od by to plunge in whenever the breakers capsized a
canoe.

We began with females, as the most difficult cargo for embarkation,
and seventy reached the brig safely. Then followed the stronger sex;
but by this time a sea-breeze set in from the south-west like a young
gale, and driving the rollers with greater rapidity, upset almost
every alternate cockleshell set adrift with its living freight. It was
fortunate that our sharks happened that evening to be on a frolic
elsewhere, so that negro after negro was rescued from the brine,
though the sun was rapidly sinking when but two thirds of my slaves
were safely shipped.

I ran up and down the beach, in a fever of anxiety, shouting,
encouraging, coaxing, appealing, and _refreshing_ the boatmen and
swimmers; but as the gangs came ashore, they sank exhausted on the
beach, refusing to stir. Rum, which hitherto roused them like
electricity, was now powerless. Powder they did not want, nor muskets,
nor ordinary trade stuff, for they never engaged in kidnapping or
slave wars.

As night approached the wind increased. _There_ was the brig with
topsails aback, signalling impatiently for despatch; but never was
luckless factor more at fault! I was on the eve of giving up in
despair, when a bright flash brought to recollection a quantity of
Venetian beads of mock coral which I had stowed in my chest. They
happened, at that moment, to be the rage among the girls of our beach,
and were of course irresistible keys to the heart of every belle. Now
the smile of a lip has the same magical power in Africa as elsewhere;
and the offer of a coral bunch for each head embarked, brought all the
dames and damsels of Sestros to my aid. Such a shower of chatter was
never heard out of a canary cage. Mothers, sisters, daughters, wives,
sweethearts, took charge of the embarkation by coaxing or commanding
their respective gentlemen; and, before the sun's rim dipped below the
horizon, a few strands of false coral, or the kiss of a negro wench,
sent one hundred more of the Africans into Spanish slavery.

But this effort exhausted my people. The charm of beads and beauty
was over: Three slaves found a tomb in the sharks, or a grave in the
deep, while the brig took flight in the darkness without the remaining
one hundred and twenty I had designed for her hold.

Next morning the cruiser loomed once more in the offing, and, in a fit
of impetuous benevolence, I hurried a Krooman aboard, with the offer
of