together. Many of the bodies to whom these limbs belonged were dead or
dying. In fact, when we had made some sort of clearance among them we
found in that fearful hold eleven dead bodies lying among the living
freight. Water! water! was the cry. Many of them as soon as free jumped
into the sea, partly from the delirious state they were in, partly
because they had been told that, if taken by the English, they would be
tortured and eaten. The latter I fancy they were accustomed to, but the
former they had a wholesome dread of.

Can Mrs. Beecher Stowe beat this? It is, I can assure my readers, a very
mild description of what I saw on board the first cargo of slaves I made
the acquaintance of, and by which I was so deeply impressed, that I have
ever since been sceptical of the benefits conferred upon the African
race by our blockade--at all events, of the means employed to abolish
slavery.

The strangest thing amid this 'confusion of horrors' was that children
were constantly being born. In fact, just after I got on board, an
unfortunate creature was delivered of a child close to where I was
standing, and jumped into the sea, baby and all, immediately afterwards.
She was saved with much difficulty; the more so, as she seemed to
particularly object to being rescued from what nearly proved a watery
grave.

After this unusual stroke of good luck, sending a prize crew on board
my new capture, and allowing the slaver's crew to escape in the
schooner's boat, as I considered these lawless ruffians an impediment to
my movements, I proceeded on my voyage, and arrived safely in Rio
harbour with my two prizes.