e been done, and the slave-trade crushed
completely. It will be more difficult now, since the despot of France
has put the stamp of his licence on the inhuman trade, and the
slave-dealer is no longer an outlaw. It would be a very different
affair to hang to the yard-arm some French ruffian, bearing his
commission to buy souls and bodies, and under the signature of imperial
majesty.

Alas, alas! the world goes back; civilisation recedes--humanity has lost
its chance, and the slave-trade goes on as briskly as ever!

I was too young at the time of my first voyage to moralise in this
philosophic manner; but for all that I had imbibed a thorough disgust
for the slave-trade, as, indeed, most of my countrymen had done. The
period of which I am speaking was that when, by the laudable efforts of
Wilberforce and other great philanthropists, our country had just set
before the world that noblest example on record--the payment of twenty
millions of sterling pounds in the cause of humanity. All glory to
those who took part in the generous subscription. Young as I was, I
like others, had heard much of the horrors and cruelties of the
slave-trade, for at that time these were brought prominently before the
public of England.

Fancy, then, the misery I experienced, at finding myself on board a ship
actually engaged in this nefarious traffic--associating with the very
men against whom I had conceived such antipathy and disgust--in fact
myself forming one of the crew!

I cannot describe the wretchedness that came over me.

It is possible I should have been more shocked had I made the discovery
all at once, but I did not. The knowledge came upon me by degrees, and
I had long suspicions before I became certain. Moreover, harassed as I
had been by personal ill-treatment and other cares, I did not so keenly
feel the horror of my situation. Indeed, I had begun to fancy that I
had got among real pirates, for these gentry were not uncommon at the
time, and I am certain a gang of picaroons would not have been one whit
more vulgar and brutal than were the crews of the _Pandora_. It was
rather a relief, therefore, to know they were not pirates--not that
their business was any better,--but I had the idea that it would be
easier to get free from their companionship; which purpose I intended to
carry out the very first opportunity that offered itself.

It was about the accomplishment of this design that I now set myself to
thinking whe