Soon after the Panda left Prince’s Island, the British brig of war, Curlew, Capt.  Trotter arrived, and from the description given of the vessel then said to be lying in the Nazareth, Capt.  Trotter knew she must be the one, that robbed the Mexican; and he instantly sailed in pursuit.  On nearing the coast, she was discovered lying up the river; three boats containing forty men and commanded by Capt.  Trotter, started up the river with the sea breeze and flood tide, and colors flying to take the desperadoes; the boats kept in near the shore until rounding a point they were seen from the Panda.  The pirates immediately took to their boats, except Francisco Ruiz who seizing a fire brand from the camboose went into the magazine and set some combustibles on fire with the laudable purpose of blowing up the assailants, and then paddled ashore in a canoe.  Capt.  Trotter chased them with his boats, but could not come up with them, and then boarded the schooner which he found on fire.  The first thing he did was to put out the fire which was in the magazine, below the cabin floor; here was found a quantity of cotton and brimstone burning and a slow match ignited and communicating with the magazine, which contained sixteen casks of powder.

The Panda was now warped out of the river and anchored off the negro town of Cape Lopez.  Negociations were now entered into for the surrender of the pirates.  An officer was accordingly sent on shore to have an interview with the king.  He was met on the beach by an ebony chief calling himself duke.  “We followed the duke through the extensive and straggling place, frequently buried up to the ankles in sand, from which the vegetation was worn by the constant passing and repassing of the inhabitants.  We arrived at a large folding door placed in a high bamboo and palm tree fence, which inclosed the king’s establishment, ornamented on our right by two old honeycombed guns, which, although dismounted, were probably, according to the practice of the coast, occasionally fired to attract the attention of passing vessels, and to imply that slaves were to be procured.  On the left of the enclosure was a shed, with a large ship’s bell suspended beneath, serving as an alarum bell in case of danger, while the remainder was occupied with neatly built huts, inhabited by the numerous wives of the king.

“We sent in to notify him of our arrival; he sent word out that we might remain outside until it suited his convenience.  But as such an arrangement did not suit ours, we immediately entered, and found sitting at a table the king.  He was a tall, muscular, ugly looking negro, about fifty years of age.  We explained the object of our visit, which was to demand the surrender of the white men, who were now concealed in the town, and for permission to pass up the river in pursuit of those who had gone up that way.  He now expressed the most violent indignation at our presumption in demanding the pirates, and the interview was broken off by his refusing to deliver up a single man.”