rrow
wash-boards on either side connecting the two, the remainder of her
being open, the open portion protected from the sea by coamings all
round about a foot high. And down in this open portion of the vessel
were the galley-slaves, naked as the day they were born, and each
chained to the bench upon which he sat. A gang-plank ran fore and aft
of this space along the centre line of the ship, for the accommodation
of the boatswains, usually two in number, whose duty it was to
continually walk fore and aft, while the ship was under way, keeping a
watchful eye upon the slaves, and stimulating them to exert themselves
to the utmost, when working the sweeps, by free and unmerciful
application of the whip to their naked bodies. The slaves were kept
chained to their benches for days, and often for weeks, at a time; they
toiled, ate, drank, and slept thus chained; and their condition and that
of the interior which contained them may therefore be left to the
imagination of the reader.

A moment's glance along the galley's deck sufficed to reveal to the
Englishmen the devastating effect which that single broadside of
langrage had wrought upon the unfortunate craft's crew. It had been
fired at such close range that the missiles had only spread just
sufficiently to include the entire range of the deck in its destructive
sweep, and as the new arrivals gazed in amazement at the deep scores
ploughed in the deck planking by the storm of iron and lead, running in
a general direction fore and aft, and so close together that in some
cases it was scarcely possible to lay a finger between them, the wonder
was not that so many of the crew had been smitten down, but that there
were any survivals at all. A glance down into the well, however,
revealed the fact that the slaves, seated well below the level of the
deck, and further protected by the stout coamings, had escaped almost
scot-free.

Hastily directing Basset to see to the securing of the few unhurt
prisoners, and to separate the wounded from the dead, George ran along
the wash-board to the after deck and from this descended by a short
flight of steps to the gang-plank running fore and aft the length of the
well.

"Are there any Englishmen aboard this galley?" he demanded.

"Ay, that there be; eleven of us--or was, avore you fired upon us,"
answered a voice. "I'm afeared you've a-killed one or two of us down
here, but what do that matter so long as you've a-comed to deliver th