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The Pirate Slaver, by Harry Collingwood
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pirate Slaver, by Harry Collingwood This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Pirate Slaver A Story of the West African Coast
Author: Harry Collingwood
Illustrator: W.H. Overend
Release Date: November 15, 2007 [EBook #23498]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PIRATE SLAVER ***
Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
The Pirate Slaver
a Story of the West African Coast
CHAPTER ONE.
THE CONGO RIVER.
"Land ho! broad on the port bow!"
The cry arose from the look-out on the forecastle of her Britannic Majesty's 18-gun brig Barracouta, on a certain morning near the middle of the month of November, 1840; the vessel then being situated in about latitude 6 degrees 5 minutes south and about 120 east longitude. She was heading to the eastward, close-hauled on the port tack, under every rag that her crew could spread to the light and almost imperceptible draught of warm, damp air that came creeping out from the northward. So light was the breeze that it scarcely wrinkled the glassy smoothness of the long undulations upon which the brig rocked and swayed heavily while her lofty trucks described wide arcs across the paling sky overhead, from wh