ff a quantity of the fruit, which he brought
to me in his own handkerchief, patting me on the back at the same time,
as if he was satisfied with my explanations.

While sucking away at the oranges the men were kept quiet. All the time
the monkeys chattered away at us from the neighbouring trees, and an
ugly alligator would now and then poke his snout out of the water to
have a look at us, but the shouts we raised made him swim off. At last
Mr Griffiths appeared with four fresh hands, each man carrying a bundle
containing all his worldly possessions. As soon as they stepped into
the boat we shoved off, and gave way down the river. I was surprised to
find all the men talk in a way far superior to that of common sailors,
and soon found that they had deserted from American whalers, and had
been, before they came to sea, in good positions, which they had lost by
misconduct. The moment we got on board, though it was now late in the
evening, the captain ordered the anchor to be hove up, and as the wind
was off shore, we stood out to sea.

We proceeded at once to our old cruising ground in the neighbourhood of
the Galapagos. While we were on our way the new hands seemed perfectly
contented, having little or nothing to do. I, of course, inquired of
them if they had heard of anyone who had escaped from the _Helen_, but
they could give me no information. To my surprise, I found that, though
they had entered in different names, three of them were brothers, and
the fourth an old friend. One of the brothers appeared to be a quiet,
well-disposed man. As far as I could make out, he had come to sea to
look after the others, and to try and keep them out of mischief, though
he didn't appear to have been very successful, as time after time they
had got into all sorts of scrapes, and it was a wonder that they had
escaped with their lives. On reaching the old ground we fell in with a
number of whales, and had very hard work, for scarcely had we stowed
away the oil of one than we were in chase of another. The new hands
grumbled, and so did some of the others. Of course they couldn't
complain of our success in catching whales, that brought them the work
to do. The mates knew of their grumbling, but took no notice of it. At
last, one morning, when I came on deck, I found a letter lying on the
companion-hatch, addressed to Captain Hawkins. I, of course, took it to
him.

"Who sent this?" he asked, in an angry tone.

I told him