ch the stranger through that still and
breathless atmosphere, I proceeded upon my twofold errand.

But it is time to tell the reader where the _Psyche_ was upon this dark
and stifling night; what she was doing there; and why the precautions
above referred to were deemed necessary.

As has already been mentioned, the _Psyche_ was a British man-o'-war.
She was a sloop, armed with fourteen long 18-pounders; and carried a
crew which had originally consisted of one hundred and thirty men, but
which had now been reduced by sickness and casualties to one hundred and
four, all told. She was a unit in the somewhat scanty Slave Squadron
which Great Britain had stationed on the West African coast for the
suppression of the infamous slave-trade; and when this story opens--
namely, about the middle of the year 1822--had been upon the station
nearly two years, during the whole of which period I, Richard Fortescue,
hailing from the neighbourhood of the good town of Plymouth, had been on
board her, and now held the responsible position of senior midshipman;
being, at the above date, just turned seventeen years of age.

The _Psyche_ was a fine, stout, roomy, and comfortable craft of her
class; but about as unsuitable for the work upon which she was now
engaged as could well be, for she was a converted merchant ship, built
for the purpose of carrying the biggest possible cargo that could be
packed into certain prescribed limits, and consequently, as might be
expected, phenomenally slow. To commission such a vessel to chase and
capture the nimble craft that were usually employed to transport the
unhappy blacks across the Atlantic was simply a ghastly farce, and
caused us, her unfortunate crew, to be the laughing-stock of the entire
coast. Yet, considering all things, we had not done so very badly; for
realising, early in the commission, that we need never hope for success
from the speed of our ship, we had invoked the aid of strategy, and by
dint of long practice had brought the trapping of slavers almost up to
the level of high art. Consequently the _Psyche_, despite the
disabilities arising from her astonishing lack of speed, had acquired a
certain reputation among the slave-dealing fraternity, and was as
intensely detested by them as any ship on the station.

At the moment when the reader first finds himself a member of her crew
the _Psyche_ was lying near the mouth of the Benin river, some two miles
off the shore and about twic