Saturday, 29.—­Got under weigh at daylight, but were obliged to anchor again before noon, both wind and tide being against us.  We here found the Haywood, Captain Burrel, at anchor; she was from Liverpool, bound to Old Calabar, for palm-oil.  The larger Liverpool vessels have generally a small one, for a tender, to collect palm-oil, ebony, and ivory,[38] at different places on the coast, as the ships generally remain in one river until their cargoes are complete.  There was a dreadful accident happened to one of these tenders.  She was boarded by a number of piratical blacks in canoes, belonging to an island near the mouth of the Camaroon river, when they murdered all the trader’s crew, and after plundering the vessel of every thing they thought worth carrying away, they got clear off with their booty.

At 5 in the afternoon we got under weigh, and at 8 crossed the bar, where there was a heavy surf and only 15 feet water, so that we and our live stock were in some danger.  Soon afterwards we were chased, and had two shots fired at us, being taken for a slaver escaping under cover of the night, and when the vessel was ranging up alongside, with the intention of pouring in a heavy fire and boarding us in the smoke, our assailants, to their great mortification, heard the bellowing of our oxen, and we discovered the vessel to be the Eden’s tender, commanded by our friend Lieutenant Badgeley, who came on board, when we enjoyed a good laugh at his disappointment, in taking our horned cattle for slaves.  We soon parted company, leaving him our best wishes.

Sunday, 30.—­Soon after midnight the weather, from being very calm and clear, became overcast, and at 2 o’clock a tornado came on, which continued with frequent, and most violent gusts of wind, rain, thunder and lightning, till between five and six in the morning; our situation was not at all enviable, as we had both the deck, and hold, crowded with cattle.  The violence and variableness of the wind soon raised a very rough and cross sea, which frequently broke over us, making every thing fly from side to side, and producing the greatest disorder.  All this time I was in a small moveable bed-place on deck, expecting every instant that the sea would overwhelm us, and wash me and my bed-place overboard, for I was in no danger of being washed out of my bed, as it required no little management to emerge from it at pleasure.  This berth of mine was commonly called a doghouse (a box about six feet long, four high, and two broad,) containing a mattress fitted about 18 inches from the deck, above which there was a sliding door and curtain, scarcely large enough to admit an ordinary sized man.  I found it, however, much more pleasant in fine weather than sleeping below, where the cockroaches were so numerous that a large dishful might be obtained in a few minutes, by putting a little treacle in it, to serve both for bait and trap.  I used to think, that if the old story were a fact instead of a fiction, namely, that the Chinese make Soy of these animals, a very lucrative trade might be carried on between them and the natives of these coasts.