The Captain of the _John Begg_, a Liverpool brig from Old Calabar, who had purchased 500 slaves, was so closely blockaded by one of our cruisers that he kept them penned up, and 200 of them died of starvation. He afterwards left them to their fate, and of course they were resold to the next vessel that arrived. Many negroes voluntarily leave their country, and come to the islands of St. Thomas and Prince’s to live with their countrymen who had been bought. [Sidenote: Dec. 11.] We now proceeded to our cruising-ground, and for twenty-one days saw nothing but a palm-tree, washed out of some river. We were completely out of fresh provisions, and the only thing to break through the dullest three weeks I ever passed at sea was the hooking of a shark or dolphin, both of which, latterly, we considered luxuries. To add to the enlivenment of the scene, we were enveloped in a thick haze, occasioned by the Hamattan wind, which generally, in these latitudes, commences in the month of January. It is a hot, dry wind; the haze, which neither sun nor moon can penetrate, is occasioned by the white dust or fine sand blown off the deserts of Africa. One’s view is confined to within a cable’s length of the ship. Vessels near the land generally get so completely covered with it that it takes several days to wash with fresh water. Our look-out men from the mast-head and foreyard-arm looked like millers. During the Hamattans slavers generally escape. CHAPTER XXI A RENDEZVOUS OF CRUISERS [Sidenote: 1838. Jan. 1.] Latitude 4° north and longitude 4° east on the first Monday of the month was the appointed rendezvous for nearly all the cruisers. On our arrival, we found _Pelican_, _Scout_, and _Fair Rosamond_ already there. Our old fellow-cruiser _Columbine_, Commander Thomas Henderson, joined the following morning. [Sidenote: Jan. 3.] _Saracen_ and _Bonetta_ arrived; they had parted company with _Dolphin_ the previous night. [Sidenote: Jan. 5.] _Forester_ arrived from England to relieve _Columbine_. Being to the northward, we were the first to notice a strange sail. The senior officer, Commander Popham, of the _Pelican_, mustered the crews and inspected the vessels of all of us, which he did with the pomp and show of an Admiral. He invited the Commanders to dinner, and did the whole thing very well. _Pelican_ was in good discipline, beautifully clean and neat about the rigging. We had no manœuvring; this coast is not the station for it. The climate is bad, and the cruisers seldom have all their men on board. None of them had points in their sails below the second reef, and sky-sails seemed the order of the day. _Scout_ loomed large in the Mosquito Fleet; she was clean and very nice inside. _Columbine_ looked as she always did--beautiful. I think her by far the most perfect of Symonds’ craft. No man understood better how to fit a sail than Henderson.