found that it paid them well
to maintain agents there for the sole purpose of picking up every
possible item of information relative to the movements and doings of
that squadron. For it not unfrequently happened that, to those behind
the scenes, an apparently trivial and seemingly quite worthless bit of
information, an imprudent word dropped by an unwary officer respecting
one of our vessels, enabled the acute ones to calculate so closely that
they often succeeded in making a dash into some river, shipping a cargo
of slaves, and getting clear away to sea again only a few hours before
our cruisers put in an appearance on the spot. And in the same way our
own officers, by frequenting, in disguise, the haunts of the slavers and
their agents, very often succeeded in catching a hint that, carefully
followed up, led to most important captures being made. It was, indeed,
through a hint so acquired that we had been put upon the track of the
_Dona Isabella_.

Now, our own skipper, Captain Harrison, was particularly keen upon this
sort of work, and was exceptionally well qualified to achieve success in
it. For, in the first place, he was a West Indian by birth, being the
son of a Trinidad sugar-planter, and he consequently spoke Creole
Spanish as fluently as he did his mother tongue. Also his physical
characteristics were such as to be of the greatest assistance to him in
such enterprises; for he was tall, lean, and muscular, of swarthy
complexion, with thick, black, curly hair, and large, black, flashing
eyes, suggesting that he carried a touch of the tar-brush, although, as
a matter of fact, he had not a drop of negro blood in him. He was a man
of dauntless courage, knowing not the meaning of fear, and absolutely
revelling in situations of the most extreme peril, yet gifted with quite
as much discretion as was needful for a man entrusted with heavy
responsibilities involving the lives of many of his fellow-men. He
never sought danger for danger's sake alone, and never embarked in an
enterprise which his reason assured him was hopelessly impracticable,
but, on the other hand, he never hesitated to undertake the most
perilous task if he believed he could see a way to its successful
accomplishment. It was his habit to assume a variety of disguises in
which he would haunt the third and fourth rate taverns of Freetown,
especially patronised by the slave-dealing fraternity, and mingling
freely with these gentry, would boldly