vessel.

While I was still on shore I saw coming through the woods another long
line of captives. They had come, apparently, a long distance, for they
were mostly foot-sore, and several could scarcely move along; not a few
were wounded, and many of the men, and even of the women, bore traces on
their backs of the cruel lash which had been inflicted to make them
hasten their steps when they had showed any unwillingness to proceed.
They were allowed but a short time to rest in the barracoons, and having
been fed with farinha, mixed into porridge, were marched down to the
ship. They gazed at her with looks of dismay, for they knew that she
was to convey them away over the wide ocean they had heard of, but never
seen, to an unknown land, where they were to toil, unrequited, for hard
task-masters.

I thought of remaining on shore rather than proceed in the slave vessel;
but was unwilling to desert Paul, and he had not been allowed to land.
I therefore returned, hoping to obtain his release.

"You must remain with us a little longer," said my friend the officer,
who spoke English, "and we will land you on another part of the coast,
where you are more likely than here to meet with a trader."

I was compelled to comply, indeed I knew by his tone and manner, that I
should not be allowed to remain behind.

All the slaves which had been collected in the depot having been
received on board, the schooner cast off from the bank, and proceeded
down the river. As we crossed the bar the vessel pitched heavily, and
shipped several seas. The poor wretches below, as the water rushed down
upon them, fancying that they were about to be drowned, gave vent to
piercing shrieks and cries. The Spanish crew heard them with perfect
indifference, and no one, with the exception of Paul, took the slightest
trouble to calm their fears--he managing to slip down into the hold
assured them that there was no danger; but he could offer them very
little comfort besides as to their prospects in this world. Still he
could speak to them of another and a better land, "where the weary are
at rest, and the wicked cease from troubling," and where the shackles of
slavery are cast aside, and to which the God of mercy invites all His
creatures to come and dwell with Him, and be at rest. He was
endeavouring to explain to the miserable beings the simple troths of the
gospel, when he was overheard by one of the officers, and ordered on
deck, with a threat tha