iates on board the craft I cannot say, but I know
that the crew gave in very soon when they saw him leading the boarders
across the deck. To be sure he fought like a tiger, and cut down
several fellows, so that I cannot suppose that he has any great love for
them, at all events."

The cries and groans which ascended from the slave-deck soon drew our
attention towards it, and Mr Hallton sent Charley with four hands down
to ascertain their condition. I accompanied him, having procured a
brace of pistols and a hanger, without which I should not have liked to
venture among them. A dreadful sight met our eyes. Three or four of
the frigate's shot had entered and swept right across the deck, taking
off the heads of not less than eight men in one row, and wounding others
on the further side of the ship in another row as if it had gone through
diagonally; while the legs of a still greater number had been shot away.
Most of the badly wounded were dead, but others were still writhing in
agony. I need not picture all the horrors we witnessed. Charley told
me to go on deck and obtain assistance. The lieutenant replied that I
might take some of the slaver's crew, but that he could not spare his
own men. I went forward to where they were collected, but found only
three, to whom Harry and I had rendered some service in dressing their
wounds, willing to give themselves any trouble in performing the task.
They, however, got tackles rigged, and we hoisted up three and sometimes
four bodies together, all dripping with gore, a terrible sight, and then
swung them overboard. Even this took some time. The wounded thought
that they were to be treated in the same manner, and we had great
difficulty in persuading them that we intended to do them no harm, but
rather to attend to their hurts. Altogether, fifty men had been killed,
or had died from fright, or succumbed directly they were lifted on deck
from their wounds. Charley proposed having the survivors up, so that
the slave-deck might be washed and cleaned from the mass of gore and
filth collected upon it, but Mr Hallton replied that it was perfectly
unnecessary, and that if the slaves should break loose, we might have to
kill them all, or be ourselves overpowered. This I thought very likely
to happen, though I felt that a few might safely be brought up while the
part of the deck they had sat upon was cleansed. Harry and I, however,
did our best to attend to their wants. We carri