that a great quantity of gunpowder, which had been embarked for
the coast trade, was stowed below, while there was but one available
boat to get off the men before the ship should be blown into the air,
which they momently expected. But there was no time for reflection:
each man looked to his own safety, and a rush took place, through the
fire, towards the after-part of the deck, to reach the boat. The poor
fellows who thus risked a passage through the flames, that now curled
up fearfully, and swept the whole surface of the vessel, were
dreadfully burned, and looked more like demons than men. But, at last,
after much difficulty, they succeeded in lowering the boat into the
sea. Those, however, who got in first, seeing that the whole crew must
inevitably perish if they suffered a greater number to crowd the boat
than she could with safety contain, pushed off from the ship as
speedily as they could. If they had yielded to the impulse of their
feelings, every soul must have perished; for, although they might have
escaped from the fire, they must, of necessity, have swamped the boat.
Fortunately, however, the boat got off in safety; but she had made a
very short distance when the vessel blew up. Several poor wretches,
seeing that their fate was not to be averted, had leaped into the sea,
and were drowned; while others, who clung despairingly to the vessel,
were annihilated by the force of the explosion. One poor black boy,
nerved by desperation, flung himself overboard, and swam after the
boat, which, with great exertion, he overtook. Through Mr. McCormack's
interposition he was taken on board. The crew of the boat, so sudden
was their resolution taken, had not time to provide themselves with a
supply of provisions, although they were a considerable distance from
the shore: they snatched up such trifling articles as happened to be at
hand in the hurry of their departure, and trusted themselves to
Providence for the rest. This melancholy accident was occasioned by the
insubordination of some of the sailors, who forced their way through
the bulk-head into the fore-hold, to get at a cask of spirits.

In the evening I accompanied Mr. Macauley in a drive to the village of
Kissey, one of the settlements of liberated Africans. Its population is
nearly a thousand souls, composed of the descendants of natives of Aco,
who were taken from a slave vessel on the river Lagos in the Bight of
Benin. The immediate neighbourhood of this vill