are a
number of blacks on them, who at the time I speak of were slaves, but
are now, of course, free. They consist of four principal islands, the
chief of which is called Saint George, and other smaller ones. They
take their name from Juan Bermudez, who discovered them in 1522. I have
no time to say more about the place.

Before we were ready for sea, a new commander was sent out from
England--Captain Idle. His name was very far from appropriate to his
character. He brought us the pleasing information that we were destined
for the coast of Africa, where some fast cruisers were much wanted to
put down the slave-trade.

Captain Idle had seen some service. He had been thirty years at sea,
out of which time he had not probably spent two on shore. He had been
in the North Seas and West Indies, in the Antarctic Ocean, and on the
coast of Africa, in the Indian seas, and in every part of the Pacific.
There was not an unhealthy station in which he had not served. He had
served for ten years as a first-lieutenant. He had been three times
wounded, and had obtained his rank, both as lieutenant and commander,
for two remarkable deeds of gallantry; and now, as a special reward for
his services, I suppose, he was sent out to the coast of Africa.

A first-lieutenant also joined us--Reuben Spry by name,--and two mates,
the senior of whom did duty as second lieutenant--Holland and Waller.
The very day we were ready for sea we went out of harbour, and made the
best of our way towards the coast of Africa. A succession of easterly
winds had kept the _Opossum_ more to the west than she would otherwise
have been. We were about the latitude of Barbadoes, when, having run on
during most of the night with a fair breeze, towards morning it dropped
altogether, and we found ourselves rolling away in a tropical calm. As
we were already in the seas where slavers are to be found, a bright
look-out was kept, in the hopes of our falling in with a prize, though
as yet not a sail had been seen to which it was thought worth while
giving chase. As morning broke, of a day I shall not easily forget,
there appeared to the southward, not four miles from us, two vessels
becalmed like ourselves. One, a large barque, somewhat the nearest to
us, was clearly an English merchantman; the other, a low, black
schooner, had the wicked, rakish appearance of a Spanish slaver. The
look-out from the foretopmast-head gave notice at the same time that he
coul