estion. To stop the
slave-trade, unless by compulsion, was, in his eyes, the absolute
abandonment of a natural appetite or function. At first, he believed
we were joking. It was inconceivable that I, who for years had carried
on the traffic so adroitly, could be serious in the idea. For half an
hour the puzzled negro walked up and down the verandah, muttering to
himself, stopping, looking at both of us, hesitating, and
laughing,--till at last, as he afterwards confessed, he concluded that
I was only "_deceiving the Englishman_," and came forward with an
offer to sign a treaty on the spot for the extinction of the traffic.

Now the reader must bear in mind that I allowed the prince to mislead
himself through his natural duplicity on this occasion, as I was
thereby enabled to bring him again in contact with Seagram, and secure
the support of British officers for my own purposes.

In a few days the deed was done. The slave-trade at New Sestros was
formally and for ever abolished by the prince and myself. As I was the
principal mover in the affair, I voluntarily surrendered to the
British officer on the day of signature, one hundred slaves; _in
return for which I was guarantied the safe removal of my valuable
merchandise, and property from the settlement._

It was a very short time after I had made all snug at New Sestros
that misfortune fell suddenly on our parent nest at Gallinas. The Hon.
Joseph Denman, who was senior officer of the British squadron on the
coast, unexpectedly landed two hundred men, and burnt or destroyed all
the Spanish factories amid the lagunes and islets. By this
uncalculated act of violence, the natives of the neighborhood were
enabled to gorge themselves with property that was valued, I
understand, at a very large sum. An event like this could not escape
general notice along the African coast, and in a few days I began to
hear it rumored and discussed among the savages in _my_ vicinity.

For a while it was still a mystery why _I_ escaped while Gallinas
fell; but at length the sluggish mind of Prince Freeman began to
understand my diplomacy, and, of course, to repent the sudden contract
that deprived him of a right to rob me. Vexed by disappointment, the
scoundrel assembled his minor chiefs, and named a day during which he
knew the Termagant would be absent, to plunder and punish me for my
interference with the welfare and "institutions" of his country. The
hostile meeting took place without my