urred was, we found, the Bay of Audierne, and the town near
it that of Plouzenec. Here we met part of the officers and crew of the
British thirty-six-gun frigate, _Amazon_, which had been wrecked with
us. Her whole ship's company (six men only excepted, who had stolen the
cutter and were drowned) had, by means of rafts, landed in safety by
nine a.m. of the morning the frigate went on shore. This might have
been partly owing to the position of the ship, but more particularly to
the admirable discipline maintained on board. We rejoiced to find that
the other frigate, which was the _Indefatigable_, of forty-four guns,
Captain Sir Edward Pellew, had escaped the danger which threatened her.
Fenwick and I were sighing over the prospect of our expected captivity,
and the destruction of all our hopes of promotion, when the captain of
the French ship, who had been among the last to leave the wreck, sent
for us, and, complimenting us on our behaviour, assured us that as we
had been fellow-sufferers with him and his people, we and our men might
rely on being liberated without delay. To our great joy we and our
companions were shortly afterwards placed on board a cartel and sent to
England without ransom or exchange, an act of generosity on the part of
the French worthy of note.

STORY SIX, CHAPTER 1.

OUR FIRST PRIZE--A YARN.

Away on her course, before a strong north-easterly breeze, flew her
Majesty's brig _Gadfly_. Every stitch of canvas she could carry was
set, each sail was well trimmed, each brace hauled taut, and it might
have been supposed that we were eager to reach some port where friends
and pleasure awaited us. But it was far otherwise. We were quitting
England and our home, that spot which contains all a seaman holds most
dear, and were bound for a land of pestilence and death, the little
delectable coast of Africa, to be employed for the next three years in
chasing, capturing, or destroying, to the best of our power and ability,
all vessels engaged in the traffic of human flesh. We touched at the
Azores, and reached Sierra Leone, the chief port on that station,
without meeting with any adventure worth relating. We remained there a
week to wood and water, to perform which operations we shipped a dozen
stout Kroomen. These people come from a province south of Sierra Leone,
and are employed on board all vessels on that coast to perform such
occupations as would too much expose Europeans to the heat of t