ed head
and stern close alongside the opposite bank. She was a craft of about
one hundred and twenty tons register, painted grey, with very lofty
spars, topsail-rigged forward, very little standing rigging, and a most
wicked look all over.

When I put in my unobtrusive appearance the crew were busy with a couple
of long untrimmed pine spars, the ends of which they were getting
ashore. A few minutes' observation sufficed to satisfy me that they
were rigging a gangway; and, settling myself comfortably in a position
where my presence could not be detected, I determined to see the matter
out. I looked carefully for Senor Madera on board, but was unable to
detect his presence; I therefore concluded that, unlikely as such a
supposition seemed, he had left the ship to make an early call upon Don
Manuel.

The gangway was soon rigged, and after testing it by passing along it
three or four times one of the schooner's crew disappeared in the bush.
A quarter of an hour later he returned, closely followed by a number of
armed natives in charge of a gang of slaves, who--poor wretches--were
secured together in pairs by means of heavy logs of wood lashed to their
necks. These slaves were mostly men; but there were a few young women
with them, two or three of whom carried quite young babies lashed on
their backs. And every slave, not excepting the women with children,
was loaded with one large or two small tusks of ivory. These
unfortunates were driven straight on board the schooner, the ivory was
taken from them as they reached the deck, and they were then driven
below; the _clink, clink_ of hammers which immediately afterwards
proceeded from the schooner's hold bearing witness to the business-like
promptitude with which the unhappy creatures were being secured. I
counted them as they passed in over the gangway; they numbered sixty-
three; and, judging from the schooner's size, I calculated that she had
accommodation for about one hundred and fifty; her cargo being therefore
incomplete, I feared we should be called upon to endure Senor Madera's
presence for at least another day or two. The wretches who constituted
the schooner's crew were a very noisy set, laughing, chattering, and
shouting at the top of their voices, and altogether exhibiting by their
utter carelessness a perfect consciousness of the fact that there were
no men-o'-war just then anywhere near the river. How heartily I wished
there had been a pennant of some