"I overhauled her well as we got near, and a beautiful long schooner-model she was, with sharp bows, and a fine easy-run hull from stem to stern, but dreadfully dirty and spoilt with top-bulwarks, as if they meant to make her look as clumsy as possible; while the brig-rig of her aloft, with the ropes hanging in bights and hitches, gave her the look of a hedge-parson on a race-horse; at the same time, I counted six closed ports of a side, in her red streak, the exact breadth and colour of itself. Full of men, with a long gun, and schooner-rigged, she could have sailed round the Indiaman in a light breeze, and mauled her to any extent.
"They hove us a line out of the gangway at once, the mate got up her side as she rolled gently over, and I followed him: the scene that met our eyes as soon as we reached the deck, however, struck me a good deal on various accounts. We couldn't at first see where Mr Rollock and his party might be, for the shadow of a thick awning after the glare of the water, and the people near the brig's gangway; but I saw two or three dark-faced, very French-like individuals, in broad-brimmed straw hats and white trousers, seemingly passengers; while about twenty Kroomen and negroes, and as many seamen with unshaven chins, earrings, and striped frocks, were in knots before the long-boat, turned keel up amidships, careless enough, to all appearance, about us. One of the passengers leant against the mainmast, with his arms folded over his broad chest, and his legs crossed, looking curiously at us as we came up; his dark eyes half closed, the shadow of his hat down to his black moustache, and his shirt-collar open, showing a scar on his hairy breast; one man, whom I marked for the brig's surgeon, beside him; and another waiting for us near the bulwarks--a leathery-faced little fellow, with twinkling black eyes, and a sort of cocked hat fore-and-aft on his cropped head. '_Moi_, monsieur,' said he, slapping his hand on his breast as the mate looked about him, 'oui, je suis capitaine, monsieur.'
"'Good-day, sir,' said Stebbing, 'we've just come aboard for our passengers--and the gig--sir, if you please.' 'Certainement, monsieur,' said the French skipper, bowing and taking a paper from his pocket, which he handed to the mate, 'I comprind, sare--monsieur le capitaine d' la frégate Anglaise, il nous demande nos--vat you call--_peppares_--voilà! I have 'ad le honneur, messieurs, to be already sarch by vun off vos _crusoes_--pour des _esclaves_! vous imaginez _cela_, messieurs!' and here the worthy Frenchman cast up his hands and gave a grin which seemed meant for innocent horror. '_Slaifs! chez_ le brigantin _Louis Bourbon_, Capitaine Jean Duprez? _Non!_' said he, talking away like a windmill, 'de Marseilles à l'Isle de France, avec les vins choisis----' 'You mistake, monsieur,' said I, in French; 'the ship is an Indiaman, and we have only come for our _friends_, who are enjoying your wine, I daresay, but we must----' 'Comment?' said he, staring, '_what_, monsieur? have de gotness to----'