ot some distance off the land when the haze lifted, and away to
the southward a sail was seen, which the Spaniards at once seemed to
know was the British man-of-war. She saw us at the same moment, and
crowded all sail in chase. The schooner was put before the wind, which
now came from the southward, and every stitch of canvas she could carry
was set, men also going aloft with buckets of water to wet the sails.

Again the same scene of impotent rage I had before witnessed was
enacted, and the fury of the Spaniards increased as they saw the
man-of-war gaining on us, she apparently having more wind than we had.

I, as I had previously done, kept as much as I could out of their way,
and tried to prevent any gleam of satisfaction appearing in my
countenance.

The man-of-war was a corvette--evidently a powerful and very fast craft,
against which the slaver would not have had the shadow of a chance, had
even her crew possessed the courage to fight, which I felt very sure, in
spite of their bravado, they would not.

The corvette had been bringing the breeze up with her, and now the
schooner felt it herself, and began to move more rapidly through the
water. She, too, was a fast vessel, and her crew might justly have
entertained hopes of escaping. I little thought of the cruel device
they were contemplating to aid them in so doing.

At length the man-of-war had got almost near enough to reach the slaver
with her bow-chasers. She tried the range of one of them, but the shot
fell short. On this the captain turned, with a savage determination in
his eye, and spoke to one of the officers. Directly afterwards I saw
him descend to the slave deck with two or three of the men, and they
quickly returned with one of the unfortunate captives. Instantly the
unhappy slave was secured to a plank, and, in spite of his cries and
entreaties, hove overboard. As the poor wretch floated astern I could
not help recollecting that the sea swarmed with sharks, and that he
would probably be seized before many minutes were over by one of the
ravenous monsters. I guessed the object of the Spaniards; it was
confiding in the humanity of my countrymen that they would heave-to in
order to pick up the poor black, should he escape the sharks, and thus
allow the schooner to gain ground.

The device answered the expectations of its cruel perpetrators. The
corvette hove-to, a boat was lowered, and the slave taken up. The
Spaniards seemed delighted