in command of three boats, viz., a ten-oared cutter and two four-oared whale boats.  I had with me in all nineteen men, well armed and prepared, as I imagined, for every emergency.  The night we left our ship we anchored late under the shelter of a small island, and all hands being tired from a long row in a hot sun, I let my men go to sleep during the short tropical darkness.  As soon as the day was breaking all hands were alert, and we saw with delight a beautiful rakish-looking brig, crammed with slaves, close to the island behind which we had taken shelter, steering for a creek on the mainland a short distance from us.  I ought to mention that the island in question was within four miles of this creek.  We immediately prepared for action, and while serving out to each man his store of cartridges, I found to my horror that the percussion tubes and caps for the boat’s gun, the muskets and pistols, had been left on board the ship.  What was to be done? no use swearing at anybody.  However, we pulled boldly out from under the shelter of the island, thinking to intimidate the slaver into heaving to.  In this we were grievously mistaken.

The vessel with her men standing ready at their guns seemed to put on a defiant air as she sailed majestically past us, and although we managed with lucifer matches to fire the boat’s gun once or twice, she treated us with sublime contempt and went on her way into the creek, at the rate of six or seven miles an hour.  Though difficult to attack the vessel in the day time without firearms, I determined if possible not to lose altogether this splendid brig.  I waited therefore till after sunset, and then pulled silently into the creek with muffled oars.  There was our friend securely lashed to the rocks.  We dashed on board with drawn cutlasses, anticipating an obstinate resistance.  We got possession of the deck in no time, but on looking round for someone to fight with, saw nothing but a small black boy who, having been roused up from a sort of dog-kennel in which he had been sleeping, first looked astonished and then burst out laughing, pointing as he did so to the shore.  Yes, the shore to which the slaver brig was lashed was the spot where seven hundred slaves (or nearly that number, for we found three or four half-dead negroes in the hold) and the crew had all gone, and left us lamenting our bad luck.  However, I took possession of the vessel as she lay, and though threatened day and night by the natives, who kept up a constant fire from the neighbouring heights and seemed preparing to board us, maintained our hold upon the craft until the happy arrival of my ship, which, with a few rounds of grape, soon cleared the neighbourhood of our assailants.  I may mention that, in the event of our having been boarded, we had prepared a warm reception for our enemies in the shape of buckets of boiling oil mixed with lime, which would have been poured on their devoted heads while in the act of climbing up the side.  As they kept, however, at a respectful distance, our remedy was not tried.  The vessel, a splendid brig of 400 tons, was then pulled off her rocky bed, and I was sent in charge of her to Rio de Janeiro.  And now comes the strangest part of my adventures on this occasion.