DEATH OF CAPTAIN BENNETT. 
73 
No notice was taken of this at the time; but when an 
opportunity offered of getting volunteers from mer- 
chant-ships on the passage home, a few obnoxious 
characters were taken at their word, and exchanged, 
much to their discomfiture, as they had then recovered, 
and wished to stay. The remaining men were con- 
firmed in their attachment to the ship, by getting rid 
of the black sheep. 
On the 7th December, the day after the departure 
of H. M. brig ‘ Wanderer,’ Captain the Hon. Joseph 
Denman, a melancholy event occurred that cast a 
gloom over the little society in the island, very much 
deranged our operations, and put us to much incon- 
venience, which would have been obviated had it 
taken place during the stay of Captain Denman, who 
was senior officer on this part of the station. As the 
commandant of the island. Captain Bennett, R.M. was 
reading to his wife in the evening, he suddenly, without 
uttering a sound, fell from his chair, dead before he 
reached the floor ! He was much regretted. 
So many repairs and alterations were required to be 
done that it was impossible to get the ‘ Wilberforce’ 
ready by the 1st of January, 1842, according to Cap- 
tain Trotter’s direction. We should have been pre- 
pared to sail for the coast of Africa by the 7th of that 
month ; but it was fortunate we were detained, for on 
the 5th, H.M. Brig ‘ Buzzard’ arrived with the melan- 
choly intelligence that the ‘Albert’ had returned to 
Fernando Po, with all her crew dangerously ill with 
