dy orange by the haze which began
to rise from the bosom of the river. Under the magic effect of the
moonlight the noble river, with its background of trees and bush rising
dim and ghostly above the wreathing mist and its swift-flowing waters
shimmering in the golden radiance, presented a picture the dream-like
beauty of which words are wholly inadequate to describe. But I am
willing to confess that my admiration lost a great deal of its ardour
when Mr Austin informed me that the mist which imparted so subtle a
charm to the scene was but the forerunner of the deadly miasmatic fog
which makes the Congo so fatal a river to Europeans; and I was by no
means sorry when we found ourselves, three-quarters of an hour later,
once more in safety alongside the _Daphne_, having succeeded in making
good our escape before the pestilential fog overtook us. Our prizes,
the buck and the bananas, were cordially welcomed on board the old
barkie; the bananas being carefully suspended from the spanker-boom to
ripen at their leisure, whilst the buck was handed over to the butcher
to be operated upon forthwith, so far at least as the flaying was
concerned; and on the morrow all hands, fore and aft, enjoyed the
unwonted luxury of venison for dinner.

Mr Austin having duly reported to Captain Vernon that the river was
just then free of shipping, we hove up the anchor that same evening, at
the end of the second dog-watch, and stood off from the land all night
under easy canvas.

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE "VESTALE."

About three bells in the forenoon watch next morning the look-out aloft
reported a sail on the larboard bow; and, on being questioned in the
usual manner, he shouted down to us the further information that the
stranger was a brig working in for the land on the starboard tack under
topgallant-sails, and that she had all the look of a man-o'-war.

By six bells we had closed each other within a mile; and a few minutes
afterwards the stranger crossed our bows, and, laying her main topsail
to the mast, lowered a boat. Perceiving that her captain wanted to
speak us, we of course at once hauled our wind and, backing our main
topsail, hove-to about a couple of cables' lengths to windward of the
brig. She was as beautiful a craft as a seaman's eye had ever rested
on: long and low upon the water, with a superbly-modelled hull,
enormously lofty masts with a saucy rake aft to them, and very taunt
heavy yards. She mounted seven guns of a