298 ADJUDICATION OF PRIZES. 



blockading Bonny, in which river there were 

 eleven slavers. Being out of provisions and 

 water, she was obliged to leave her station, and 

 was running down to Fernando Po for supplies, 

 when she fortunately fell in with the schooner, 

 that had only left Calebar forty-eight hours 

 before, and, afraid of being seen from the set- 

 tlement of Clarence, had attempted to weather 

 the island. If she had gone the usual route be- 

 tween Cameroons and the island, the probability 

 is, she would have got clear off. * - 



If Fernando Po had been the seat of the 

 mixed commission court, the slaves would have 

 been landed in twelve hours after their capture, 

 and the prize-crew restored to their own vessel ; 

 in place of which, the prize had to make a voyage 

 of two thousand miles, would most probably lose 

 a great number of the slaves, and so weaken the 

 crew of the Brisk, that she would have to pro- 

 ceed to Sierra Leone to get them back, leaving 

 Bonny totally unguarded, instead of being back 

 at her station in twenty-four hours. This may 



* Since my arrival in England, I have heard that my ac- 

 quaintance M. Gaspar got safely off with the next cargo of 

 four hundred and fifty slaves, about a fortnight after this 

 capture. 



