ed party they had all
so far rallied as to render their perfect recovery merely a matter of
time, provided, of course, that the deadly fever of the coast did not
carry them off in the meanwhile.

On our arrival in Sierra Leone I was greatly surprised to find the
_Barracouta_ still in harbour; and I of course lost no time in going on
board to report myself and, incidentally, to find out the reason of her
prolonged stay in port. But on presenting myself on board I discovered
that I had been mistaken in supposing her to have lain there idle during
the whole period of my cruise--on the contrary, she had only arrived
three days before the _Felicidad_; and after I had told my story and
received the compliments of the captain and the rest of the officers
upon what they were pleased to term the boldness and judgment with which
I had executed my mission, I had to listen in return to a story as
gruesome as can well be imagined, although it was told in very few
words. It appeared, then, that a day or two after my departure, the
_Barracouta_ again put to sea with the fixed but unexpressed
determination to prosecute a further search for the _Francesca_, the
wind and weather having meanwhile been such as to encourage Captain
Stopford in the hope that by adopting certain measures he might yet
contrive to fall in with her. And he had done so, though by no means in
the manner that he had expected, the cruise being without result in the
direction in which he had hoped to meet with success. Some days later,
however, after the search had been reluctantly abandoned, and while the
brig was edging in towards the coast again, hoping to pick up a prize to
recompense them in a measure for their disappointment, they had
unexpectedly fallen in with the _Francesca_, again, and were not long in
coming to the conclusion that something was seriously wrong on board
her, both her topmasts being carried away close to the caps and hanging
suspended by the rigging, with no apparent effort being made to clear
away the wreck, although the weather was then quite fine. Sail was of
course at once made to close with the dismantled craft, and then another
surprise met them, for although the intention of the brig must have been
from the first moment unmistakable, no attempt was made to avoid the
encounter, which, however, was accounted for a little later by the fact
that the _Francesca_ appeared to be in an unmanageable condition. Then,
as the brig neared he