One of the crew of the brig Jane came into our forecastle, and inquired whether there were any natives of Patterson, New Jersey, present. Two of our crew, belonging to that city, presented themselves; and, after some inquiries, one of them proved to be the play- and school-mate of the stranger. They had not met since their childhood, and their meeting now caused much feeling on each side. Both had followed the sea for years, and been self-exiled as it were from their native land. When a stripling, the one aboard of us had joined the volunteers in General Scott’s army, then in Mexico. After participating in the struggle until peace was declared, he returned to the United States, spent his pay, and then shipped aboard a whaler bound to the Arctic ocean. Having been forty months at sea, he came back, and again spent his earnings just as foolishly as he had done before; and, being compelled by necessity to return to the ocean for support, he shipped aboard a merchant vessel bound for Liverpool. He next made various voyages to different parts of Europe and the West Indies, experiencing perilous vicissitudes; when, finally, he embarked on board our old craft. His schoolmate had joined a New Bedford whaler; which, after being a year from home, touched at a port on the eastern coast of New Zealand, where he deserted, and engaged for a time in the lumber trade; in which, he told me, he would have done well, if he had left liquor alone. From this he proceeded to trade with the natives, and was finally adopted by them; but their mode of life being distasteful to him, he engaged in the coasting-trade, was cast away, and carried into Hobartown, where he at length joined the brig Jane. Both these men possessed talents above mediocrity. They were good seamen, and their qualifications would have rendered them good citizens also, had not a roving, restless spirit of adventure led them to throw away their time rambling over the world. These ships pursue the blackfish with almost as much eagerness as they do the whale, and their manœuverings for this small game often deceived us. The crews receive a large proportion of the vessels’ earnings; but they get only forty pounds sterling per ton for their oil, no matter what price it brings in the market; so that, although the lays are shorter, the actual remuneration is about equal to ours. The only advantage they possess over us is in the shortness of the voyage: during the whole continuance of it, however, they allow no liberty, and only touch at insignificant ports for vegetables.