The next day the ship was hauled in near shore and secured with chain cables. By orders of the captain, Lakeum began the overhauling and putting in order. The yards were sent down and the entire rigging was examined and necessary renewals were made. All the blocks were put in order. The masts were stayed, standing rigging was set up, yards were crossed, running rigging was rove, sails were bent and furled snug, and all the yards squared. All this took, of course, a number of days. After that, general shore leave was announced. The _Sunrise_ was now repaired, and about to be hauled out to an anchorage, where she could be refitted with spars, rigging, sails and so forth and refurnished with casks, provisions, movables and the like. Here was work done in these two cases which would have cost the owners a great deal of money had the vessels put into port. All of us went ashore, and all hands of the _Sunrise_ were given liberty at the same time. If the expression may be used, it was a case of gamming on shore. The captains and officers got together, and the crews went off by themselves. The island was one of the smallest of the group. The natives were hospitable and invited us into their little huts, where they set before us fruit, of which there was a great variety and abundance, and their curiously cooked food. The day was faultless and the whole experience most delightful. The men of the two vessels affiliated beautifully. There was no friction. In the late afternoon we all went in swimming, and a luxury it was to men whose brief opportunity of obtaining a bath on shipboard was afforded by a rainfall, and generally a very poor opportunity, too. Just before separating, all gathered together, and then for the first time the conversation turned to our respective catches. The amount of our oil compared very favorably with that of the _Sunrise_, but our new-made friends were inclined to be boastful and assertive. One of our men said very quietly: “Oil is a good thing, but, when you have something on board worth more than a thousand barrels of sperm, that’s a little better thing.” “You ain’t discovered no diamond mine in the ocean, have ye?” asked a _Sunrise_ man. His companions roared. “No,” replied our spokesman; “we didn’t discover no diamond mine. We opened up a gold mine.” “What d’ye open it up with—a pickaxe?” Another loud laugh. “No, with a cutting spade; and the man on our ship who has the largest lay is goin’ to see more money than he ever see before, when his voyage is settled. A one-hundred-and-eightieth lay in seventy thousand dollars worth of ambergris ain’t to be sneezed at.” As I recall the experience of that day I now regret that any allusion was made to the ambergris. Its introduction into the conversation seemed to disturb the pleasant relations, and the leave-takings were cold and formal.