ens, you will be all right."

So saying, the good old fellow halted just abreast the hatchway, which
we had reached at this point in our perambulation fore and aft the deck,
and, gently urging me toward it suggestively, released my arm and turned
away. I took the hint thus given me and, without a word--for indeed at
that moment I was too deeply moved for speech--made my way below to the
midshipmen's berth, which I found opportunely empty, and there cast
myself upon my knees and prayed earnestly for some minutes. When I
arose from this act of devotion I was once more calm and unperturbed;
and from that moment I date a habit of prayer that has been an
inexpressible comfort and support to me ever since.

Upon returning to the deck the first object that caught my eyes was our
gig, with the first luff and little Pierrepoint--our junior mid but
one--in the stern-sheets, pulling toward the very handsome Spanish
brig--already spoken of as lying at anchor a short distance inside of
us--upon a visit of inspection. That the inspection to which she was
subjected was pretty thorough was sufficiently attested by the fact that
the gig remained alongside her a full hour, the British brig and the
Dutch barque being in their turn afterwards subjected to a similarly
severe examination; but, as Bates had predicted, nothing came of it, all
their papers being perfectly in order, while a rigorous search failed to
discover anything of an incriminating character on board either of them.

"Of course not," commented the master, when he learned the substance of
the first luff's report to the skipper; "of course not. Bless ye, the
people that trade to this river aren't born fools, not they! Just
consider the matter for a moment. Let's suppose, for argument's sake,
that the Spaniard yonder is a slaver. Would she ship her cargo here in
the very spot that would be first visited by every man-o'-war that
enters the river? Of course she wouldn't; she'd go away up the river
into one of the many creeks that branch into it on either side for the
first twenty miles or so, and ship her blacks there, watching for the
chance of a dark night to slip out and get well off the land before
daylight. If she came in here at all, it would be to fill up her water
and lay in a stock of meal upon which to feed her niggers when she'd got
'em; and you may depend on it that when a slaver comes in here upon any
such errand as that, a very bright look-out is kept for