k of bitter anguish and despair threw herself backwards beneath the
flood.

My heart was bursting with grief and indignation--grief for the
miserable dying wretches around me, and indignation at our utter
inability to prevent such wholesale human suffering. But there was no
time to lose; the schooner was already settling down beneath our feet,
and I saw that it would very soon be "Every man for himself and God for
us all;" so I passed my charge on deck and quickly followed it myself.

I was just in time to see Smellie spinning the schooner's wheel hard
over to port and lashing it there. Divining in an instant that he hoped
by this manoeuvre to sheer the schooner alongside the brig, I seized the
child I had brought up from below, dropped it into one of our own boats
astern, and then stood by to make a spring for the brig with the rest of
our party. Half a minute more and the sides of the two ships touched.

"Now, lads, follow me! Spring for your lives--the schooner is sinking!"
I heard Smellie shout; and away we went--Armitage leading one party
forward, and Smellie showing the way to the rest of them aft. And, even
as we made our spring, the schooner heeled over and sank alongside.

We were met, as before, by so stubborn a resistance that I believe every
one of us received some fresh hurt more or less serious before we
actually reached the deck of the brig; but our lads were by this time
fully aroused--neither boarding-nettings nor anything else could any
longer restrain them; and in a few seconds, though more than one poor
fellow fell back dead, we were in possession of the brig, the crew, in
obedience to an order from their captain, suddenly flinging down their
weapons and tumbling headlong into their boats, which for some reason--a
reason we were soon to learn--they had lowered into the water.

To our surprise our antagonists, instead of taking refuge on board the
brigantine, as we fully expected they would, took to their oars and
pulled in frantic haste up the creek. In the dense darkness which now
ensued consequent upon the cessation of firing it was impossible to send
a shot after them with any chance of success; and so they were allowed
to go free.

The hot pungent fumes which arose through the grating of the brig's main
hatchway very convincingly testified to the presence of slaves on board
that craft also; and, warned by his recent experience on board the
schooner, Smellie resolved to warp the brig in