pman,
was killed, and 10 men severely wounded. An attempt was then made to
force their way through the stockades, but, after some men had been hit,
Lieutenant Saumarez among them, he was compelled to retire. The
_Teaser_ having unfortunately got on shore, was exposed to the fire of
the enemy; as the only way of saving her, a party was sent under Captain
Lister to capture the guns directly pointing at her. After some severe
fighting, and the loss of several men, they forced their way into the
stockade and drove out the enemy, when all the guns were spiked. During
this operation one of the life-boats was captured by the blacks, and in
an attempt to retake her with several other boats, another midshipman,
Mr Fletcher, was killed. Commander Hillyar and several other officers
and men were severely wounded, as was Lieutenant Corbet, in endeavouring
to cut the chain-cable of the _Victoria_, Mr Beecroft's boat, under a
hot fire from the blacks. The life-boat was after all left on shore,
when some forty blacks getting into her to carry her off, Mr Balfour
threw a rocket from the first cutter, which, entering her magazine, blew
it up. In the evening the _Teaser_, after great exertions, was got off.
The next morning the attack was renewed, when at length the rockets
from the squadron, admirably thrown, set the town on fire, and, the
conflagration extending, the magazine was blown up, the whole place
being shortly in a general blaze. A welcome reinforcement of the boats
of the _Volcano_ and _Water-witch_, under Commanders Coote and Gardner,
arriving, after an interval of Sunday, preparations were made for
another still more formidable attack on the place, when it was found
that Kosako had abandoned it, and Akitoye, who with his people had
absconded when affairs appeared unfavourable to his cause, was brought
back and installed as king. Since then Lagos has become a possession of
the British Empire.

A small squadron is still kept on the west coast, and but a very limited
number of slaves are shipped from any part of it.

British ships have also been employed in the West Indies and along the
eastern coast of South America in capturing slavers carrying blacks
either to Cuba or to the Brazils. The Cuban slavers, large well-armed
vessels, manned by ruffians of all nations, were frequently guilty of
acts of piracy, and often fought desperately before they yielded. As
the Brazilian laws now prohibit the importation of slaves,