weigh, and sweep in close to that dwarf palm there."

The smoke had come from a spot close under its shade.

"Hurrah!" shouted the men. The anchor was catted-the sweeps were manned the guns were loaded with grape-the marines stood to their arms, and in two minutes we were once more at anchor, with the two boats in tow, within half-pistol shot of the bank. All remained as still and quiet as before. Not a breath stirred the leaves of the mangrove bushes, or of the dwarf palms that grew close to the river brink. I was sure we were directly opposite the spot from whence the shots were fired. Whenever we were fairly settled in our position, we let drive both guns. The grape pattered in the water, and rattled amongst the leaves of the trees, but all continued still as death on shore. We loaded and fired again, but as we had only one boat untouched, Mr Sprawl and I determined, instead of attempting a landing, in order to cope with enemies whom we could not see, to weigh and sweep towards the brig, with the intention, if opportunity offered, of boarding her. But the moment we turned our stern to the

shore, and began to pull in that direction-bang-several cannon were again fired at us, but in this instance they were loaded with round and grape, and two of the shot told, but fortunately only one of the people was hurt, and that not seriously.

"Pull, men, like fury; give way, and clap the hull of the brig between you and our honest friends there." Crack, another rally from the masked battery, and one poor fellow was this time knocked over, never to rise again; in another minute, we had swept round the stern of the polacre, and were alongside. I laid hold of the manrope-" Now, men, there can be no tricks here, or they would have shown themselves before now, so, follow me." The foremost manrope gave in my grasp, and a gun exploded on board. I fell back on the deck of the felucca. "Cast off your fastenings, and sheer off, my lads, or we may get a hoist we don't dream of."

At this instant the battery on shore began once more to play, not

in broadsides, but by single guns, as fast as they could pepper, some of the shot coming through and through both sides of the polacre. We immediately hauled off for the opposite bank of the river, but presently took the ground on a bank, where the current, setting strong down, soon jammed us hard and fast. We were about two cables' length from the brig at this time, and the sun was now near setting. The firing continued, the flashes became brighter, the smoke itself began, as the sky darkened, to grow luminous, and presently the polacre appeared to be sinking. "She is settling fast down forward," said I; "by the powers, she is sinking, sure enough,— there-there she goes; what a list to port she is getting!" Presently she fell over on her beam-ends on the mud, with every thing under water but about ten feet of the quarter bulwark, and the masts and rigging, which the setting sun was now gilding; while the long shadows of the bushes and dwarf palms on the western bank gradually crept across the whole breadth of the unwholesome stream, chasing the blood-red gleam of the sinking sun first from the water, and then from the river brink, where it lingered for a moment, and then gradually rose until it rested on the topmost branches of the trees on the low bank opposite, from which it speedily disappeared, and the only objects that vouched for his being still above the horizon, were the wand-like tops of the tall masts, that shone like burnished brass rods for a brief moment, and then blackened under the fast falling darkness, which ra pidly shrouded the whole face of the dull flat melancholy margin of the dark rolling stream; while creeping churchyard-looking vapours, as if the pestilence no longer walked in darkness, but had become palpable to the senses both of sight, smell, and feeling, presently shrouded every object on the shores from our view, like a London fog; while myriads of musquittoes attacked us in every way, and several white cranes flitted past and around us, like ghosts, sailing slowly on their wide-spread wings, and the chirping and croaking of numberless insects and reptiles came off strong from the banks, borne on

the stagnant putrid exhalation that was like to poison us; and the rushing of the river, that in the daytime we could not hear, sounded loud and hoarse, and rippled, lip, lipping against the stem as we lay aground, and then circled away in dark frothy eddies in our wake.

We lay still for several hours without seeing any light, or hear ing any noises on shore that indicated the vicinity of our dangerous neighbours. Once tempted by the apparent quietude, the boat shoved off a stroke or two in the direction of the polacre, with the intention of setting fire to her, if possible; but when within pistol-shot of their object, a loud voice from the shore sang out in a threatening tone -"Cuidado," when the officer wise ly pulled round, and returned to us. We could hear the frigate in the offing through the livelong night, firing signal guns every ten minutes, which we durst not answer, without the certainty of being speedily blown to pieces by our invisible antagonists. About ten o'clock, I went in one of the boats with muffled oars, and made directly for the bank opposite where we had been fired at, which, on a nearer approach, I found to be free of mangroves, and to consist of a black overhanging scaur, that had been scarped out by the rush of the stream, reflected across from the jutting point on the side where the slavers had intrenched themselves. All continued still, and here we skulked for a full hour, when we stole out, and pulled gently towards the wreck, which, either from a fresh in the river, or the rising of the tide, was now entirely under water. But we had not advanced above fifty yards towards our object, when the same unearthly "beware" swung across the black rushing of the stream, and was again reflected in a small echo from the opposite side, as if a water fiend had been answered by a spirit of the air. We got back to the felucca, and now made up our minds to while away the time until the day broke, in the best way we could. All hands were now set to cooper the damaged boat, of which we contrived to make a very tole

rable job, so that she leaked very little.

The lieutenant in command and I now went below, and immediately sent for the three midshipmen who were detached on the same service with us. We had some grog and a piece of rancid mess beef, and as turning in was out of the question, we lay down on the deck and on the lockers, and by the help of boat cloaks and blankets, we were endeavouring to make ourselves as comfortable as we could, when the sound of a cannon-shot was once more heard.

"Why, what the deuce," said I, we are making no movementwhat can the fellows mean?"

There was no saying; they might, from the success they had met with in neutralizing the attempts of the boats to disturb or destroy the wreck, have overvalued the strength of their own position, for this shot had been aimed at us; and as we had now plenty of water, we instantly weighed, and dropped down the river out of range. All now remained quiet until the day dawned, and streaks of dull grey cold light appeared in the eastern horizon. There was not a single warm tint in the sky, although we were in a regular vapour-bath of pestilential effluvia, and were any thing but cold. An hour before daylight the fog sank down on us even thicker than before, so that every thing was hid from our view beyond ten paces' distance; but as it drew nearer sunrise, this watery canopy rose, and gradually evaporated in a dropping mist, until the gorgeous east once more reassumed its supremacy, and the stars sparkled, and the reddening firmament gave token that day was at hand. The

Majesty's powder in minute guns in this way?"

"What were you after the whole night through, eh ?" sung out old Pumpbolt, the master of the Gazelle. "Come on board, my lad," said I-" come on board, will ye, and shall hear the whole story."

you

They came on board, and after lengthier explanation than the reader would willingly listen to, it was determined, reinforced as we now were, that if we could make out the whereabouts of the fort that had so annoyed us, we should make a dash at it, even were we to have broken heads in prospect. As to attacking the battery in front, where there was no standing ground, it was utterly out of the question; so, as the tide was now low ebb, and the slaver nearly high and dry on the bank, although, in the hole we had dropped into, the felucca was floating quietly out of cannon-shot, we left her in charge of ten hands, and crowding the other boats, we gradually dropped down with the current along shore, three in all, the damaged boat having been repaired, as already mentioned, and with no fewer than six-and-forty seamen and twenty marines, keeping a bright lookout for the smallest opening in the mangroves that could afford an entrance. At length we did arrive at such an opening; it was a narrow creek about thirty feet broad, overhung with the everlasting mangrove, which formed an arch overhead by the weaving of the thickly leaved branches together, forming a shade utterly impervious to the sun's rays. I was in the sternmost boat; the next to me was commanded by the first lieutenant of the frigate, old Davie Doublepipe, and as we sculled along in the clear creek, for here it was translucent as a mountain lake, whatever the water might be in the river, our boats came close together. Sprawl, whose experience of the coast, and, in truth, of expeditions of this kind, greatly surpassed my own, immediately asked me to shift from aft where I sat, forward to the stem of the boat. The men continued to pole along, as there was no room for them to ply their oars.

"I say, Master Brail," quoth he -(as he sat in the stern-sheets and I was stowed away in the bow of my

own boat, we could communicate without being overheard)" why, supposing we do carry his position -cui bono, what advantageth it us? The slaves, which, when the Midge first saw him, and chased him, were on board, are once more back into cover, and have all been landed; so if we could even weigh the polacre and carry her to Cape Coast, I very much fear we should be unable to condemn her."

"But the honour and glory?" quoth I.

"Both be-ahem," quoth he; "but if you think it an object to have a brush, why, come along, it is all the day's work."

I was a younger man by ten years than our friend, and, boylike, I gloried in the opportunity; so we again began to scull along the clear deep creek, overhung by the same luxuriant umbrageous screen of mangroves, as impervious to the sun and light as if it had been a continuous artificial arbour. I cannot describe the beauty and coolness of this shade

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water clear and pellucid as crystal under foot; a long distinct view through forests of naked mangrove stems on each side, while overhead there was a perfect screen of green leaves, as if the stems of the trees and bushes had been merely naked and leafless artificial supporters to the luxuriant web of verdure that rested on the trelliswork formed by the interlacing of their boughs aloft, and which spread out in a delicious covering over the whole shore. We dislodged innumerable birds of every variety, from the tall floating ghostlike crane to the chattering paroquet; and more than one owl flitted. away from us, and flew up through the branches above, until the sun struck him, when, with a whirling flaff and a rustling brush through the topmost leaves, he came down overhead like a shot, until, restored by the green twilight, he recovered himself, and once more sailed away along the narrow creek, and disappeared round the corner of it ahead of us. In one instance, a boy in the bow of my boat struck one down with a boat-hook, so that the bird fell crack against Lieutenant Sprawl's head as he sat in the stern-sheets of the boat ahead.

"Hillo, Brail, my man," quoth he, "where away-what are you after?"

an eye, patched with white spots, from the rasping of the grape-shot. "Forward," shouted Davie Doublepipe "follow me, men," when rattle-a platoon of musketry was fired at us. The grape had missed, from a wrong elevation of the gun; not so the small arms-two of our party were shot dead and three wounded; but the spring was nevertheless made. We scrambled across the brushwood that had been heaped on the road, and over the stockade, about six feet high, that it masked, and presently found ourselves in the presence of thirty determined fellows, who were working like fiends in the endeavour to slew round seven eighteen-pound carronades, that had been mounted on a stage of loose planks, and pointed towards the river. Apparently they had been unable to accomplish this with more than one, the gun that had just been fired, which had slid off the stage, and was now useless, from the giving way or rather sinking of the timber which constituted the platform, in the mud, two of the number having already, in the attempt, capsized and sunk right out of sight in the semisolid black filth, which hereabout composed the bank of the river. So aid from the cannon they now had none; but never did men shew a more daring front they stood their ground, exchanging blow for blow most manfully.

The fort or battery was a stockaded enclosure, about fifty yards square. Towards the river face, there was a platform, composed of loose planks, which were bedded on a quick sand of running mud, (being half an Irishman, I hope the phrase is patent to me,) on which were mounted, as already stated, seven carronades, eighteen-pounders; and the brushwood between them and the river grew so thick and close, that the water could not be seen, although opposite the muzzle of each cannon the leaves were scorched and blackened, and the stems shewed the white splinter marks of the shot. The wooden stage extended about twelve feet in breadth landward, but beyond it the whole inside of the fort was black soft mud, through which, on the side farthest from the river, protruded the stumps of the haggled brushwood, where it

had been cleared by the hatchet, while branches were thickly strewed on the surface nearer the platform, to afford a footing across it. But these branches had been removed for a space of ten feet, at the spot where we boarded, and the slimy ground appeared there poached into a soft paste, so that no footing might be afforded to an attacking force.

About thirty desperadoes, as already mentioned, were busily engaged on the platform, endeavouring to slew the carronades round, so as to face the point of attack. They were all armed with boarding pikes, or cutlasses, while several had large brass bellmouthed trabucos, or blunderbusses, which threw five or six musketballs at a discharge. Most of them were naked to their trowsers, and they all wore a blue, yellow, or red sash drawn tight round the waist, through which several had pistols stuck; while their heads were covered, in general, by a blue cloth cap, like a long stocking, to the end of which was fastened a thick silk or woollen tassel, either hanging down the back, or falling over the side of the head. Those who wore shirts had them of a woollen striped stuff, common amongst the Biscayan boatmen. One elderly man a large athletic Hercules of a fellow, bareheaded, and very bald, with his trowsers rolled up to his knees, displaying his dark brawny legs and naked feet, dressed in one of the aforesaid striped shirts, and who wore a broad-brimmed, narrow conical-crowned hat, with a flaming red riband tied round it close to the spreading brim, and with a trabuco in his hand, the piece held in a way that it might be instantly levelled at us-stood in advance of the others.

These ferocious-looking rascals had most formidable auxiliaries, in three Spanish blood-hounds, as yet held in leather leashes, but who were jumping and struggling, open-mouthed, and barking, and panting to get at us, until they were almost strangled, while their eyes were straining in their heads, or rather starting from their sockets, and the foam was dashed right and left from their coalblack muzzles. They were most superb creatures, all three of a bright bay colour, and about the height of a tall English stag-hound, but much