een lost overboard, for they were nowhere to
be found. The firing from the hold still continued.

"Loosen the gun, and load it with grape," cried I. "Forward with it,
and fire down the hatchway."

The shot struck among the closely packed slaves, and a fearful,
heart-rending cry rent the air. Oh God! I shall never forget it. Yet
still the madmen continued their fire.

"Load, and fire again."

My men were now mad with rage, and fought more like devils than human
beings.

"Once more, my lads," cried I; but this time they pushed the gun so
madly forward, that both it and the carriage were precipitated with a
fearful crash into the hold. At the same moment a cloud of smoke burst
forth from the hold.

"They have fired the brig," cried Jigmaree. "Back to the schooner, or
we shall be blown into the air like onion peels."

But the schooner had got loose, and was fast leaving us. Gelid,
Wagtail, and Reefpoint, were on board; the latter, though badly
wounded, had crept out of his hammock, and on deck. They made us
understand, by signs, that they could not hoist the sails, and that,
moreover, the rudder was shot away, and the vessel unmanageable in
consequence.

"Up with the foresail, men," cried I; "hoist the foresail, and get the
brig under way, or we are lost."

My men obeyed my orders with the calmness of desperation. I took hold
of the wheel myself, and in a few moments we lay alongside of our
vessel once more. It was high time, for already some hundred and fifty
unfettered slaves had rushed on deck, and we had hardly time to spring
on board, to escape the furious charge they made on us from the hinder
part of the vessel. The murderous fire of grape shot they had endured,
had made them perfectly mad with rage, and had they been able to get
at us we should undoubtedly have been torn to pieces.

But the fire was quicker than they. The smoke, which rose like a
pillar of clouds through the hatchway, was now mingled with red
tongues of flame, which, like fiery serpents, twined themselves round
the crackling masts and rigging, that shrivelled in their hot
embrace. The sea, too, vied with its fierce brother element in
destroying the ill-fated vessel. Either through our shots, or from the
falling of the gun into its hold, some of the planks had been started,
and the water rushed in in torrents. The flames increase, the guns
become heated and go off, and at last the ship suddenly sinks from our
view, whilst the loud and a