was picked up by the _Growler_,
standing towards the _Gallinas_, boat and gear being literally riddled
with shot.

Lieutenant Lodwick was promoted for his gallantry. The felucca had been
chased by every vessel on the coast, and always got away clear. She was
afterwards captured by a war-steamer, and bore evident marks of her
conflict with the pinnace. There were about seventy men on board--
English, French, and Americans--and she was commanded by an Englishman.

ADVENTURE OF HMS "WASP"--1845.

As HMS _Wasp_, Captain Usherwood, was cruising in the Bight of Benin,
near Lagos, on the 27th of February 1845, a strange sail was seen, and
Lieutenant Stupart was immediately ordered in pursuit. At about eight
o'clock in the evening he came up with her, and found her to be the
_Felicidade_, a Brazilian schooner, fitted for the slave trade, with a
slave-deck of loose planks over the cargo, and a crew of twenty-eight
men. With the exception of her captain and another man, they were
transferred to the _Wasp_; and Lieutenant Stupart, with Mr Palmer,
midshipman, and a crew of fifteen English seamen, remained in charge of
the prize. On the 1st of March, the boats of the _Felicidade_, under
Mr Palmer, captured a second prize, the _Echo_, with 430 slaves on
board, and a crew of twenty-eight men, leaving Mr Palmer, with seven
English seamen and two Kroomen, on board the _Felicidade_. Several of
the _Echo's_ crew were also sent on board as prisoners, with their
captain. Soon afterwards Mr Palmer and his small crew were overpowered
and murdered by the crew of the _Felicidade_, and an unsuccessful
attempt made by the miscreants to gain possession of the _Echo_. The
_Felicidade_ was seen and chased on the 6th of March by HMS _Star_,
Commander Dunlop. When she was boarded, no one was on her deck, the
crew being concealed below; and on being found and questioned, they
stated the vessel to be the _Virginie_, and accounted for their wounds
by the falling of a spar; but there were traces of a conflict, and many
tokens which proved that English seamen had been on board. She was then
sent to Sierra Leone, in charge of Lieutenant Wilson and nine men.

Whilst on the passage, during a heavy squall, the schooner went over,
filled, and sank, so as only to leave part of her bow rail above water.
When the squall passed, the whole of the crew were found clinging to the
bow rail. Some expert divers endeavoured to extract provisions from the