{"product_id":"2940016070506","title":"The Pirate Slaver","description":"THE PIRATE SLAVER, A STORY OF THE WEST AFRICAN COAST, BY HARRY\u003cbr\u003eCOLLINGWOOD.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER ONE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE CONGO RIVER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Land ho! broad on the port bow!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe cry arose from the look-out on the forecastle of her Britannic\u003cbr\u003eMajesty's 18-gun brig _Barracouta_, on a certain morning near the middle\u003cbr\u003eof the month of November, 1840; the vessel then being situated in about\u003cbr\u003elatitude 6 degrees 5 minutes south and about 120 east longitude.  She\u003cbr\u003ewas heading to the eastward, close-hauled on the port tack, under every\u003cbr\u003erag that her crew could spread to the light and almost imperceptible\u003cbr\u003edraught of warm, damp air that came creeping out from the northward.  So\u003cbr\u003elight was the breeze that it scarcely wrinkled the glassy smoothness of\u003cbr\u003ethe long undulations upon which the brig rocked and swayed heavily while\u003cbr\u003eher lofty trucks described wide arcs across the paling sky overhead,\u003cbr\u003efrom which the stars were vanishing one after another before the advance\u003cbr\u003eof the pallid dawn.  And at every lee roll her canvas flapped with a\u003cbr\u003erattle as of a volley of musketry to the masts, sending down a smart\u003cbr\u003eshower from the dew-saturated cloths upon the deck, to fill again with\u003cbr\u003ethe report of a nine-pounder and a great slatting of sheets and blocks\u003cbr\u003eas the ship recovered herself and rolled to windward.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe brig was just two months out from England, from whence she had been\u003cbr\u003edispatched to the West African coast to form a portion of the\u003cbr\u003eslave-squadron and to relieve the old _Garnet_, which, from her\u003cbr\u003ephenomenal lack of speed, had proved utterly unsuitable for the service\u003cbr\u003eof chasing and capturing the nimble slavers who, despite all our\u003cbr\u003eprecautions, were still pursuing their cruel and nefarious vocation with\u003cbr\u003eunparalleled audacity and success.  We had relieved the _Garnet_, and\u003cbr\u003ehad looked in at Sierra Leone for the latest news; the result of this\u003cbr\u003evisit being that we were now heading in for the mouth of the Congo,\u003cbr\u003ewhich river had been strongly commended to our especial attention by the\u003cbr\u003eGovernor of the little British colony.  Our captain, Commander Henry\u003cbr\u003eStopford, was by no means a communicative man, it being a theory of his\u003cbr\u003ethat it is a mistake on the part of a chief to confide more to his\u003cbr\u003eofficers than is absolutely necessary for the efficient and intelligent\u003cbr\u003eperformance of their duty; hence he had not seen fit to make public the\u003cbr\u003eexact particulars of the information thus received.  But he had of\u003cbr\u003ecourse made an exception in favour of Mr Young, our popular first luff;\u003cbr\u003eand as I--Henry Dugdale, senior mid of the _Barracouta_--happened to be\u003cbr\u003esomething of a favourite with the latter, I learned from him, in the\u003cbr\u003ecourse of conversation, some of the circumstances that were actuating\u003cbr\u003eour movements.  The intelligence, however, was of a very meagre\u003cbr\u003echaracter, and simply amounted to this: That large numbers of African\u003cbr\u003eslaves were being continually landed on the Spanish West Indian islands;\u003cbr\u003ethat two boats with their crews had mysteriously disappeared in the\u003cbr\u003eCongo while engaged upon a search of that river for slavers; and that a\u003cbr\u003esmall felucca named the _Wasp_--a tender to the British ship-sloop\u003cbr\u003e_Lapwing_--had also disappeared with all hands, some three months\u003cbr\u003epreviously, after having been seen in pursuit of a large brig that had\u003cbr\u003ecome out of the river; these circumstances leading to the inference that\u003cbr\u003ethe Congo was the haunt of a strong gang of daring slavers whose capture\u003cbr\u003emust be effected at any cost.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was for this service that the _Barracouta_ had been selected, she\u003cbr\u003ebeing a brand-new ship especially built for work on the West African\u003cbr\u003ecoast, and modelled to sail at a high speed upon a light draught of\u003cbr\u003ewater.  She was immensely beamy for her length, and very shallow,\u003cbr\u003edrawing only ten feet of water with all her stores and ammunition on\u003cbr\u003eboard, very heavily sparred--_too_ heavily, some of us thought--and, as\u003cbr\u003efor canvas, her topsails had the hoist of those of a frigate of twice\u003cbr\u003eher tonnage.  She was certainly a beautiful model of a ship--far and\u003cbr\u003eaway the prettiest that I had ever seen when I first stepped on board\u003cbr\u003eher--while her speed, especially in light winds and tolerably smooth\u003cbr\u003ewater, was such as to fill us all, fore and aft, with the most\u003cbr\u003eextravagant hopes of success against the light-heeled slave clippers\u003cbr\u003ewhose business it was ours to suppress.  She was a flush-decked vessel,\u003cbr\u003ewith high, substantial bulwarks pierced for nine guns of a side, and she\u003cbr\u003emounted fourteen 18-pounder carronades and four long nine-pounders, two\u003cbr\u003eforward and two aft, which could be used as bow and stern-chasers\u003cbr\u003erespectively, if need were, although we certainly did not anticipate the\u003cbr\u003enecessity to employ any of our guns in the latter capacity.  Our crew,\u003cbr\u003eall told, numbered one hundred and sixty-five.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47101223895280,"sku":"2940016070506","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016070506","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}