necessary murder—Bad luck every where—A chase and a narrow escape

276 CHAP. XLIII.—The Aguila de Oro, a Chesapeake clipper—my race with the Montesquieu—I enter the river Salum to trade for slaves—I am threatened, then arrested, and my clipper seized by French man-of-war’s men—Inexplicable mystery—We are imprisoned at Goree—Transferred to San Louis on the Senegal—The Frenchmen appropriate my schooner without condemnation—How they used her The sisters of charity in our prison—The trial scene in court, and our sentence—Friends attempt to facilitate my escape, but our plans detected—I am transferred to a guard-ship in the stream—New projects for my escape—A jolly party and the nick of time, but the captain spoils the sport 280 CHAP. XLIV.—I am sent to France in the frigate Flora—Sisters of charity—The prison of Brest—My prison companions—Prison mysteries—Corporal Blon—I apply to the Spanish minister—Transfer to the civil prison 286 CHAP. XLV.—Madame Sorret and my new quarters—Mode of life—A lot of Catalan girls—Prison boarding and lodging—Misery of the convicts in the coast prisons—Improvement of the central prisons 292 CHAP. XLVI.—New lodgers in our quarters—How we pass our time in pleasant diversions by aid of the Catalan girls and my cash—Soirées—My funds give out—Madame Sorret makes a suggestion—I turn schoolmaster, get pupils, teach English and penmanship, and support my whole party 295 CHAP. XLVII.—Monsieur Germaine, the forger—His trick—Cause of Germaine’s arrest—An adroit and rapid forgery—Its detection 300 CHAP. XLVIII.—Plan of escape—Germaine’s project against Babette—A new scheme for New Year’s night—Passports—Pietro Nazzolini and Dominico Antonetti—Preparations for our “French leave”—How the attempt eventuated 304 CHAP. XLIX.—Condition of the sentinel when he was found—His story—Prison researches next day—How we avoid detection—Louis Philippe receives my petition favorably—Germaine’s philosophic pilfering and principles—His plan to rob the Santissima Casa of Loretto—He designs making an attempt on the Emperor Nicholas—I am released and banished from France 310 CHAP. L.—I go to Portugal, and return in disguise to Marseilles, in order to embark for Africa—I resolve to continue a slaver—A Marseilles hotel during the cholera—Doctor Du Jean and Madame Duprez—Humors of the table d’hôte—Coquetry and flirtation—A phrenological denouement 316 CHAP. LI.—I reach Goree, and hasten to Sierra Leone, where I become a coast-pilot to Gallinas—Site of that celebrated factory—Don Pedro Blanco—His monopoly of the Vey country—Slave-trade and its territorial extent prior to the American Scheme of Colonization—Blanco’s arrangements, telegraphs, &c. at Gallinas—Appearance and mode of life—Blanco and the Lords’ prayer in Latin 324 CHAP. LII.—Anecdotes of Blanco—Growth of slave-trade in the Vey country—Local wars—Amarar and Shiakar—Barbarities of the natives 330 CHAP. LIII.—I visit Liberia, and observe a new phase of negro development—I go to New Sestros, and establish trade—Trouble with Prince Freeman—The value of gunpowder physic 335 CHAP. LIV.—My establishment at New Sestros, and how I created the slave-trade in that region—The ordeal of Saucy-Wood—My mode of attacking a superstitious usage, and of saving the victims—The story of Barrah and his execution 339 CHAP. LV.—No river at New Sestros—Beach—Kroomen and Fishmen—Bushmen—Kroo boats—I engage a fleet of them for my factory—I ship a cargo of slaves in a hurry—My mode of operating—Value of rum and mock coral beads—Return of the cruiser 344 CHAP. LVI.—I go on a pleasure voyage in the Brilliant, accompanied by Governor Findley—Murder of the Governor—I fit out an expedition to revenge his death—A fight with the beach negroes—We burn five towns—A disastrous retreat—I am wounded—Vindication of Findley’s memory 349 CHAP. LVII.—What Don Pedro Blanco thought of my Quixotism—Painful effects of my wound—Blanco’s liberality to Findley’s family—My slave nurseries on the coast—Digby—I pack nineteen negroes on my launch, and set sail for home—Disastrous voyage—Stories—I land my cargo at night at