k ere the studding-sails were got in, the gear
unrove and unbent, and the stumps of the booms cleared away, and I
thought it hardly worth while to get a fresh set of booms fitted and
sent aloft that night. We accordingly jogged along under plain sail
until daylight, when we got the studding-sails once more upon the little
hooker and tried her paces. She proved to be astonishingly fast in
light, and even moderate, weather, and I felt convinced that had the
wind not breezed up so strongly as it did on the previous day, the
_Shark_ would never have overtaken her.

During the following two days we made most excellent progress, the
weather being everything that one could desire, and the water smooth
enough to permit of the hatches being taken off and the unfortunate
slaves brought on deck in batches of fifty at a time, for an hour each,
to take air and exercise, while those remaining below were furnished
with a copious supply of salt-water wherewith to wash down the slave-
deck and clear away its accumulated filth. It proved to be a very
fortunate circumstance that Captain Bentinck had permitted us to draw
the negro San Domingo as one of our crew, for the fellow understood the
language spoken by the slaves, and was able to assure them that in the
course of a few days they would be restored to freedom, otherwise we
should not have dared to give them access to the deck in such large
parties, for they were nearly all _men_, and fine powerful fellows, who,
unarmed as they _were_, could have easily taken the ship from us and
heaved us all overboard.

The _Dolores_ had been in our possession just forty-eight hours, and we
were off Cape Three Points, though so far to the southward that no land
was visible, when a sail was made out on our lee bow, close-hauled on
the larboard tack, heading to the southward, the course of the _Dolores_
at the time being about north-west by west. As we closed each other we
made out the stranger to be a brig, and our first impression was that
she was the _Shark_, which, having either captured or lost sight of the
craft of which she had been in chase, was now returning, either to her
station or to look for us and convoy us into Sierra Leone; and, under
this impression, we kept away a couple of points with the object of
getting a somewhat nearer view of her. By sunset we had raised her to
half-way down her courses, by which time I had come to the conclusion
that she was a stranger; but as Gowland,