ed!" cried I, with surprise. "Strange things. By the bye, why did
not Olivarez come to me yesterday?"

"I will explain all to you, Sir, if you will lie down and listen to
what I have to say, and take the news quietly."

"Very well, Ingram, I will do so. Now pray go on."

"You were brought on board in a state of fever and insensibility by
the captain of the slaver. He said, as he lifted you over the side,
that you were a dead man. We all thought the same, and you were taken
down into the cabin with that persuasion on the part of the whole
crew. Your delirium and fever increased, and every hour it was
expected that you would give up the ghost. Now, Sir, two days
afterwards the slaver sailed with his cargo, and we were left alone in
the river. Olivarez, who of course commanded, talked to the men. He
said that you were as good as dead already, and that he thought that
this was a fair opportunity for their making money. He proposed that
the ivory still on shore should be changed for slaves, which he said
the negroes would gladly do, and that we should run with our cargo to
the Brazils. He said that it was useless our remaining in the river,
as we should all lose our lives in the same way that you had done, and
that he thought, as commanding the schooner, he knew what would best
please the owner, who had long employed vessels in the slave-trade,
and would not be sorry to find that we had run a cargo, and would
reward them all liberally. That this would be an excuse to leave the
river immediately, whereas otherwise they would have to wait till you
recovered or died, and by that time they might half of them be dead
themselves. Do you understand me, Sir?"

"Yes, perfectly. Go on, Ingram."

"Well, Sir, the men did not perceive what he was about, and replied
that so long as they left the river they did not care how soon, and
that it was better that we should take a cargo of slaves at all
events, for Olivarez was in command now, and they should do as he
ordered them. I made no reply, indeed Olivarez never put the question
to me. Well, Sir, the ivory was soon exchanged for slaves, who are now
on board, and it is the slaves whom you have smelt and complained of.
We received on board 140, and provisions sufficient with what we had,
and having taken in all the water we could below and on deck, we made
sail out of the river, and have since steered for the Brazils."

"But Olivarez has taken a most unwarrantable responsibility," sai