n Romer had learned from the
commander of another cruiser that Aden was at that time somewhat
overwhelmed with freed slaves, a considerable number of captures having
been recently made about the neighbourhood of that great rendezvous of
slavers, the island of Socotra.

The captain therefore changed his mind, and once more very unwillingly
directed his course towards the distant Seychelles.

On the way thither many of the poor negroes died, but many began to
recover strength under the influence of kind treatment and generous
diet. Among these latter was Kambira. His erect gait and manly look
soon began to return, and his ribs, so to speak, to disappear. It was
otherwise with poor Obo. The severity of the treatment to which he had
been exposed was almost too much for so young a frame. He lost appetite
and slowly declined, notwithstanding the doctor's utmost care.

This state of things continuing until the `Firefly' arrived at the
Seychelles, Obo was at once conveyed to the hospital which we have
referred to as having been established there.

Azinte chanced to be absent in the neighbouring town on some errand
connected with her duties as nurse, when her boy was laid on his bed
beside a number of similar sufferers. It was a sad sight to behold
these little ones. Out of the original eighty-three children who had
been placed there forty-seven had died in three weeks, and the remnant
were still in a pitiable condition. While on their beds of pain,
tossing about in their delirium, the minds of these little ones
frequently ran back to their forest homes, and while some, in spirit,
laughed and romped once more around their huts, thousands of miles away
on the banks of some African river, others called aloud in their
sufferings for the dearest of all earthly beings to them--their mothers.
Some of them also whispered the name of Jesus, for the missionary had
been careful to tell them the story of our loving Lord, while tending
their poor bodies.

Obo had fevered slightly, and in the restless half-slumber into which he
fell on being put to bed, he, too, called earnestly for his mother. In
_his_ case, poor child, the call was not in vain.

Lieutenant Lindsay and the doctor of the ship, with Kambira, had
accompanied Obo to the hospital.

"Now, Lindsay," said the doctor, when the child had been made as
comfortable as circumstances would admit of, "this man must not be left
here, for he will be useless, and it is of the