to extend. People at home are little aware,
in general, of the great number of places a South-Seaman visits in the
course of a three or four years' whaling-voyage; and certainly in no
other trade is a lad of a roving disposition so likely to be able to
gratify his tastes.

The first place we touched at was Porto Praya, in the island of Saint
Jago, one of the Cape de Verds, our captain being anxious to fill up
with water, and to get for the crew a supply of fruit and vegetables and
poultry, which are here to be procured in abundance. Sailors, however,
are apt to forget that fruit, at all events, is not to be found all the
year round; and I have seen people very indignant because the
fruit-trees were not bearing their ripe produce at the very moment they
were honouring the place by their presence, and heartily abuse previous
visitors for having deceived them.

I was one of the boat's crew which went on shore to get provisions, and
we were half pulled to pieces, as we entered the town, by men, women,
and boys--brown, yellow, and black--chattering away in a jargon of
half-African half-Portuguese, as they thrust before our eyes a dozen
chickens a few weeks old, all strung together; baskets of eggs, or
tamarinds, or dates, or bananas, and bunches of luscious grapes, and
pointed to piles of cocoa-nuts, oranges, or limes, heaped up on
cocoa-nut leaves close at hand. The place seemed filled with beggars,
pigs, monkeys, slatternly females, small donkeys, and big oxen; dirty
soldiers and idle sailors of all the shades and colours which
distinguish the human race, dressed in handkerchiefs, and shirts, and
jackets, and petticoats of every hue of the rainbow--the only thing they
had in common being their dirt. Indeed, dirt predominates throughout
the streets and dwellings, and in every direction. The houses, though
mean, from being white-washed deceive a stranger at a little distance as
to the cleanliness of the place. From a spirited sketch Newman made of
the scene I have described, I here discovered his talent for drawing.

We next touched at the Falkland Islands, then uninhabited, except by a
few Gauchos, who had crossed from South America with a herd of cattle,
which have since increased to a prodigious number, as they thrive well
on the tussac grass, the chief natural production of the country. The
fresh beef afforded by a couple of oxen was very acceptable, and
contributed to keep us in health.

Even before crossing