H.M.S. _Turquoise_, with Lieutenant Fegan
in command, was watching the creeks and bays running up into the coast
of Pemba Island. At daybreak one May morning, a dhow was seen making for
an opening known as Fungal Gap, and the dinghy, or small boat, with
three men, was sent to hail her. The dhow replied by a volley, and, as
Lieutenant Fegan turned his nine-pounder gun upon her, she left the
small boat and bore down upon the pinnace. The Arab crew numbered twenty
desperate men armed with swords and rifles; the Englishmen were ten, of
whom three were in the dinghy, but Lieutenant Fegan, shouting to his
lads to stand firm, led a gallant resistance to the fierce, dark-faced
men who sprang upon the deck as the two boats crashed together. Two men
he shot down, and ran another through with his cutlass before he
received a severe wound, disabling his sword-arm. Only the timely help
of a sailor, who cut down his opponent, saved him from being killed
outright. The dhow, finding the pinnace a tougher vessel than she had
anticipated, tried to escape, but the English, though four of their
number were wounded, at once gave chase, and were presently reinforced
by the men in the dinghy.

Some of the Pemba Arabs, hearing the shots, came down to the shore and
fired upon the pinnace, but the gallant vessel held on to her prize
until the dhow foundered at last in shallow water and capsized, the crew
jumping into the sea and trying to save themselves by swimming. Their
well-wishers on the shore were soon dispersed by the English fire, and
those of the crew who were not utterly disabled by their wounds, turned
to the task of rescuing the living cargo of the dhow. The wretched
slaves, crowded together in the hold and terrified by the firing, saw
the kindly faces of the English sailors looking down upon them, and
learnt by degrees that they were safe and among friends.

It was ten days before a doctor could be had to attend to the wounded;
one man died, but the gallant fight had won freedom for fifty-two
slaves, and in many cases not only freedom, but teaching and training
such as they would never have had but for their short, bitter experience
of captivity and the rescue that had ended it. The Universities' Mission
was the direct result of Livingstone's appeal to the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge; it offered to take charge of slave children
released in Zanzibar, and in the girls' school at Mbweni, the Boys' Home
at Kilmani, and the Co