isted close up under the trucks,
like those of a man-o'-war. If she was anything like as good as she
looked we had secured a prize that was indeed worth having.

The skipper had instructed me that he might possibly bring the prize
directly alongside the wharf, and that I was to make all the necessary
preparations to assist in the operation. I accordingly turned out my
contingent and mustered them on the wharf, at the next berth ahead of
that occupied by _La Belle Estelle_, with an ample supply of hawsers and
heaving-lines at the bollards; and by the time that I was quite ready
the ship was in sight, luffing round the point and hauling up for the
anchorage. But instead of making a board across to the mainland, as all
the others had done, the skipper kept his helm down until she was all a-
shiver, when everything was let go at the same instant, the square
canvas shrivelled up to the yards, the fore and aft canvas was brailed
in, or hauled down, and then, as a strong party of men sprang aloft and
laid out upon the yards, the beautiful craft came sliding along, with
the way which she still had on her, straight for the wharf. The skipper
had calculated his distance to a nicety, for her momentum was sufficient
to bring her handsomely up to her berth, but not enough to impose any
undue strain upon the hawsers in checking her and bringing her
alongside; this part of the work being done by my gang, while the men
who had captured her were still aloft busily furling the canvas.

As soon as she was securely moored and a gangway plank rigged, I went
aboard and had a good look at our latest acquisition. There could be no
doubt as to the fact that she was a slaver; for her slave-decks were
already fitted, and she carried all the requisites, including meal and
water, for the transport of a very large cargo of slaves. She was, in
fact, the largest slaver I ever saw, and had accommodation to--I had
almost said _comfortably_--carry at least eight hundred slaves. She was
Spanish; named the _Dona Josefa_; hailed from Havana; was oak-built,
coppered, and copper-fastened; was a brand-new ship, worth half a dozen
_Psyches_; and her cabin accommodation aft was the most spacious and
elegantly fitted that I had ever seen. She was armed with eighteen
twenty-four pounders, and carried a crew of ninety-eight, all told. She
was, in short, a most formidable ship; and, but for the fact of our
having taken her by surprise as we did, she might h