280 THE SPANISH SLAVER. 



sheds an influence over the mind which accords 

 well with her own peculiar stillness and compo- 

 sure. If she is beautiful in her calmness, she is 

 magnificent in her wrath. Often have I stood 

 watching the gradual appearance of a tornado : 

 its mutterings and growlings in the distance con- 

 trasting so forcibly with the deadly stillness that 

 pervades the atmosphere immediately around — 

 the immense cloud which like a funeral pall covers 

 the eastern horizon, occasionally illuminated by 

 flashes of the most intense and dazzling light- 

 ning, which only makes the darkness darker — 

 the rush and roar of its approach, and the peals 

 that accompany it, altogether form a picture that 

 it is impossible to describe. 



I accompanied Colonel NicoUs to Cameroons, 

 who in his judicial capacity had to inquire into 

 some circumstances that had lately occurred 

 there, which, as they show the lawless state of 

 the coast, and the necessity for some resident 

 British power to curb it, I may be excused for 

 mentioning here. A short time before I reached 

 Fernando Po, Commander Trotter, of his Majes- 

 ty's brig Curlew, called at Prince's Island, and 

 there obtained information that a very suspicious 

 vessel, under Spanish colours, had been in Port 



