90 BALL ON BOARD THE JAMES ALLEN. 



called into requisition, and, with the assistance of a 

 triangle player, discoursed music for the dancers. 

 Soon the whole assemhly were tripping the light 

 fantastic toe, on the well-worn decks that had faced 

 many a gale. The scene was pleasing. The coils 

 of rigging, the shrouds, and lower masts dimly lit 

 up by the globe lanterns, reflecting a striking picture, 

 and reminding one of the smugglers' jubilees, after 

 a successful run ; hard}', weather-beaten men, lead- 

 ing in the dance ; fair maidens, I was about to say — 

 but the scathing sun of Australia allows very few 

 females to boast a fair complexion, although their 

 nut-brown cheeks glow with health. The respecta- 

 bility of these people I know nothing about, except 

 from hearsay ; but that they were a motle}'' collection 

 I was assured of the following day, by hearing an 

 old resident, a female, describe their efl:brts, or rather 

 the efl:brts of some of the part}^ to appear covered 

 with finery — devoting days to scouring the country 

 and collecting it. My fair countrywomen must not 

 think me embittered against their sex, or that I am 

 anxious to do them injustice — God forbid; as a man 

 and a sailor, I would scorn to do so ; but as an 

 American, I feel the superiority of my countrywomen 

 over all of the sex in other countries that it has been 

 ray privilege to see ; and to favorably compare these 

 females with those of my native country, would, in 

 my eyes, be an insult to the latter. 



I must advert to another circumstance before 

 taking final leave of the Yasse for "fifty-six" — that is 

 the existence of the whale-fisheries in this bay ; there 

 being one here, and one thirty miles to the north- 

 east, at a town known as Bunbry. At certain seasons 



