s papers; and after many indignant protests they were produced
and flung down upon the cabin table for our inspection. These fully
established the identity of the brig; and as an examination of her hold
revealed that she was fitted with a slave-deck, large coppers for the
preparation of food for the unfortunate blacks her captain hoped to
secure, a stock of water, and farina ample enough to meet the wants of a
large "cargo," and an abundance of slave-irons, we were fully justified
in taking possession of her, which we did forthwith. Half-an-hour
sufficed for us to secure our capture and put a prize-crew on board
under Gowland's command, and we then parted company; the brig to stand
on for an hour as she was going--so as not to needlessly alarm the
barque--and then to haul up and shape a course for Sierra Leone, while
we at once hauled our wind in pursuit of our new quarry, which bore by
this time well upon our port-quarter--as we had hitherto been going--
with her topsails just showing above the horizon.

We had no sooner trimmed sail in chase of the barque than we found, to
our unspeakable gratification, that we were still far enough to windward
to lay well up for her, she being at the commencement of the chase not
more than a point and a half upon our weather bow, while, from the
superiority of our rig, we were able to look quite that much higher than
she did. The question now was whether, in the strong wind and heavy sea
that we had to contend against, we could hold our own with a craft so
much more powerful than ourselves.

We had of course taken the precaution to get down a couple of reefs in
our topsail, and the same in the foresail, as well as to haul down the
squaresail and get the bonnet off the jib before leaving the
_Conquistador_, but it was not until we had hauled our wind and put the
schooner on a taut bowline, that we were able to realise how hard it was
actually blowing. Up to then the wind had seemed no more to us than a
brisk, pleasant breeze, while the schooner rode the long, creaming
surges lightly as a gull. _Now_, however, we had to doff our straw hats
in a hurry to save them from being blown away, and to don close-fitting
cloth caps instead, as well as our oil-skins, while it was positively
hard work to cross the deck against the wind. As for the schooner, she
behaved like a mad thing, careening to her gunwale as she soared to the
crest of a wave and cleft its foaming summit in a blinding de