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secretly visited an old ship’s carpenter on Sundays, from whom he learnt the trade. His father was still more displeased at an attachment he formed with a young girl in the neighborhood, and there was a separation, “Chips” going his first sea trip in the year 1837, the ship being the Friendship, of Sunderland, and her destination New York. The trip was uneventful, and he then went to India in the Francis Smith. From there they went to China with opium and other cargo, and got into great trouble because the captain’s wife was aboard, the mardarins searching the vessel. The lady escaped by being put into another vessel, which luckily was not searched. The laws were strict against the introduction of opium, but the authorities received bribes and winked at the trade. After many adventures in this trade, “Chips” went to England. From thence he paid a visit to his native town, but he did not stop long, proceeding to Bordeaux in an English vessel called the John and James. She loaded for Mauritius, but calling in at the Cape of Good Hope on her way, “Chips” left her to join the Thomas Sparks, Captain Sharp, bound for Wellington and Nelson, New Zealand, with emigrants. This was in 1843, and in January, 1844, the ship arrived safely in Wellington. Here “Chips” left the ship, and worked for a time in the Hutt Valley. Getting tired of this, he went whaling at Table Cape, on the East Coast. There were three boat crews, no Maoris amongst them, a man named Dawsey, a half-caste negro, being in command. They only got one whale in the season, but she yielded eight tons of oil. His great skill as a boat builder now became known, and he was offered a good sum to go to Poverty Bay to repair a little vessel. He went there, and remained some time, but a Native chief living at Ahuriri, known to the English as Jacky Tighe, pursuaded him to go to