under Seagram himself.
Just as this flotilla shoved off, a rough boatswain begged leave to
fit out my nutshell of a native canoe; and embarking with a couple of
Kroomen, he squatted amidships, armed with a musket and cutlass!

This expedition exhausted our stock of _nautical_ men so completely,
that as Seagram crossed the gangway he commended the purser and
surgeon to _my care, and left Her Majesty's brig in charge of the
reformed slaver_!

No sooner did the chase perceive our manoeuvre, than, running in her
sweeps, she hoisted a Spanish flag and fired a warning cartridge. A
faint hurrah answered the challenge, while our argonauts kept on their
way, till, from deck, they became lost below the horizon. Presently,
however, the boom of another gun, followed by repeated discharges,
rolled through the quiet air from the Spaniard, and the look-out aloft
reported our boats in retreat. Just at this moment, a light breeze
gave headway to the Termagant, so that I was enabled to steer towards
the prize, but before I could overhaul our warriors, the enemy had
received the freshening gale, and, under every stitch of canvas, stood
rapidly to sea.

When Seagram regained his deck, he was bleeding profusely from a wound
in the head received from a handspike while attempting to board.
Besides this, two men were missing, while three had been seriously
wounded by a shot that sunk the yawl. My gallant boatswain, however,
returned unharmed, and, if I may believe the commander of the
"Serea,"--whom I encountered some time after,--this daring sailor did
more execution with his musket than all the marines put together. The
_Kroo_ canoe dashed alongside with the velocity of her class, and, as
a petty officer on the Spaniard bent over to sink the skiff with a
ponderous top-block, our boatswain cleft his skull with a musket ball,
and brought home the block as a trophy! In fact, Seagram confessed
that the Spaniard behaved magnanimously; for the moment our yawl was
sunk, Olivares cut adrift his boat, and bade the struggling swimmers
return in it to their vessel.

I have described this little affray not so much for its interest, but
because it illustrates the vicissitudes of coast-life and the rapidity
of their occurrence. Here was I, on the deck of a British man-of-war,
in charge of her manoeuvres while in chase of a Spaniard, who, for
aught I knew, might have been consigned to me for slaves! I gave my
word to Seagram as he embarked, to manage