to
completely disable them, the rest, amounting to no less than
twenty-three, suffering from hurts ranging from such an insignificant
prod as I had received in the leg, up to a cutlass-stroke that had all
but scalped one poor fellow.

At length, just as we had completed the task of getting our worst cases
below out of the persistent rain, and making them in a measure
comfortable, the wind shifted and subsided to a gentle breeze from the
north-eastward, the weather cleared, the rain ceased, and about
half-an-hour later the day broke gloriously, and we were able to get a
view of our surroundings.

We found ourselves in a nearly circular lagoon or basin, about
half-a-mile in diameter, across the centre of which lay moored the brig
and the two schooners, with a gap in the line to mark the berth that had
been occupied by the third schooner--the craft that had succeeded in
effecting her escape. We were completely land-locked, the shores of the
creek being low, and for the most part closely fringed with mangroves,
behind which rose dense and apparently impenetrable masses of bush, now
in full leaf, and thickly overgrown with flowering parasites, the bush
being interspersed with trees of several kinds, some of which were very
lofty and handsome. At a short distance above where we were lying,
there appeared to be another creek--a small affair, not more than a
hundred feet wide--branching off from the main channel; and, upon its
being pointed out to him, the captain at once hailed the schooner of
which the second lieutenant was in possession, directing that the latter
should take his boat, with the crew well armed, and make an exploration
of the subsidiary and main creeks for a short distance, for the purpose
of ascertaining whether, as was exceedingly probable, there was a slave
depot in the neighbourhood. I should greatly have liked to have made
one of the party, and indeed asked permission to join it, but my burnt
foot was by this time so inflamed and painful that I could not put it to
the deck, and Captain Stopford, while expressing his gratification at
the zeal manifested by the request, refused, pointing out that, lame as
I was, I should not only be useless but an actual encumbrance and
embarrassment to the party in the event of resistance being offered to
any attempt on their part to land.

In a few minutes Ryan was ready, and the boat shoved off from the
schooner, leaving just enough hands to take care of her durin