t. I shook my head to signify this, when he
commenced explaining in broken English that he and his party were sent
by the Governor to convey the negroes on shore, that the vessel might be
the more speedily hove-down to be repaired. I was somewhat surprised
that Waller had not first returned; but it never occurred to me to
suspect a fraud in the matter.

While the Portuguese were speaking, three more boats came alongside, and
in a very few minutes all the blacks were transferred from the schooner
into them. Without an instant's delay, the boats left the schooner's
sides; but instead of making towards the town, they pulled away to a
spot some distance from it, where the negroes were landed, and I lost
sight of them. About an hour after this, Waller returned.

"I have settled with the Consul, who will have a large store, where our
poor blackies can be housed comfortably while the schooner is repaired;
but he says we must keep a strict watch over them, for the people here
are such determined slave-dealers, that they will kidnap them before our
eyes."

My heart sunk as I heard these words, and I felt like a culprit.

"Why," I exclaimed, "the Governor has sent and had them all conveyed on
shore."

Waller could scarcely believe his senses when he found all the negroes
gone. He hurried back to the Consul, who went with him to the Governor.
The Governor knew nothing whatever of the matter, nor did any of the
officials of the town. The Consul and some of the British in the place
made every inquiry in their power, but no information whatever could
they obtain. There could, however, be no doubt that some slave-dealers
had carried out the nefarious plot, while, by the employment of bribes,
they easily contrived to escape detection. Waller felt the matter very
severely. To have the poor negroes, in whom he took so great an
interest, carried into slavery, after all the toil and danger he had
gone through, was almost heartbreaking. For long afterwards he could
scarcely bear to speak on the subject.

It was not without difficulty that we got the schooner repaired; but at
last she was ready for sea, and without further delay we made sail for
Sierra Leone. We had a very fine run across. Within a day's sail of
the coast, we fell in with a slaver, which, supposing us to be of the
same kidney as herself, allowed us to ran alongside; so that, without
the slightest opposition, we took possession of her. Although she had
no