On the 30th of November, the Yorktown, Commander Bell, captured the American bark “Pons,” off Kabenda, on the south coast, with eight hundred and ninety-six slaves on board. This vessel had been at Kabenda about twenty days before, during which she had been closely watched by the British cruiser “Cygnet.” The Cygnet, leaving one morning, the master of the Pons, James Berry, immediately gave up the ship to Gallano, the Portuguese master. During the day, so expeditious had they been, that water and provisions were received on board, and nine hundred and three slaves were embarked; and at eight o’clock the same evening, the Pons was under way. Instead of standing out to sea, she kept in with the coast during the night; and in the morning discovering the British cruiser, furled sails, and drifted so close to the shore that the negroes came down to the beach in hopes of her being wrecked. She thus eluded detection. When clear of the Cygnet, she stood out to sea, and two days afterwards was captured by the Yorktown. Commander Bell says: “The captain took us for an English man-of-war, and hoisted the American colors; and no doubt had papers to correspond.” These he threw overboard. “As soon as the slaves were recaptured, they gave a shout that could have been heard a mile.” During the night eighteen of the slaves had died, and one jumped overboard. The master accounted for the number dying from the necessity of his sending below all the slaves on deck, and closing the hatches, when he fell in with the Yorktown, in order to escape detection. Ought not every such death to be regarded as murder? Commander Bell says: “The vessel has no slave-deck, and upwards of eight hundred and fifty were piled, almost in bulk, on water-casks below. As the ship appeared to be less than three hundred and fifty tons, it seemed impossible that one-half could have lived to cross the Atlantic. About two hundred filled up the spar-deck alone when they were permitted to come up from below; and yet the captain assured me that it was his intention to have taken _four hundred more_ on board, if he could have spared the time. “The stench from below was so great that it was impossible to stand more than a few minutes near the hatchways. Our men who went below from curiosity, were forced up sick in a few minutes: then all the hatches were off. What must have been the sufferings of those poor wretches, when the hatches were closed! I am informed that very often in these cases, the stronger will strangle the weaker; and this was probably the reason why so many died, or rather were found dead the morning after the capture. None but an eye-witness can form a conception of the horrors these poor creatures must endure in their transit across the ocean.