han a sigh or a half-suppressed wail, with now
and then a shriek of pain when some of the weaker among them were
quickened into activity by the lash.

When all had been embarked, two of the five boats still remained empty,
but Yoosoof had a pretty good idea of the particular points along the
coast where more "cattle" of a similar kind could be purchased.
Therefore, after stationing some of his men, armed with muskets, to
guard the boats, he returned with the remainder of them to the hut in
which the Englishmen had been left.

There he found Azinte and her guardians. He seemed angry with the
latter at first, but after a few minutes' thought appeared to recover
his equanimity, and ordered the men to remove the ropes with which the
girl was tethered; then bidding her follow him he left the hut without
taking any notice of the Englishmen further than to say he would be back
shortly before the time of sailing.

Yoosoof's motions were usually slow and his mien somewhat dignified,
but, when occasion required, he could throw off his Oriental dignity and
step out with the activity of a monkey. It was so on this occasion,
insomuch that Azinte was obliged occasionally to run in order to keep up
with him. Proceeding about two miles in the woods along the shore
without halt, he came out at length on the margin of a bay, at the head
of which lay a small town. It was a sorry-looking place, composed of
wretchedly built houses, most of which were thatched with the leaves of
the cocoa-nut palm.

Nevertheless, such as it was, it possessed a mud fort, an army of about
thirty soldiers, composed of Portuguese convicts who had been sent there
as a punishment for many crimes, a Governor, who was understood to be
honourable, having been placed there by his Excellency the
Governor-General at Mozambique, who had been himself appointed by His
Most Faithful Majesty the King of Portugal.

It was in quest of this Governor that Yoosoof bent his rapid steps.
Besides all the advantages above enumerated, the town drove a small
trade in ivory, ebony, indigo, orchella weed, gum copal, cocoa-nut oil,
and other articles of native produce, and a very large (though secret)
trade in human bodies and--we had almost written--souls, but the worthy
people who dwelt there could not fetter souls, although they could, and
very often did, set them free.

Senhor Francisco Alfonso Toledo Bignoso Letotti, the Governor, was
seated at the open window of his parlo