ern-sheets of the boat, as I was, without
moving a muscle.

"The craft which had been sighted by the look-out forward was a small
Mtpe dhow well under the lee of the island and creeping along-shore, her
light sails and the wider spread of canvas which her lateen rig
permitted enabling her to take advantage of the slightest puff of air;
while our heavy pinnace, with her small-cut sails hardly raised above
the surface of the sea, so as to get the full force of the wind,
required a strong breeze to move her at all, although then she had
pretty fair speed.

"Now that the men had taken to the oars, however, we began to approach
the stranger more rapidly; but she was over five miles off, and a pull
of that length under a burning sun is no joke, I can assure you. Stroke
after stroke, our plucky seamen kept at it in spite of the heat, one
minute appearing to gain and then again to lose distance as a whiff of
air would waft the dhow along; so that, it was not until nearly sunset
that we got within gunshot, and could hail her to see what she was up
to.

"`Now, Adams,' said I to the man in the bows, who had command of the
seven-pounder boat-gun we had fixed there, `I think we may invite the
stranger gentleman to have a little chat. Fire away, my man, and make
her come to.'

"All was ready, so without more ado he fired, the shot ricochetting
across the prow of the Arab craft, which had by this time cleared the
island and seemed making for Madagascar, that lay east and by south some
three hundred miles off. At all events, the dhow was steering in that
direction, with whatever wind there was on her beam, and she paid no
attention to us at all apparently.

"Still, she didn't long keep on that course. The first message from our
seven-pounder did not bring her to, nor did a second, but when a third
went unpleasantly close, right through her broad lug-sail, we could see
her come up to the wind sharp, while a fourth shot, which we now sent to
show those on board that we meant business and would be obeyed, caused
her heavy yard to be dropped by the run in token of surrender.

"We had a long pull yet to come near her; but on getting alongside we
found it had been all labour for nothing. There was not the ghost of a
slave aboard, nor any signs neither of her having carried any recently.
She was only a trading dhow with a lot of Banians taking goods from the
mainland to the islands; and so we had had all our chase for nothing.
We