It would please me greatly to be able to go into all the details of what was done by the officers and crew of the _Essex_ while a new fleet was being gotten together, for we did actually collect a squadron of vessels while so far from the home port; but we met with so many startling adventures, each of which would be of greater interest to a stranger than the setting down exactly how that or the other vessel was captured, that I shall tell this portion of the yarn as briefly as possible. First let me say, however, that Phil Robbins and I were treated by the men on the gun-deck more as shipmates and less like boys after our adventure in Valparaiso, although why there should have been any change I am wholly unable to say, for we did nothing of moment, save to show, by our willingness to accompany Benson when he baited the trap for us, that we were more simple than lads of our age ought to have been. It is not to be supposed that the old shellbacks showed any very intense desire to be with us, and sometimes plainly said that the room we occupied was better than our company; but they spoke with us now and then as if we were in fact shipmates, sometimes even going so far as to tell us a particularly interesting yarn. It goes without saying that we were forced to wait upon the whole boiling of them, and were seldom allowed an idle hour; but, to describe the situation in a word, there was a decided and agreeable change so far as we two lads were concerned. After the _Barclay_ had been recaptured and remanned, we stood across from the mainland toward the islands without meeting a craft of any kind. On the 17th of April we made Chatham Island, but were not rewarded by the sight of an enemy, and a few days later we hove to off Charles's Island, where was located the whalers' post-office. This last consisted only of a stout box nailed to a tree, where the fishermen deposited letters for each other, or to be taken home by the craft heading in that direction. Captain Porter did not hesitate to rifle the "mail," and by so doing gained much valuable information concerning the different ships in the Pacific. We cruised around among the islands, seeing nothing which interested us in the way of business, until the 29th of April, just at sunrise, when all hands rushed on deck at the welcome cry of "Sail ho!" the first we had heard since the day we came across the _Barclay_. A large ship could be seen to the westward, and an hour after we began the chase two other craft were sighted a trifle farther south. With three ships in sight, and the odds in favor of all being enemies, it can well be understood that we were in a fine state of excitement.