At San Cristoval, one of the Solomon Islands, we drove a smart trade for yams and fruit, the currency used here being hoop-iron, cut into pieces a few inches long, like the money of the ancient Spartans in the days of Lycurgus. Here, for the first time, we met with people possessing the characteristic of the African, for there are two great families of races in Polynesia. These Ethiops of the Pacific, or Oceanic negroes as they are called, are even more repulsive in appearance than the wearers of the ponderous nasal ornaments at Lord Howe's group. Their hair, or wool, has the true African kink in it, both ends seeming to grow into the skull, and is turned a dull reddish color by the application of lime, or something of that nature, giving them the appearance of having the head protected by what seamen call a "thrummed mat." The teeth are colored or discolored by the use of the betel-nut, till they are darker than their skins; in fact those of men past middle age are jet black. But they seem well-disposed to whites, and inoffensive, and our intercourse with them was marked by no unpleasant occurrence. The canoes used by these people are very light, and neatly ornamented, giving evidence of considerable taste and skill in their construction, while the dexterity of the natives in balancing and managing them seems perfectly miraculous, as they have no beam to spare and no outriggers; yet they come off several miles to sea in them, keeping their equilibrium seemingly without difficulty, and jeered and shouted with true negro delight at our bungling attempts to manage them. We pressed through Indispensable Straits, continuing our running cruise towards the coast of Australia, but without taking any more oil till we reached the latitude of twenty-two degrees, being about midway between Booby Shoal and Cato's Bank, when two large sperm whales were raised in the morning, and down we went in pursuit. The waist boat got the lead and was soon fast to one of them and her line going out of the tub at a rate that promised soon to empty it. Seeing this state of things, our line was cast off from the craft, and I stood ready to throw the end into the other boat; but the second mate, anxious to "drown him out" without bending on another line, snubbed him too hard and parted. We pulled ahead in pursuit of the whale, but when he came up again he was pushing to the windward much faster than any boat could pull. There was nothing for us but to return to the ship and take the boats up, very ill-satisfied with our forenoon's work, for we had lost an iron and nearly a tubful of line, and had nothing to show for it.