44 SIMON RIVER. 



than the American negroes — they have all the 

 acuteness and enterprise of the Yankee grafted 

 on an African constitution. 



On the 27th, our fuel being expended, we 

 were again under the necessity of entering one 

 of the small rivers which are so numerous on the 

 coast for a fresh supply : it was called by the na- 

 tives Simon River. We found the banks inha- 

 bited by a mixed race of Kroomen and negroes. 

 It is a noted slaving place, and the natives had 

 great quantities of firewood piled up in readiness 

 for a large slave-brig that was expected. The 

 mode of collecting slaves on this part of the coast, 

 where one depot is not sufficiently large to load 

 a vessel, differs from that on the leeward coast. 

 A slaver comes on the coast to windward about 

 the Gallinas River, and runs down as far as Cape 

 Palmas, calling at all the small slaving rivers 

 and ports, and leaving an assortment of trading 

 goods to purchase slaves, having arranged the 

 time the cargo is to be ready for shipment, which 

 is generally in five or six weeks. The vessel then 

 runs off the coast, and, if boarded by any of our 

 cruisers, reports herself as bound for Prince's 

 or St. Thomas's Islands. At the expiration of 

 the time she returns, and commencing at the 



