282 THE SPANISH PIRATES. 



informed Mr. B. that they had belonged to the 

 Negro, a Spanish slaver from the Havana, that 

 had come from the southward, where they had 

 been wrecked, and they wished to get to Old 

 Calebar or Bonny to join some of their country- 

 men. 



On his telling them he would take them to 

 Fernando Po, and from thence they might get to 

 Bonny, they hesitated a little ; but as their boat 

 had been stove in landing at Bimbia, they had no 

 alternative. On arriving at the island, they were 

 strictly examined by Colonel Nicolls and Com- 

 mander Trotter ; but all adhered to the same 

 story, that they were shipwrecked and in distress. 

 Colonel Nicolls seeing that one had a less har- 

 dened look than the rest, took him aside and 

 charged him with belonging to the Panda, the 

 piratical schooner that had been blown up in 

 the Nazareth. The fellow dropped on his knees 

 and confessed they were part of the crew, and 

 gave an account of the different vessels they had 

 plundered since leaving St. Thomas's. On being 

 confronted with the remainder, with the excep- 

 tion of the boatswain, they all confirmed his 

 statement, and a few days after my arrival this 

 man changed his story and made a full confes- 



