earful responsibility to me."

"Just so," replied he, "I shall sleep with a heavy heart myself, for
though I am no butcher by profession, I have this day shed the blood
of more than one fellow creature; it is a dreadful reflection, and
what was it all for, captain? You meet a large vessel in the night,
and sing out 'heave to.' The large vessel says 'I won't.' You say 'You
shall.' The large vessel replies 'I'll be damned if I do.' And
immediately you take measures to make the large vessel heave to, and
thereby some five hundred human beings, who a few hours ago were in
possession of life and health, are now food for fishes."

I felt hurt. "I had not expected this from you, sir, and----"

"Hush!" said he, "I do not blame you. You have done right; but why
will not the government at home take some decisive measures to put an
end to this horrible traffic, and so prevent scenes like this from
occurring?"

We spoke for some time on this subject, and my friends grew so warm
that many bitter speeches were made, and the conversation became
unpleasant.

"Well, gentlemen," said I at last, "I don't know how you feel, but I
am completely knocked up; fortunately it is now calm, and I think we
shall sleep well, and so, good night."

We went to bed, and the sun was already some distance above the
horizon when we awoke on the next morning. It had been perfectly calm
during the night, and we found ourselves still so near the scene of
the preceding day's combat, that several corpses were swimming around
the vessel. As I went forward I was not a little alarmed to see the
number of black faces that were there.

"Master Tailtackle, how many of these poor creatures have we on
board?"

"Fifty-nine in the hold, sir, and thirty-five on deck."

At this moment Bangs walked out of the tent and approached the spot
where I stood. Hardly was he perceived by the blacks, when the cry of
"Shiek Cowloo," rent the air. Bangs was greatly startled at this
unexpected salute, for he had forgotten his heroic deeds of yesterday,
and did not know what to attribute it to; at last the cause of it
seemed to strike him, for he rushed back to the tent with a roar of
laughter. I went down into the cabin and sat down to breakfast with
Gelid and Wagtail. Suddenly we heard Bangs cry out, "Pegtop! come
here, Pegtop--do you hear? Help me to tie my cravat--that's right. Now
I will go on deck."

Here Pearl, the black quarter-master, was impatiently waiting for
hi