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several big ships before this time, though quite a young man, but had left a large vessel, an English whaler, named the James Calvert, at the Sandwich Islands, owing to some dispute, and therefore had, much against his will, to accept the command of the brig Bee, a small and inconvenient vessel compared to those he was accustomed to. Long and Wright were the names of the owners of the Bee, and they fitted her out for a cruise to New Zealand, where whales were then reported as specially plentiful. One reason that Captain Hempleman accepted the command of the Bee was, that he was permitted to take Mrs. Hempleman aboard. They would not allow her to be aboard the larger vessels, and he did not like leaving her ashore, so he took a short trip as mate in the ship Norwood, of Sydney, and then took command of the Bee, and, amongst other hands, shipped Billy Simpson, the hero of this memoir. Mrs. Hempleman, the first, who afterwards died at Peraki, was an English girl, who had came out as an immigrant to Sydney.

The voyage of the Bee to New Zealand, and what success they met with, has been previously recorded in these stories, and Simpson says the account is a most correct one. The place where the whaling was carried on, the name of which is not mentioned in the log, was Peraki, but Simpson is very indignant about it being said that they cut poles for the houses in Pigeon Bay, for he vows they never went there. On mature reflection, however, he says he remembers that Port Levy was then called Pigeon Bay, and that it was there the poles were cut. The trip of the Bee was a very successful one, and Hempleman was so pleased with Peraki that he determined to return to it if possible. On his arrival in Sydney he was still more anxious to do this, from the fact that Messrs. Long and Wright raised the old objection to his carrying his wife aboard the vessel. He there-