From the date of leaving King George’s Sound, until the 11th of January, 1857, little transpired worthy of record, except the capture of half-a-dozen blackfish, and the usual amount of gammoning with other whaleships--some of which had done better, others worse, than ourselves. During the whole of this time we could not catch a glimpse of a sperm whale; and whilst ships in our immediate neighborhood could see and capture them, we were doing nothing. We double-manned our mastheads, made more sail, and passed over a greater space every day than heretofore, but all to no purpose; the whales were still beyond our vision. Meantime our crew began to get discouraged, almost a year having elapsed since we had taken any oil, and, consequently, since a single penny had been earned by any of us. Some took it very easily, but they were those to whom whaling was distasteful; others chafed with impatience; but, finally, all of us settled down into the belief that we had about all the oil we should get this voyage. The captain kept his spirits up, and was continually foretelling better luck. Our time, during this interval, was got rid of in various ways. In warm weather, the watches on deck, as well as those below, were for the most part slept away; in cold weather, walking fore and aft the deck, with hands thrust deep into breeches pockets, seemed the only occupation any of us had. There was no work to be done, in fact, but to break out our provender from the ship’s hold and consume it. On the 11th, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, we squared our yards and steered for the land. At 9¹⁄₂ the following morning we let go our anchor in Bunbury Bay, opposite to, and about a mile distant from, the town of Bunbury. This little town is the neatest that I have seen on the coast; and, although the class of population, to a great extent, is similar to that in Vasse and the Sound, still there are many reside in it who are worthy, respected, hospitable, and intelligent. Ours was the first ship that had been in the harbor for years, and our captain received the title of “the opener of the port.” At one time it was a place of great resort for American whale-ships, but several having, by some means, been driven ashore and lost, it became unpopular, and was superseded by Vasse. The high price of provisions and generally disobliging character of the inhabitants in the latter place, induced our captain to visit Bunbury as an experiment, which proved successful in the highest degree. We were eagerly welcomed on going ashore, and cordially invited into the settlers’ houses. The schools were allowed a holiday, that the children might visit the ship. These youngsters, on seeing us, from the shore, engaged aloft (all the ship’s crew being at work in the rigging), tarring down, &c., deemed us monkeys, and could not be convinced to the contrary until they came aboard and had a survey of us. This was rather disparaging to some thirty young