aft;
fast, of course; usually schooner-rigged, and carrying flying topsails
and forecourse. Many were built in England or elsewhere purposely
for the business, without, of course, the knowledge of the builders,
ostensibly as yachts or traders. The Spaniards and Portuguese were the
principal offenders, with occasionally an English-speaking renegade.

The slave depots, or barracoons, were generally located some miles up a
river. Here the slaver was secure from capture and could embark his live
cargo at his leisure. Keeping a sharp lookout on the coast, the dealers
were able to follow the movements of the cruisers, and by means of
smoke, or in other ways, signal when the coast was clear for the coming
down the river and sailing of the loaded craft. Before taking in the
cargoes they were always fortified with all the necessary papers and
documents to show they were engaged in legitimate commerce, so it was
only when caught in flagrante delicto that we could hold them.

We had been cruising off the coast of Liberia doing nothing, when we
were ordered to the Gulf of Guinea to watch the Bonny and Cameroons
mouths of the great Niger River. Our consort was H.M. schooner Bright,
a beautiful craft about our tonnage, but with half our crew, and able to
sail three miles to our two. She was an old slaver, captured and adapted
as a cruiser. She had been very successful, making several important
captures of full cargoes, and twice or thrice her commanding officer
and others had been promoted. Working our way slowly down the coast in
company with the Bright, we would occasionally send a boat on shore to
reconnoitre or gather any information we could from the natives through
our Krooman interpreter. A few glasses of rum or a string of beads would
loosen the tongue of almost any one. At Little Bonny we heard that
two vessels were some miles up the river, ready to sail, and were only
waiting until the coast was clear. Captain James, of the Bright, thought
that one, if not both, would sail from another outlet of the river,
about thirty miles to the southward, and determined to watch it.

We both stood to that direction. Of course we were watched from the
shore, and the slavers were kept posted as to our movements. They
supposed we had both gone to the Cameroons, leaving Little Bonny open;
but after dark, with a light land breeze, we wore round and stood to the
northward, keeping offshore some distance, so that captains leaving the
river m