of the unregistered
slaver. In ten days the runner verified the tale. She was still in the
stream, with one hundred and eighty-five human beings in her hold, but
would soon be off with an entire cargo of two hundred and twenty-five.

The time was extraordinarily propitious. Every thing favored my
enterprise. The number of slaves would exactly fit my schooner. Such a
windfall could not be neglected; and, on the fourth day, I was
entering the Rio Nunez under the Portuguese flag, which I unfurled by
virtue of a pass from Sierra Leone to the Cape de Verd Islands.

I cannot tell whether my spy had been faithless, but when I reached
Furcaria, I perceived that my game had taken wing from her anchorage.
Here was a sad disappointment. The schooner drew too much water to
allow a further ascent, and, moreover, I was unacquainted with the
river.

As it was important that I should keep aloof from strangers, I
anchored in a quiet spot, and seizing the first canoe that passed,
learned, for a small reward, that the object of my search was hidden
in a bend of the river at the king's town of Kakundy, which I could
not reach without the pilotage of a certain mulatto, who was alone fit
for the enterprise.

I knew this half-breed as soon as his person was described, but I had
little hope of securing his services, either by fair means or promised
recompense. He owed me five slaves for dealings that took place
between us at Kambia, and had always refused so strenuously to pay,
that I felt sure he would be off to the woods as soon as he knew my
presence on the river. Accordingly, I kept my canoemen on the schooner
by an abundant supply of "bitters," and at midnight landed half a
dozen, who proceeded to the mulatto's cabin, where he was seized _sans
ceremonie_. The terror of this ruffian was indescribable when he found
himself in my presence,--a captive, as he supposed, for the debt of
flesh. But I soon relieved him, and offered a liberal reward for his
prompt, secret and safe pilotage, to Kakundy. The mulatto was willing,
but the stream was too shallow for my keel. He argued the point so
convincingly, that in half an hour, I relinquished the attempt, and
resolved to make "Mahomet come to the mountain."

The two boats were quickly manned, armed, and supplied with lanterns;
and, with muffled oars, guided by our pilot,--whose skull was kept
constantly under the lee of my pistols--we fell like vampyres on our
prey in the darkness.

With a