oured as
lead. As I awoke I found my throat sore from the unwholesome moisture I
had inhaled. We had nothing, therefore, to do but cook and eat our
breakfast, and practise patience. There was little use exhausting the
men's strength by pulling, as we were as likely to pull from, as
towards, a vessel. Hour after hour thus passed away, till at length the
sun conquered the mist, and gradually drew it off from the face of the
deep, discovering a wide expanse of shining water, unbroken by a single
dot or speck which was likely to prove a sail; while to the eastward
arose a long dark line of mangrove-trees, at the mouth of the Gaboon
river. The land-breeze came off to us, smelling of the hot parched
earth; and we turned our eyes anxiously whence it blew, in the hope of
seeing some white sail dancing before it over the bar of the river; but
we were doomed to disappointment. The hot sun struck down on our heads,
and tanned and scorched our cheeks, and the upper works of the boat
cracked with the heat, till a beefsteak might have been broiled on the
gunwale. At last the land-wind died away; there was again a dead calm,
in which we roasted still faster, till the sea-breeze set in and
somewhat cooled our parched tongues. Now we looked out seaward, in the
hopes of finding some slaver, unsuspectingly standing in, either to ship
the whole or the portion of a cargo, having already, perhaps, taken some
on board at another part of the coast. Nothing is more trying to the
temper than to have to sit quiet and do nothing; yet such was our fate
from day to day, as we lay like a snake ready to spring on its prey.
The sun rose, and roasted us, and set, leaving us to be parboiled, and
rose again, without a sail appearing. We ate our breakfasts, and
dinners, and suppers, and smoked our pipes, and sat up, and went to
sleep again, in the same regular manner for several successive days.

At length, one morning, a light breeze sprang up; and, as the fog was
blown off in dense wreaths, the topsails of a schooner were seen rising
above them.

"Out oars, my men, and give way with a will!" exclaimed Waller, in an
animated voice. "We are not yet seen, and may get alongside before they
find us out."

The men, in their delight at the prospect of having something to do,
would have cheered, but he silenced them. We hoped that she was a
slaver; but she might, after all, be only an honest Liverpool trader.
When first seen, she was little more t