My Lord and Polly
looked at us with a considerable amount of envy as we wished them
farewell.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER 6.

OVERBOARD.

Once more we were at sea. Had it not been for the honour of the thing,
we should have preferred being on board the frigate, for although I have
a great respect for many Africans, I must say that it is not agreeable
to have some hundreds of them as shipmates. We had happily very fine
weather, and the poor people were able constantly to take the air on
deck. They seemed to have forgotten all their sufferings and miseries,
and would sing and dance and tell stories, and laugh all day long. I
still continued to take Peter Pongo in hand, and began to teach him not
only to speak but to read and write English. Snookes used to laugh at
me at first, but when he saw the progress Peter made he wanted to teach
him likewise. To this I said No, he might try and teach some one else,
but he was not to interfere with my pupil. He agreed to this, but
either he selected a stupid subject, or his mode of teaching was not
good, for he made wonderfully little progress. For a week he was trying
to teach his pupil Tommy Toad, as he called him, three letters of the
alphabet, and at the end of the time he could not tell B from C. Mr
Talbot took care also that we should not be idle, and kept us knotting
and splicing and doing all sorts of work aloft. We were approaching our
port, and were congratulating ourselves on having made a favourable
passage, when two of our men were taken sick, then another and another,
till our strength was sadly reduced. One poor fellow died, and there
appeared every prospect of our losing more. The negroes were generally
ready enough to work, but as they did not know how, they were of little
use. Mr Talbot and Sommers worked away most heroically, attending to
the sick, pulling and hauling, and often steering the vessel. Dickey
and I did our best to help them. While the fine weather lasted our
difficulties were not very great; at the same time, we were so short
handed that the labour fell heavily on those who remained well. Dickey
and I, though not very big or strong, from going constantly aloft, were
of no little use, we flattered ourselves. One evening as we were
approaching our destination, being closed hauled under all sail and
standing on our course--Sommers was at the helm, Mr Talbot was below,
and Dickey and I with two men were on deck, all we could muster for the